Think: Advances in biology, engineering, genomics, gene editing, and computational power have converged to bring society to the brink of a new revolution–synthetic biology. As with most revolutions, the revolution in synthetic biology is about to disrupt your industry. Whether you are in the food, fabrics, or fashion industries or the construction, healthcare, or pharmaceutical fields, it is not too soon to begin thinking about how synthetic biology will transform your business.
Think Again: Due to a technical glitch, last week’s “Friday Future 5” was not delivered to your email box. If you’re looking for additional “think-worthy” material, I encourage you to check out last week’s edition.
Think Different: The advances in plant-based meat just keep coming–this company has now made a plant-based filet mignon. It is expected to be available in the US this year. I liked this quote from the company’s president, Vladimir Mićković, “Sooner rather than later, most people are going to stop caring, and will just want something that’s delicious.” (Note: While reading the article, I was introduced to a term I had not heard before–reducetarian. It refers to people who are neither vegetarians or vegans but, rather, are serious about reducing their meat consumption.)
Think Bigger: The future of work is going to continue to evolve. With ever more employees demanding to work remotely from home, I believe we will experience an explosion of innovative platforms that strive to dramatically improve upon the current Zoom-like experience. One of the more interesting technologies I have yet seen is this Hologram in a box. With this technology, a person in a studio—such as a presenter—can appear in full-size, lifelike 3D form and interact with people anywhere in the world.
Think Smarter: When I served in the navy in the late 1980s and, later, when I worked at the Pentagon and NATO in the early 1990s, warfare was complicated. It was, however, nowhere near as complicated as it is today. The Internet, misinformation, and cyberwarfare now play a far larger role. It is my opinion that too many military strategies, pundits, and politicians are still fighting the last war and, as such, are not thinking about the current war in Ukraine in its proper context. To this end, I found this article, The Internet is a Force Multiplier in Ukraine, to offer some helpful insights into the current conflict. As a futurist, I also found his thoughts about how the conflict may act as “an accelerant” for certain trends such as renewable energy to be insightful. (Personal note: Physical geography is obviously still important in war, but the real war is being waged over the human mind.)
Afterthought: “Most companies think of disruption as a threat. But disruptive innovations have tremendous growth potential. If incumbent companies can learn how to harness the forces of disruption, they too can improve their ability to create new-growth businesses.”–Clayton Christensen
