Category Archives: Futurist

Author Richard Yonck at SXSW in Austin, Texas, to promote his new book Heart of the Machine: Our Future in a World of Artificial Emotional Intelligence.

Daydreaming about the future is one thing. Actually being an authority on whats to come or at least how to be better prepared for it is quite another.

Richard Yonck is afuturist, author and speaker with Intelligent Future Consulting. Hes also GeekWires latest Geek of the Week.

I help businesses, readers and audiences become better prepared for a rapidly changing world, Yonck said. With a focus on emerging technologies and the increasingly intelligent ecologies these generate, my perspective is informed by 25 plus years as a futures, computing and media technologist.

Yonck is a widely published author who haswritten extensively about computing and information, artificial intelligence, robotics, 3D printing, the Internet of Things, biotechnology, nanotechnology, transhumanism and science literacy.

His new book, Heart of the Machine: Our Future in a World of Artificial Emotional Intelligence, explores the rapidly developing technologies that interact with human emotions and how this will soon transform our relationships with technology and with each other.A best-seller in two Amazon categories, the book was well-received in the New York Times Book Review (by Ray Kurzweil) and elsewhere.

Yonck is also taking part in the 15th gathering of theAssociation of Professional Futurists in Seattle this week. The event runs through Saturdayand includes speakers from the Gates Foundation, Boeing, the University of Washington, the Living Future Institute, Planetary Resources and more.

Learn more about this weeks Geek of the Week, Richard Yonck:

What do you do, and why do you do it?As a futurist I love helping organizations, readers and audiences identify tomorrows challenges and opportunities so we can work together to bring about their preferred future. This can take many forms, such as working with clients, writing books and articles about a range of emerging technologies or presenting tomorrows world to audiences large and small.

Whats the single most important thing people should know about your field?There are two major, almost contradicting misconceptions about futures work. The first is that the future is unknowable which is far from true. Different things happen with different degrees of reliability. The orbit of the earth and the motion of the tides are very reliable while other events and developments have lesser probabilities of occurring. Taking such variables into account, strategies can be developed to prepare for one or more eventualities without overextending resources.

The other misconception is that there is one fixed future out there, as if we were traveling along some preordained timeline, but this isnt the case. Most futurists speak in terms of futures plural the possible, probable and preferable futures that could potentially occur depending on different choices that are made and paths that are taken in the present. With this in mind, its then possible not only to plan for a range of eventualities but to also be proactive in taking the actions that promote ones preferred future, ideally beginning sooner than later. A basic example of this is the 20-something who recognizes theyll one day retire and so begins saving early on instead of waiting till their 50s. The earlier a desired future is identified and acted upon, the greater the likelihood of realizing it.

Where do you find your inspiration?Life and the world around us. We live in such an incredibly rich, vastly complex universe, I cant help be continually fascinated thinking about how it functions, how it came about, and where its going.

Whats the one piece of technology you couldnt live without, and why?Language. The written word.

Whats your workspace like, and why does it work for you?Increasingly my workspace is wherever I am, especially if I can connect my mind with that massive exocortex called the internet. Whether compiling data at my office, researching at a library, doing an interview at a research facility, speaking at a think tank, addressing an audience on stage, or doing a reading at a bookstore, thats effectively my workspace.

Your best tip or trick for managing everyday work and life. (Help us out, we need it.)Change is inevitable. When it does, often the best thing to do is see it as an opportunity. A static world view is very limiting and is likely to get you steamrollered.

Mac, Windows or Linux?I try to be OS agnostic, but Im most familiar with Windows.

Kirk, Picard, or Janeway?Kirks acting style and fighting methods are unequaled in this or any other quadrant of the galaxy.

Transporter, Time Machine or Cloak of Invisibility?A Time Machine. If I could travel into the future, I could pretty much collect all three, couldnt I?

If someone gave me $1 million to launch a startup, I would I would explore the terrain of emerging technologies looking out over the next 10 years, identify key opportunities as supporting technologies and infrastructures were forecast to come online, consider what I could remain passionate about for several years, factor legal and regulatory considerations and then decide. At that point, Id bring in the necessary talent and continue from there.

I once waited in line for The opportunity to speak with and get a book signed by Harlan Ellison.

Your role models:Beyond members of my family for obvious reasons when I was a young kid, I dont think I have specific role models. More accurately, Ive looked to luminaries from science and science fiction as general role models, amalgamating them into some quintessential figure seeking truth in the universe.

Greatest game in history:Hesses Glass Bead Game.

Best gadget ever:Sonic screwdriver.

First computer:My first computing experience was with a DEC PDP-11 when I was 12.

Current phone:iPhone 6, waiting for the iPhone 8.

Favorite app:Hootsuite.

Favorite cause:Eradicating ignorance.

Most important technology of 2016:Artificial Intelligence Deep learning neural nets.

Most important technology of 2018:CRISPR and immunotherapy.

Final words of advice for your fellow geeks:The apps, services, and technologies were building are not simply the tools of today. They will form the foundations and infrastructures of tomorrows world, the world of our children and grandchildren. With this in mind, we should continually ask ourselves: Are we contributing to a better world for the generations to come?

Website: Intelligent Future

Twitter: @ryonck

LinkedIn: Richard Yonck

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Geek of the Week: Futurist author Richard Yonck helps us better prepare for a rapidly changing world - GeekWire

This week, UKs government set out plans to end the sale of new petrol and diesel cars by 2040 so what else will we see in 23 years time?

Here, with the help of Europes top futurist Ray Hammond, we create a picture of how the world might look in the post-petrol age.

We will all wear a huge range of sensors that will constantly monitor things such as blood pressure, blood sugar and blood oxygen level.

Longevity will rise, with many living well beyond 100.

Children born in 2040 will have a more or less indefinite life. With gene therapy, stem cell and nano-scale medicine, barring an accident or fatal disease, we may live for ever and look much younger. With exoskeletons artificial, externally-worn support structures the elderly will stay mobile for longer. Now they are bulky and rigid but they will be soft and comfy.

People will fall in love with robot partners, which will impact relationships.

As it is we have a habit of seeing human characteristics in inanimate objects and with robots growing more advanced, it is inevitable that some people will couple up with them.

Weddings will become rarer and promiscuity will go off the scale as social attitudes get more relaxed.

On average, women today have nine sexual partners in their lifetime and men have 11 expect that to rise to 100 for women and 200 for men.

Most cars will be driving themselves, with motorways and roads having self-driving lanes.

Driverless traffic could travel in convoys, forming road trains and allowing vehicles to drive much closer together, freeing up motorway space.

The only place where you could experience being in control of a car yourself would be a licensed race track.

Ahead of the ban on sales of new petrol and diesel cars in 2040, we can expect scrappage schemes during the 2030s which will phase them out. Our roads will look and sound very different.

As for air travel, there will not be huge changes. The dawn of electric and self-flying planes is possible but they will still be a small minority.

We will see hyper-loops transport tubes through which passenger pods can travel at up to 700 mph.

As the worlds population booms from the present seven billion to more than nine billion, we will not be able to farm meat as we have done up to now.

There wont be enough space for all the animals we would need plus their methane emissions could cause unsustainable environmental damage.

Instead, we will see artificial tissue meat grown in factories, without the need for a living animal.

Burgers have already been produced and eaten in a lab and by 2040 up to 40 percent of meat will be artificial or from substitutes such as plants. It will be engineered to look, taste and smell like the real thing.

Insects will also be a staple in products resembling their meat versions, such as sausages or burgers. They are protein-rich, cheaper and greener.

And with most people living in cities, crops may be grown on vertical farms up the sides of skyscrapers.

Our smartphones will have more or less disappeared, replaced by control centers which we will wear in a series of devices around our body.

For example, we will wear smart contact lenses, with texts floating in front of our eyes and earrings that send messages from a virtual assistant into our ears.

We wont look as if we are wearing anything extra but it will be as if we are looking through a smartphone at the real world, albeit one more powerful than anything we know today.

Our social networks will also become integral to the real world. We may see a stranger in the street and, using facial recognition software linked to our control centers, will instantly know their name and be able to access their profile.

As a result, privacy will be a hot topic.

We will have to face the question of whether machines will be our slaves or our masters.

Computers will be as good at problem-solving as humans, with the prospect of soon surpassing us.

Then the question will be whether we let them take control or try to regulate and modify artificial intelligence. Or genetically modify humans so we can compete with machines.

Our decisions could have profound effects on world order. If the West chooses to regulate its machines, it could be at a disadvantage compared to countries that allow computers to develop unchecked.

Today people are glued to phones and iPads but to imagine life in 2040, magnify that by 100.

We will spend most of our time in virtual worlds, whether at work or at leisure. Instead of looking at a device, we will experience this as if it were real. It wont even seem artificial. The novelty will be leaving the virtual world to meet humans in real life, an activity that will become rarer.

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A futurist tells us what life will probably look like in 2040 - New York Post

Marty Sklar in front of Sleeping Beautys Castle at Disneyland on July 11, 2005 (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

Marty Sklar, arguably one of the most influential people to work at the Disney Company aside from Walt Disney himself, died yesterday. He was 83.

Sklar started at Disney just a month before Disneyland opened in 1955 and would work his way up to becoming one of the most tireless and dedicated storytellers at the company. Sometimes described as Walts right hand man, Sklar started by writing speeches for Disney and eventually became President of Imagineering, the creative wing of the multifaceted entertainment company.

Along with Walt, Sklar helped produce the ambitious 1966 film that was shown to investors and government officials to get them interested in EPCOT, the Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow. The original vision of EPCOT as a living laboratory would be neutered, but the theme park is still a point of inspiration for futurists and retro-futurists alike.

Walt Disney had one foot in the past, because he loved nostalgia, and one foot in the future, because he loved new technology, Sklar told Esquire in 2015.

The original EPCOT film can be viewed on YouTube.

Sklar helped oversee the development of virtually every modern Disney park from the construction of Tokyo Disneyland and Disneyland Paris to expansion parks in the United States like Disney-MGM Studios and Disneys Animal Kingdom in Florida, as well as Disneys California Adventure park in Anaheim.

Marty was the ultimate Disney Imagineer and Cast Member. From his days working as an intern with Walt to just two weeks ago engaging with fans at D23 Expo, Marty left an indelible mark on Disney Parks around the globe and on all of the guests who make memories every day with us, Bob Chapek, chairman of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, said in a statement.

He was one of the few people that was fortunate to attend the opening of every single Disney park in the world, from Anaheim in 1955 to Shanghai just last year, Chapek said. We will dearly miss Martys passion, skill and imaginative spark that inspired generations of Cast, Crew and Imagineers.

From the Disney Parks blog:

Born in New Brunswick, N.J., on February 6, 1934, Marty was a student at UCLA and editor of its Daily Bruin newspaper when he was recruited to create The Disneyland News for Walts new theme park in 1955. After graduating in 1956, he joined Disney full-time, and would go on to serve as Walts right-hand manscripting speeches, marketing materials, and a film showcasing Walts vision for Walt Disney World and Epcot. During this period, he also joined WED Enterprises, the forerunner of Walt Disney Imagineering, and he would later become the creative leader of Imagineering, leading the development of Disney theme parks and attractions for the next three decades. He retired as Executive Vice President and Imagineering Ambassador on July 17, 2009, Disneylands 54th birthday. Disney marked the occasion by paying tribute to Marty with the highest Parks and Resorts recognition, dedicating a window in his name on Disneylands City Hall.

Disney obviously wouldnt be the same without Sklar and we here at Paleofuture are pouring out a Mickey Mouse sippy cup on the curb for the Disney legend. RIP Marty Sklar. Thanks for your optimistic visions of tomorrow, something that seems harder and harder to conjure in the upside down world of 2017.

Original post:
Marty Sklar, Disney Legend and Futurist, Dies at 83 - Gizmodo

In 1909, Filippo Tommaso Marinettia member of the Italian literati who had studied in Egypt, France, and Italypublished his radical Futurist Manifesto, a document whose exaltations of technological disruption ignited the Italian Futurism movement.

Marinetti called for art that embraced new innovations like automobiles, glorified war, fought morality, and did away with libraries and museums, which focused too heavily on the past.

The Italian Futurism he spawned revolted against the old: Futurist poetry, for instance, often discarded grammar rules and appeared in non-linear jumbles, while Futurist paintings experimented with perspective and a collapsing of space.

Fashion was a particular fascination of Futurists. Since 1914, with the publication of Giacomo Ballas Futurist Manifesto of Mens Clothing manuscript, the debate over how Italians should dress raged within Marinettis circles. Futurists wanted manufacturers to craft clothing out of new revolutionary materials, such as paper, cardboard, glass, tinfoil, aluminum, rubber, fish skin, hemp, and gas.

In 1920, the Manifesto of Futurist Womens Fashion added a new material to this list: milk.

The idea was not entirely novel. Between 1904 and 1909, German chemist Frederick Todtenhaupt attempted to turn milk byproducts into a fibrous silk substitute. Though his efforts failed, their underlying premise intrigued Marinettis band of Futurists. Many began to speculate that milk was the fabric of the future and would one day comprise all styles of dress.

It wasnt as crazy as it might sound. Wool is a protein, so on a molecular level, it has a very similar structure to casein, the protein found in milk. Chemists simply needed to figure out how to process casein in a way that emulated the texture of wool.

Thus, for milk-based clothing to happen, Marinetti and the Italian Futurists needed to wait for the technology to catch up.

That moment came during the 1930s, when Italian Prime Minister Benito Mussolini began his push for the country to achieve economic self-sufficiency. Mussolini had stormed into office in 1922 amid popular resentment for what many saw as British, French, and American stiff-arming in the Treaty of Versailles. Marinetti was one of his early proponents. In 1919, Marinettis short-lived Futurist Political Partyan attempt to bring Futurist ideas into governmentmerged with Mussolinis Italian Fascist Party. The two were associatesMussolini once called Marinetti a fervent Fascistand they shared the goal of strengthening Italys economy in preparation for coming wars.

One way they accomplished that? Milk clothing.

In the early 1930s, Mussolini commanded Italians to create more of their own products and, in doing so, to innovate an Italian style in furnishing, interior decoration, and clothing [that] does not yet exist.

Like many in the Fascist government, he pinned his hopes on artificial fabrics, a market in which Italy proved dominant. As the Futurists had earlier proposed, many Italian companies began using organic materialsrather than less-prevalent silks and woolsto develop textiles.

Italys first great success came with rayon, an artificial silk made of cellulose. In 1929, the nation became the worlds leading producer of the material, boasting 16 percent of total rayon output.

The party responsible for the lions share of that rayon was a textile company known as SNIA Viscosa. By 1925, SNIA accounted for 70 percent of Italys artificial fibers, growing so large that it became the nations first company to be listed in foreign stock exchanges (in London and New York).

And in 1935, SNIA Viscosa acquired the rights to a new kind of fiber: a milk-based synthetic wool that, building on Todtenhaupts earlier work, the Italian engineer Antonio Ferretti had recently perfected. This new milk fiber was dubbed lanital (a compounding of lana, meaning wool, and ital, from Italia).

The lanital production process that Ferretti pioneered went like this: first, scientists added acid to skim milk, which separated out the casein. The casein was then dissolved until it developed a viscous consistency. Next, according to TIME, the casein was forced through spinnerets like macaroni, passed through a hardening chemical bath, [and] cut into fibres of any desired length. The result? A substance that mimicked wool.

A 1937 British Path video offers a rare glimpse into this process, closing on an incredible prediction: in the future, youll be able to choose between drinking a glass of milk and wearing one.

To Mussolini, lanital was ingenious. Italy, like most nations, was wasting billions of pounds per year in excess skim milk. Lanital gave them an inexpensive way to repurpose it and, considering it otherwise would have languished, offered a lot of bang for their buck: 100 pounds of milk contained around 3.7 pounds of casein, which translated to 3.7 pounds of lanital.

Though lanital was neither as strong nor as elastic as actual wool, Mussolini remained steadfastly delighted. This was the kind of Italian innovation he wanted more of.

So in 1935, after his invasion of Ethiopia resulted in heavy sanctions from the League of Nations (a post-World War I prototype for the United Nations) that further isolated Italy, Mussolini turned his full attention to lanital.

Then more than ever, Mussolini needed to achieve the economic self-sufficiency he craved. He invested more and more in what Italy did best: artificial textiles. According to Karen Pinkus, artificial fabrics, including lanital, became a central obsession for the regime.

SNIA Viscosa received large sums of government aid, and its promising new milk fabric earned strong support: by 1937, an astonishing 10 million pounds of lanital were produced. State-run textile boards began publishing propaganda posters urging citizens to Dress in an Italian manner. Futurists, delighted by the newfound prominence of milk fibers, enthusiastically praised the invention and the ingenuity of the Fascist government.

Marinetti himself became somewhat of a poet-in-residence for SNIA. His 1938 poem The Poem of Torre Viscosa praised the textile company, while The Simultaneous Poem of Italian Fashion thanked the company for its exemplary Italianness, dynamism, autonomy, [and] creativity.

But most memorable was his Poem of the Milk Dress, which was published in an illustrated propaganda booklet, and which featured some choice writing in praise of lanital:

And let this complicated milk be welcome power power power lets exalt this

MILK MADE OF REINFORCED STEEL

MILK OF WAR

MILITARIZED MILK.

The propaganda worked. Lanital became ubiquitous throughout Italy, and the Futurist dream of milk clothing seemed to become reality.

In April 1937, British publication The Childrens Newspaper reported that milk wool had infiltrated Italian suits, dresses, garments, and even flags: an order has gone forth that flags and banners be made of this material, of which the Italians are exceedingly proud.

In fact, by 1938, SNIA Viscosa became intent on spreading milk-based clothing around the world. Two years later, it had sold patents to eight countries (Holland, Poland, Germany, Belgium, Japan, France, Canada, Czechoslovakia, and England).

Yet there was one country in particular that SNIA Viscosa hoped to woo: the United States.

The U.S. was a natural target for SNIA Viscosas milk fibers. Since the early 1920s, Americans had discussed casein as a potential bridge between the agricultural and manufacturing sectors and as a way to repurpose their 50 billion pounds per year of excess skim milk.

In 1900, Henry E. Alvord, a president of multiple American agricultural colleges, suggested that casein be used in glue, buttons, and combs. During World War I, casein appeared in a paint that coated airplane wings; by 1940, it appeared in piano keys. Casein was also found in certain kinds of American paper, where it attached to minerals to give off a glossy sheen.

So SNIA Viscosa thoughtwhy not also in clothing?

With the help of the Italian government, SNIA dispatched fashion emissaries like American journalist-turned-Italian-princess Marguerite Caetani to promote lanital clothing in New York. A December 1937 TIME article describes how Caetani recruited American socialites like Mona Bismarckwhom Chanel once voted the Best Dressed Woman in the Worldto model high-end milk-based dresses for American audiences.

Their efforts paid off: in 1941, a team for the Atlantic Research Associatesa division of the National Dairy Corporationbegan producing lanital under the name aralac (ARA as in American Research Associates + lac, Latin for milk).

The new milk fibers were a hit. As SNIA had hoped, the New York fashion scene fixated on aralac-based clothing, and aralac briefly denoted sophistication. But when the U.S. joined World War II, it found a more universal use: military equipment.

Aralac was blended with rayon to produce hats, thus providing modern historians with a trivia fact to trump all trivia facts: during World War II, American soldiers wore milk to battle.

Aralac spread so quickly throughout the United Statesit soon appeared in coats, suits, and dressesthat a 1944 LIFE article declared, A great many U.S. citizens, without knowing it, are wearing clothes made from skimmed milk.

But despite the initial honeymoon period, milk-based fabrics soon fell out of favor around the world. Despite press hype about its luxury, lanital was much weaker than wool, and it broke easily. Threads often came out when ironed. But most damning was the putrid odor these fabrics sometimes gave off: when damp, [lanital and aralac] smelled like sour milk, causing many consumer complaints.

By 1948, production shut down in the United States. Soon after, SNIA Viscosa itself began focusing its energy on other synthetic products. Its reputation had taken a massive hit after World War II, when lanital-infused boots, blankets, and military uniformswhich Mussolini believed would resist poison gasin fact did little to protect Italian soldiers, and led to 2,000 cases of frostbite during a battle against France. Anyway, cheaper synthetic products were flooding the market, pricing out lanital.

Yet that is not the end of the story.

Over the decades, milk-based clothing has remained popular among futurists, and in recent years, the fibers have made somewhat of a resurgence.

In 2011 there was the debut of German-based clothing company Qmilch, whose fashionable products are manufactured almost entirely with casein. Started by German microbiologist and designer Anka Domaske, Qmilch offers products that require fewer chemicals than the lanital of the 1930s and 1940s. A single dress costs between roughly $200 and $230 and is made from six liters of milk.

According to Reuters, the fashion label Mademoiselle Chi Chia high-end clothing producer that is a favorite of American celebrities like Mischa Barton and Ashlee Simpsonhas also begun selling milk-based clothing. Uniqlos popular Heattech apparel line, too, is partially made from milk proteins.

Today, these clothes are especially attractive because they are both biodegradable and sustainable. In fact, as global society continues to emphasize reuse, one cannot help but think that perhaps Marinettis Futurists were right all along. Perhaps our future lies with the milk dress.

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How Clothing Made From Milk Became the Height of Fashion in Mussolini's Italy - Atlas Obscura

Elon Musks doomsday AI predictions arent irresponsible, but Mark Zuckerbergs techno-optimism is.

Mark Zuckerberg criticized Elon Musk on Sunday for warning a group of governors that artificial intelligence poses a fundamental risk to the existence of human civilization. During a Facebook Live broadcast from his backyard, Zuckerberg said Musks cautioning was pretty irresponsible, and really negative.

But at a time when some of the brightest minds on the planet are saying that AI could pose a significant existential threat, isnt it more irresponsible to dismiss Musks warnings, in favor of keeping people blindly optimistic about technology? Zuckerbergs relentless techno-optimism is misguided at best, and dangerous at worst. Heres why:

1. A good futurist is capable of imagining and exploring all future scenarios, not just the positive ones.

Yes, AI may help save lives, but that doesnt mean it cant take lives, too. At this stage, we know so little about how AI will develop that both scenarios are equally plausible, and every possible scenario deserves careful consideration.

Zuckerberg argues that AI, like every new technology, can be used for good or for bad. But as Musk pointed out in his speech, the AI revolution is expected to be qualitatively different than other technological advancements. Once a superintelligent AI emerges, the option of steering AI to be good or bad (whatever that may mean) may no longer be in our control. And to assume that humans will stay in control, despite having a drastically inferior intelligence, is just arrogant.

2. Technology needs more nay-sayers like Musk.

We already live in a world that worships technology and believes almost anything could be improved if you slap an algorithm on it. Wouldnt society be better off if we had more thinkers like Musk that were willing to ponder the disaster storylines, instead of having blind faith in black-box technology?

Zuckerbergs optimism may be uplifting and on-brand and great for Facebook PR, but it doesnt help motivate people to prepare for and prevent the potential negative consequences of technology. Tackling tech challenges with a build-it-and-see-what-happens approach (a la Zuckerbergs former move fast and break things development mantra) just isnt suitable for AI. As Musk put it, By the time we are reactive in regulation, its too late. Weve already seen some of the negative effects of AI emerge, and this is likely only the beginning.

3. No ones saying we should halt progress on AI altogether; rather, experts like Musk believe we need to be thoughtful and think critically about how we move forward with it.

Elon Musk doesnt just have it out for AIthis is the same man who expects us to let AIs drive us around, after allhe just wants policymakers to start considering regulations for AI. Asking governors to entertain possible consequences of AI isnt irresponsible, in fact, its the only responsible thing to do.

He wants the industry to hit pause and think before building out the most significant technology of our species existence. Whats unreasonable about that?

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Mark Zuckerberg Is A Bad Futurist - HuffPost

Heres what the artwork on the Lime Street development could look like and it includes memories of the famous Futurist cinema.

Developer Ion is building a hotel, student flats and a row of shops and restaurants on the land between The Crown and The Vines. The plan was controversial because the historic Futurist was demolished to make way for it.

But that cinemas history will form part of a striking quantum timeline, designed by Anthony Brown, that will stretch across the Lime Street facade.

Mr Brown has designed 11 panels based on Lime Streets history.

They cover topics from the Futurist and other long-lost cinemas to the famous Maggie May and the Guinness Clock that once stood opposite Lime Street station.

Theres even a panel about the old Yankee Bar, famed for its miniature Statue of Liberty. The Yankee was also cleared to make way for the Lime Street scheme.

Mr Brown is best known for the 100 portraits of famous Merseyside people that he created for Liverpools 800th birthday in 2007.

Speaking about his Lime Street work, he said: With this work, our intention is to capture and reflect the history while commemorating the development of a truly unique street and one of the most important areas in the city of Liverpool.

We have created an accessible Quantum Timeline using illustrative graphic images and archived text to immortalise the development, buildings, business, people and heritage of Lime Street which was formally known as Limekiln Lane.

It will serve to forever mark and display what was as we celebrate what comes next.

Ion, formerly known as Neptune Developments, was behind the Mann Island development. Mr Browns painting have previously been exhibited there.

Ion managing director Steve Parry, managing director of Ion, commented: "Lime Street has seen many transformations in its history yet it has always reflected Liverpool life.

As one of the most important gateways to the city, we have an opportunity to reflect the vibrancy and history of the street on the elevations of the building.

The rest is here:
Here's what the Lime Street facade will look like - including Futurist memories - Liverpool Echo

When rehearsals began for The Food Show, one of the first things writer-director Dan Kerr-Hobert asked his five-member cast to do was demonstrate their favorite way to prepare eggs. These ranged from a perfect omelette and an elegant poached egg to the less ambitious half-scramble in a bowl in a microwave.

He says the way people cook eggs is a kind of handwriting, and felt the exercise would be a perfect starting point to introduce the actors to the ideas he was aiming to illustrate in this new Neo-Futurist show.

The Food Show When: To Sept. 2 Where: The Neo-Futurists at Metropolitan Brewing, 3057 N. Rockwell Tickets: $10-$25 Info: neofuturists.org

It was a good way to start the conversation about how our identities affect our relationship to food and visa versa, he says. After each egg was made we all talked about small ways in which the process revealed things about the person cooking. Some text came out of that which is now in the show, but it also gave us a baseline sense of each persons relationship to food.

With his new play, Kerr-Hobert wants to get people thinking and talking about food via a wide range of ideas from foods cultural connections and the significance of family recipes passed down to social issues and foods impact on the environment. And, yes, food will be cooked on stage as the actors ruminate about these ideas and more.

The Food Show was born out of an ongoing conversation Kerr-Hobert, a member of The Neo-Futurists, had with his cousin and Neo-Futurist alum Caitlin Stainken. Both were interested in ideas about the connections people have with food and identity and had talked about opening a restaurant but creating a show about food was the idea that won out. (However, Stainken has since moved to Montana, had a baby and wasnt available to continue with the shows creation.)

Kerr-Hobert says the show is not solely aimed at foodies: The goal is to look at the emotional relationship we all have with food.

Dan Kerr-Hobert | SUPPLIED PHOTO

He adds, one of the core themes in the show is the idea of food and inheritance: Where did we get our ideas about food? What ideas have we inherited? And why do we choose to keep them or give them up?

In 2009, the Neo-Futurists partnered with Metropolitan Brewery to stage Sean Benjamin and Steve Mosquedas Beer, which was directed by Kerr-Hobert at the brewerys Ravenswood location. The partnership continues with The Food Show, which debuts at Metropolitans new Avondale location. The cast features Oliver Camacho, Bilal Dardai, Tif Harrison, Spencer Meeks and Kyra Simms, with music composed by Mucca Pazza artistic director Ronnie Kuller.

As the 70-minute show unfolds, the cast is busy with tasks from making butter and pasta to searing salmon and baking cookies while also pondering the current issues related to food.

This is the first time Kerr-Hobert has created a Neo-Futurist show that he isnt performing in. It was a new and interesting challenge, he says. Instead of simply using the stories from his own life, he says he had to discover new ways to bring his ideas into the script.

He began by interviewing the cast, each of whom had a drastically different history with food. These personal narratives are woven into the piece.

Ensemble member Bilal Dardai (the creator of that aforementioned half scramble in a bowl) grew up eating a mix of ethnic Indian dishes and American cuisine (my mom was open to trying different things). His role in the show evolved around his ethnic background but also around the fact hes the only parent in the cast.

We discussed ideas about not only my background but also about what you feed a small child with a food allergy and how you handle that, Dardai says referring to his own experience with his son.

Kerr-Hobert hopes the show provides a space where people can have a fulfilling and entertaining meditation on food and the issues surrounding it. Do we keep our inherited ways or do we make changes, he asks. For me, the show is about mindfulness and a chance to think about questioning inheritance and whether or not we need to change.

I try and eat ethically but I definitely dont think enough about where all the food is coming from. I know those things have an impact on the world. There are a lot of questions about why we do what we do when it comes to food. We want to get people thinking about these issues.

Mary Houlihan is a local freelance writer

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Neo-Futurists' new show serves up plenty of 'Food' for thought - Chicago Sun-Times

Antonio Ramirez, senior vice-president of human resources at Sands China on how to proactively prepare your business for a new generation of employees.

Millennials are already here time to get ready for Generation Z.

A few years ago, I used to ask at the end of meetings with all the team members if they had any questions or suggestions 99% of the time the team had no questions or suggestions, so I assumed they had nothing to share.

I was wrong. They had lots of questions, lots of things that they wanted to tell me and share. I was just using the wrong platform. A few months ago we started to use an anonymous communication platform. I received lots of messages from the team; we maintained conversations; they raised concerns the end result being a much better team.

E-chat is a must-have platform and not a nice-to-have. At Sands China, we do not offer a job, but a lifestyle, so we need to have the culture, the technology and platforms that support it.

HR works to be a team that supports the company, which shapes the reality of today and the future, supports innovation, develops the culture, attracts, retains and develops talent so we have the best team structures.

We do it by using a leadership approach based on coaching principles, plus:

We are the architects of the HR strategies. We work with departments bringing the latest developments in the HR field. We zoom out with them and we work together on the planning, monitoring the implementation and measuring the outcomes of HR.

This is the generation that doesnt know what a TV channel is this is the Netflix, YouTube and Google generation.

We will have so much to learn with them and we want to be ready. We have created the Innovation and Productivity Centre, where the physical space and the working methodology are being shaped with the input of Millennials and for Gen Z.

We are investing big on a HR data centre and our Millennial team members are playing a vital role in mining the data and proposing solutions and new approaches. We are confident that we will be able to see trends that will allow us to be ready for Gen Z.

Millennials and Gen Z value information, stimulation and connection. They are well-informed, evolved and empathetic, and at Sands China, we want to be the reflection of all of this.

We are designing today to be the future of Gen Z.

The June 2017 issue of Human Resources magazine is a special edition, bringing you interviews with 12 HR leaders, with their predictions on the future of HR.

ReadThe Futuristor subscribe here.

Have you done anything impressive in your HR strategy and execution? Enter it into the HR Excellence Awards!

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The Futurist: Future by design - Human Resources Online

A lot of noise has been made by creative decision-makers involved withStar Trek Discovery concerning the show's very impressive production quality. Apparently it's the design of props and costumes that caused significant delays to the show's release this fall.

We don't just have to take their word for it anymoretheDiscovery Twitter account has been sharing small glimpses at the heavily redesigned technology of the show, which draws inspiration from the original Gene Roddenberry Star Trek series, but has been updated to make it look a little more impressive.

Here we have a Star Fleet officer's badge, which will probably not serve as a communicator as it does in later periods in the timelinecontinuity is important here, as in the J.J. Abrams Star Trek movies.

Instead, the classic flip-top communicator, which inspired real life cell phones, will return. This time, though, it sports a neat little computer display that makes it look at least a little more modern, if not hugely futuristic. There's something of a CASIO watch design to its circular screen and illuminated display, which can't be an accident.

Finally, there's the new phaser, which, if anything, resembles a very old movie camera from the early days of film. One thing's for certain, it's very pretty.

If there's a theme to these props, it's the idea of futuristic technology hearkening back to the old daysthis continues the theme of the very retro-looking transporters that we've already seen on board the Discovery. That is, except for this laser rifle, which looks like something out of a SWAT kit:

The solution, then, is to deliberately bake vintage designs into these items. Discovery is almost claiming that in the far-flung future, humanity prefers something that looks older and traditional because it makes space travel feel less sterile. It's a smart design choice, as it definitely reflects modern society, with our obsession with retro fashion, vinyl record players, and Instagram filters that make photos look worse. Our current culture reacts to Star Trek-style advancements in technology by yearning for our simpler past, and it seems that Discovery's props are a reflection of this.

Star Trek Discoverypremieres on CBS onSeptember 24th, 2017.

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New 'Star Trek: Discovery' Clips Show Off Beautiful, Retro-Futurist Tech (Including a New Phaser) - Outer Places

The award-winning New York Neo-Futurists will share a little of their well earned wisdom this summer when they offer the workshop, Level One: Function and Fundamentals. The workshop that has served as a stepping stone to fifteen would-be Neo-Futurists is a twelve hour workshop that stretches over three Saturdays beginning July 22nd and wrapping up August 5th, all taking place at Playwrights Rehearsal Studios.

Workshop participants will be taught the function and fundamentals of what it means to create art in the Neo-Futurist aesthetic: performing as your most natural self, dismantling the fourth wall, creating task-based theatre, and accessing creative inspiration to eliminate writer's block. By the end of this workshop, participants will have written, performed and workshopped both individually and collectively written short plays that can be taken into the world in whichever way they see fit.

The instructors for this Level One: Function and Fundamentals workshop will be Neo-Futurists Dan McCoy and Connor Sampson. McCoy, a member of the NY Neo-Futurists since 2009 is a performer and playwright who holds an MFA in Playwriting from Hunter College and whose work has been produced or developed recently at Theaterlab, Primary Stages, Project Y Theatre and IATI Theatre. Sampson is a two-time national champion of performance poetry, the 2016 inaugural recipient of the Jeffrey Melnick New Playwright Award (Primary Stages) and has been a Neo since 2014. Connor also holds a BFA with honors in Dramatic Writing from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts.

If you've found yourself in the Kraine Theater at 10:30 on a Friday or Saturday night, witnessed the Neo-Futurists delivering their barrage of short plays, and said to yourself "I can do that" or "I could never do that," then this workshop is for you. Creative individuals at all levels of experience are encouraged to enroll for a mere $300.

The New York Neo-Futurists are a collective of wildly productive writer-director-performers that create theater that is fusion of sport, poetry and living-newspaper; non-illusory, interactive performance that conveys experiences and ideas as directly and honestly as possible; immediate, irreproducible events at affordable prices. Since opening in Brooklyn in 2004 the New York Neo-Futurists have premiered roughly 4,500 plays and have become a downtown New York institution. In addition to performing The Infinite Wrench fifty weeks a year and producing Too Much Light Makes The Baby Go Blind from 2004 until 2016, the New York Neo-Futurists have been a stalwart presence in the Off-Off Broadway community, having won numerous Innovative Theatre Awards and Drama Desk Nominations.

IF YOU GO: New York Neo-Futurists What: Level One Workshop: Function and Fundamentals Where: Playwrights Rehearsal Studios, 440 Lafayette Street #4, New York, NY 10003 When: July 22nd, July 29th & August 5th from 1pm-5pm. How: nynf.org or 866-811-4111 Cost: $300 ($50 deposit to reserve your spot).

Photo Credit: Kari Otero, 2015 (Center)

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New York Neo-Futurists to Offer 'Fundamentals' Workshop This Summer - Broadway World