Daily Archives: March 26, 2022

Future literacy raises awareness of alternative learning pathways and gives confidence in collectively co-creating learning futures

Future literacy raises awareness of alternative learning pathways and gives confidence in collectively co-creating learning futures

Fuel stations are closed. Roads are empty. You realise that the world is waking up to a sudden oil shortage. This is how World Without Oil, an award-winning artificial reality game, begins. The game engaged millions of ordinary individuals to tap collective intelligence on how people imagine and adapt during a crisis. It is a futurists attempt to ignite awareness, dialogue, and action about a possible future crisis.

Thinking about the future need not be limited to crises. In an uncertain world, future literacy is a civic capability and responsibility.

Just like reading and writing, being future literate is an essential competency. UNESCO sees it as a field-tested solution to the poverty of imagination. Being future literate enhances our ability to prepare, imagine/reimagine, create/recreate, recover and discover possibilities. Reshaping education at the intersection of technology and sustainability requires us to apply the same skills at least to move away from the past. While the past is a good reference point and learning source, it is important to move forward. for which foresight skills need to be developed.

A futurist is one who models next-order outcomes using a spectrum of signals, trends and tools. Futurists do not make predictions., but create readiness and imagine alternate futures. Businesses use it to strategise. It aids governments in policy planning. For instance, how many facilities of higher learning we need in Sikkim and Bihar in 2040 will be influenced by the prevailing fertility rates, as one of the input variables. Sikkim has the lowest and Bihar has the highest fertility rates.

Thinking about education futures opens up a range of possible futures. It raises awareness of alternative learning pathways, discards passivity, and gives confidence in collectively co-creating learning futures, setting aside careerism and ideological baggage.

As the future is not static and is about possibilities, there can be a range of futures within education. The widest set of possibilities that may happen, given the limits of uncertainty, is called plausible futures. Within that, there are probable futures that are likely to happen. Then there is preferred futures the future that you want to see happen. Futures co-exist. That is how classroom, blended and online learning can coexist.

Is imagining the future a difficult skill? Though the brain has the power to imagine, scientists say it is not wired to think about the future in vivid ways. So, we need deliberate efforts to impart future skills and tools.

For a futurist, imagination is not a playful pursuit, but a journey through new questions towards different scenarios. Take the old question of class size? A lecture by an eminent professor may require large classrooms. When learning demands proximate mentoring, it needs small. This thinking lends itself to different scheduling options.

Spotting signals is an important future skill. A signal is a specific example of the future in the present, says renowned futurist Marina Gorbis. It could be a new technology, a policy change, or a new business model. It is real, not speculation or philosophy. Futurists scan and collect such signals and cluster them to project trends, forecasts and scenarios.

Non-judgemental understanding of how students learn everyday will enable us to capture the leading edge behaviour, something that individuals do to adapt to changes. It could be a new way of using technology, a new way of credentialing or sharing of resources. Futurists look at leading-edge behaviours and ask what if more people live and learn in these ways.

Old ways of work move through forecasts, plans and execution. But the future workflow imagines, explores, creates scenarios, experiments, pilots and repeats. Thus, future skills allow us to test our decisions. Institutions can think of future literacy laboratories and action-learning fields to impart the use of future tools.

Given a chance, as a species, we avoid dealing with long-term issues. We are likely to reward those who first solve the Maths problem in the class and inadvertently nurture the quick-fix culture. The future is an antidote to short-term thinking. Though we cannot change the past, we can create better futures.

We see the past as an eventful space and the future as an empty area. But, while you read this, the future is being created in the present. So, when thinking about the future, you are effectively dealing with the present.

For the uninitiated in future skills, this may appear ridiculous. The entrance of the Institute for the Future, the worlds leading future organisation based in Palo Alto, exhibits a quote by the futurist Jim Dator, Any useful statement about the future should at first seem ridiculous.

The views expressed are personal.

The writer is Education Officer, University Grants Commission

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A range of futures - The Hindu

A much beloved comet flew a little too close to the Sun and appears to have disintegrated during its closest approach an apt metaphor, and appropriate end, for the space snowball.

The comet, dubbed Leonard, was first discovered on January 3 of last year by a senior research specialist at the University of Arizonas Lunar and Planetary Laboratory named Gregory Leonard. At the time, it was as far away as Jupiter, EarthSky reports, and wasnt particularly noteworthy until later that year, when amateur astronomers started suggesting in November that it might be starting to disintegrate.

But Leonard didnt appear to disintegrate until making its closest approach to the Sun in January of this year. Astronomers watched as Leonard kept fading, in a decisive end to an exciting year-long comet chase. In February, it was a mere ghost of what it once was, as seen in images taken by the Slooh robotic telescope in Chile.

In fact, according to Leonard, a ghost has now become an apt metaphor for the dust and gas that likely remains in its place.

As for the comets possible demise, I dont mind the fact that it may have disintegrated, he told EarthSky. With its post-perihelion hyperbolic orbit, I once imagined the comet sometime in the deep future haunting another solar system. Now with its nucleus possibly disintegrated, it may more strangely appear as a ghostly, hyperbolic wisp of dust and gas, if that.

The paths of comets like Leonard are still very hard to predict. Volatile surface material gets expelled as their cores are warmed by the Sun, causing them to move erratically.

Comet Leonard was particularly odd, featuring an unusually triangular shaped head, while also seemingly veering way off its predicted course, according to EarthSky.

During its travels, the mile-acrossice chunk came tantalizingly close to us, well inside the Earths orbit, allowing some experts to see it unaided glinting in the night sky, showing off its impressive tail.

Speaking of its tail, NASA and the European Space Agencys Solar Orbiter managed to fly right through it twice.

It was an utterly surreal experience having a much-anticipated comet sailing dimly overhead for most of 2021, Leonard told EarthSky, and I was thrilled when it began brightening and tracking across the autumn and winter skies, and of course bearing my familys name as it was.

In the end, the encounter could teach us about the very early days of our solar system.

Comets are literally older than dirt and speak to important questions of deep time and our very origins, Leonard told EarthSky.

And of course, comets are full of surprises, reminding us that we humans are not in control, he added.

READ MORE: Comet Leonard has disintegrated [EarthSky]

More on the comet: NASA Spacecraft Flies Through Tail of Comet

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Unfortunate Comet Flies Too Close to the Sun, Disintegrates and Becomes a Ghost - Futurism

Image by Getty Images/Futurism

Heres a macabre question: how long can the brain continue to process information after being severed from its body? Do we actually see our lives flash before our eyes? And how long does it take to actually lose consciousness after such a catastrophic injury?

Bangor University cognitive neuroscience professor Guillaume Thierry examines these questions in a fascinating new piece for The Conversation. He first started wondering about the concept, he wrote,when he learned about the use of the Guillotine during the French revolution when he was 15 years old.

As far as we know right now, six minutes after the heart stops, the brain essentially dies, Thierry writes. Then, deterioration reaches a point of no return and core consciousness our ability to feel that we are here and now, and to recognize that thoughts we have are own own is lost.

Lab experiments involving mice more or less confirmed this hypothesis, with neural activity ceasing less than a minute after consciousness is lost.

But what about people have undergone near death experiences, reporting they had their lives flash before their eyes?

If humans can be resuscitated after six, seven, eight or even ten minutes in extreme cases, it could theoretically be hours before their brain shuts down completely, Thierry argues.

Its exceedingly difficult and bioethically fraught to record and study the brain activity of a dying person. One recent study, however, aimed to record the brain waves of an 87-year-old epilepsy patient for seizures. But during the study, the patient experienced a heart attack and died.

The findings suggested that some brain waves changed their patterns even after the patient had died and blood stopped flowing to the brain. In short, theres still a glint of a chance that we are in fact able to see our lives flashing before our eyes.

The researchers however only reported on brain activity recorded over a period of about 15 minutes, including a few minutes after death, as Thierry points out in his piece, which means we still dont know what happens beyond that point.

Thierry is now hoping that future research in the field, with longer measurements of neural activity after death, perhaps even brain imaging, will provide support for the idea that ones life flashes before their eyes one last time.

It would be a peaceful sendoff into the unknown even if it occurred after having ones head chopped off.

READ MORE: Death: how long are we conscious for and does life really flash before our eyes? [The Conversation]

More on life after death: Scientists Recorded the Brain Activity of a Person as They Died, and the Results Are Astonishing

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Neuroscientist Ponders Whether People Remain Conscious After Having Their Heads Chopped Off - Futurism

If youve been holding out on upgrading your phone or tablet, or have been saving up to build your dream home-theater system, youre in luck with the Discover Samsung Spring Deals. Samsung has just released a ton of great savings on its latest smartphones, tablets, and even appliances as part of the companys Discover Samsung sale, which runs through March 27. No promo code or special account is required to gain access to any of these deals, and none of the discounts are part of a mail-in-rebate.

Weve been impressed by all of the Discover Samsung deals weve seen, particularly because the sale includes gear that was released very recently. Weve rounded up the very best discounts below. Most of the deals are active throughout the entire Discover Samsung sale, but the company also provides a offer of the day, which is only available for 24 hours. These are the Discover Samsung deals you should check out first.

Samsungs Galaxy S21 FE (Fan Edition) 5G was released in January as an entry-level smartphone in the companys lineup, and its receiving its first-ever discount right now. This $100 price cut brings the Galaxy S21 FE down to $599. This is Samsungs offer of the day today, so youll have to act quickly to snag one.

The Galaxy S21 FEs price might draw your eye, but its set of features is comparable to what youd expect to find in higher-end smartphones. The phone has a high-resolution 6.4-inch AMOLED display, so text, photos, videos, and games will look really sharp. The display has a maximum refresh rate of 120 Hertz, so scrolling through webpages and apps will feel extremely smooth.

This phones most important feature is its camera system. The Galaxy S21 FE has a three-lens back-facing camera system that includes a 12-megapixel wide camera, 12-megapixel ultra-wide camera, and eight-megapixel telephoto camera. The Galaxy S21 FEs front-facing camera has a single, 32-megapixel lens. As a point of reference: Apples entry-level iPhone SE only has a single 12-megapixel rear-facing camera and a seven-megapixel front-facing camera.

Everyone who orders a Galaxy S21 FE today will receive a $100 discount, but Samsung is sweetening the pot further by including four free months of YouTube Premium, six months of SiriusXM Streaming, and three months of Spotify Premium. If you take advantage of those offers, youll save over $100 when switching from other services. During Discover Samsung Spring Deals, the company is also offering generous trade-in offers for older devices, so you may even end up paying far less than $599 for the smartphone.

Samsungs Galaxy Watch4 is the companys latest smartwatch, and this $40 discount as part of the Discover Samsung sale brings it down to its lowest price in a couple of months. The Galaxy Watch4 features several improvements over Samsungs previous smartwatch, including double the storage (16 gigabytes instead of eight), 50 percent more memory, and a faster processor.

This is also the first Samsung smartwatch to run on WearOS, Googles smartwatch software, which allows the Galaxy Watch4 to run a variety of apps, and receive updates with new features on a regular basis. Despite running WearOS, the Samsung Galaxy Watch4 can be paired with either an Android or iOS device. The Apple Watch is only compatible with the iPhone, which can be limiting if youre considering switching smartphones.

The Galaxy Watch4 is available in two sizes: 40mm and 44mm, both of which are on sale as part of the Discover Samsung Spring Deals. Both watches have the same set of features, including a high-resolution screen and has a circular face that resembles a traditional watch. The only differences between the watches are their weight (25.9 grams or .91 of an ounce and 30.3 grams or one ounce) respectively. The larger Galaxy Watch4 can display more information, which may make it easier to use when reading text.

While the Galaxy Watch4 is primarily designed for smartwatch tasks like receiving notifications, so you can check them without reaching for your phone, it can also be used as a fitness tracker. The Galaxy Watch4 has sensors that can track your movement and heart rate, and can be used for sleep tracking with the right apps. Well be honest, the Samsung Galaxy Watch4 is the only premium smartwatch we can recommend besides the Apple Watch, and its available at an excellent price right now.

Samsungs TVs have earned a reputation for being among the highest-quality options around, and you can save up to $1,200 on one by shopping right now. Weve chosen to highlight the 55-inch version of the Q80A because of it hits the sweet spot between features and price especially given its current $150 discount. Samsung offers this TV in 50-, 65-, 75-, and 85-inch sizes, which all have the same feature set, so you can find one that suits your space the best.

This 4K TV is loaded with features that make a substantive difference each time you watch a movie and TV show, or play a video game. That starts with its custom-designed Quantum processor, which continuously analyzes whats happening on your screen and makes small adjustments to the color, contrast, and other features to make your video look its best. The TVs 100-percent Quantum Dot panel is capable of displaying colors with impressive accuracy, which means it can actually show the video optimized by Samsungs processor at its full quality.

Samsung breaks out these visual features into specific names like Adaptive Picture and Quantum HDR (high dynamic range) 12x, but all you need to know is that the TV is doing the heavy lifting for you, so you wont have to worry about adjusting video settings manually. Gamers will appreciate the fact that the Q80A has a 120-hertz panel with a feature Samsung calls Motion Xcelerator Turbo+. That means this TV can play high-frame-rate games smoothly. Few games support refresh rates higher than 60 hertz right now, but this will change over time, so youll want a TV that supports that feature today.

Finally, Samsungs Q80A is smart it has Amazons Alexa built in, and can be configured to work with the Google Assistant or Bixby, Samsungs smart assistant. By enabling this feature, youll be able to turn your TV on and control settings like its input and volume settings by using your voice instead of a remote. Youll also be able to search for content on streaming services totally hands-free.

If youve been searching for a good deal on a premium TV, we highly recommend taking advantage of the Discover Samsung Spring Deal on the Q80A.

This post was created by a non-news editorial team at Recurrent Media, Futurisms owner. Futurism may receive a portion of sales on products linked within this post.

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Save on Smartphones, Smartwatches, TVs, and More During Discover Samsung Spring Deals - Futurism

IMAGINABLEHow to See the Future Coming and Feel Ready for Anything Even Things That Seem Impossible TodayBy Jane McGonigal

The biggest stars of TED Talks often have a shorthand claim to fame: the neuroscientist who discovered he was a latent psychopath or the 12-year-old app developer. But the game designer and futurist Jane McGonigal whose TED lectures have garnered over 15 million views is harder to define. To some, shes the researcher who urged us to collectively spend 21 billion hours per week on games of Warcraft, building skills to solve climate change and poverty. To others, shes the woman who suffered a brain injury, then hastened her recovery by designing a game she called Jane the Concussion Slayer.

In Imaginable, McGonigal stakes out yet another claim to fame: oracle. She leads simulations for her work. One such 2010 exercise had participants envisioning a future upended by a global respiratory pandemic, raging wildfires, and online disinformation spread by a shadowy group called Citizen X. As these story lines gave way to eerily similar realities, McGonigal received a flood of messages from past participants. Im not freaking out, one wrote. I already worked through the panic and anxiety when we imagined it 10 years ago. Hoping to impart the same equanimity to her readers, McGonigal argues that mapping out imminent scenarios not only readies us for them, but preps us for unforeseen curveballs too.

And to simulate the future, per McGonigal, you must analyze it in vivid detail. If an epidemic of deer ticks leads to severe allergies worldwide, will you wear your EpiPen as an armband, on your waist, or strapped to your thigh?

To simulate the future, per McGonigal, one must analyze it in vivid detail, and she guides readers through questions about how wed feel and what wed do in different scenarios. Do her methods work? Absent a large-scale study, its hard to be sure. Imaginable does offer up neuroscientific findings, some more convincing than others. Her case mightve been helped by a deeper look at the approachs limits. For example, she means to empower her readers when she writes, If youre not the hero of your own future, then youre imagining the wrong future. But how might we do harm when picturing the future largely through our own eyes? When might a forward-looking gaze be a distraction? Can ambitious future-thinking lead to catastrophe?

Your opinion of Imaginable may ultimately be hard to separate from your feelings about other futurist authors or Silicon Valleys techno-utopians. Levitating warehouses or humans genetically engineered to survive on Mars might sound preposterous, but to McGonigal, theyre not. Anything is plausible. One gets the sense that McGonigal could hold her own in a high-stakes discussion with military strategists, but overall, Imaginable strikes an upbeat, conversational tone. Indeed, lines like, What next? Dont worry. Literally, dont worry, might not sit well with those of us whove ground our teeth down to stumps over the past two years.

Maybe McGonigal remains so buoyant because she sees play everywhere. She writes about leading a quick game of When does the future start? That, to me, sounds like a question an exercise at best. But maybe thats her point: A game can be anything you approach with a sense of fun. McGonigal seems like one of the few interested in gamings potential to foster collective well-being, rather than filling corporate coffers. Play for plays sake but also for the sake of solving world problems is an uncommon self-help angle. In Imaginable, theres no tangible reward save the feeling of readiness itself. Which, right now, is certainly appealing.

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How to Game the Dystopian Future - The New York Times

A scientist is sounding the alarm on a massive oil tanker that he says will likely spill roughly 40 million gallons of crude oil into the ocean.

Christopher Reddy, a senior scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, penned a piecefor CNN calling attention to a decaying oil tanker anchored off the coast of Yemen. The ship, ironically dubbed FSO Safer, has been there since March 2015 when the nearby port city of Al-Hudaydah was seized by a militant group known as the Houthi rebels.

The tanker is filled with more than a million barrels of crude oil, which makes it a major cause of concern for scientists worried that any accident involving the Safer could result in it spilling into the ocean.

If there was any issue with the tanker, Reddy says that it would create an environmental calamity worse than the catastrophic Exxon Valdez accident in 1989 that resulted in hundreds of miles of Alaskan coastline getting covered in crude oil. Thats because Safer is carrying four times the amount of oilas the Valdez.

And in addition to the harm caused to aquatic life, many of its worst impacts would directly affect people, Reddy said.

He added that a spill would ruin fisheries throughout the region, which relies on them for food. It could also send toxic fumes into the air, causing illness for thousands.

Thats not the worst of it though, according to the scientist.

Perhaps most ominously, the vessel is at risk of igniting into a waterborne fireball that could erupt with massive explosive force, wreaking even more potential ecological devastation, Reddy horrifyingly adds.

Fortunately, the leader of the Houthi rebels have agreed to allow Safers oil barrels to be transferred to another vessel. However, its contingent on the United Nations pulling together resources to make it happen.

Reddy said that its important that the UN move on this quickly. In February this year, the FSO Trinity Spirit a nearly identical tanker exploded and sank off the coast of Nigeria.

Hopefully, the UN can get their act together and remove the oil quickly. Heck, with current gas prices skyrocketing, it might even help alleviate the price at the pump too.

READ MORE: An aging oil tanker has become a floating time bomb. Its an environmental disaster waiting to happen [CNN]

More on oil spills: Huge Oil Tanker Explodes Off Coast of Africa

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Scientist Warns That a Huge Tanker Is Probably Going to Spill a Million Barrels of Oil Into the Ocean - Futurism