Category Archives: Transhuman News

The world is moving away from fossil fuels towards renewable energies, and Alberta risks being left behind, says futurist Nikolas Badminton, whose presentation kicks off the Growing the North conference at the Entrec Centre on Wednesday.

Badminton is a Vancouver-based futurist, someone who makes predictions about how technology will shape the future. He says a big shift to renewable energy over the next 10 to 15 years will make fossil fuels far less important, adding Alberta needs an entrepreneurial ethos to adapt to the change.

Albertas sort of lagging behind in this vision of renewables, and I think in a province where youve got over 300 days of sunshine per year, were sort of missing an opportunity for creating an abundance of energy, Badminton said in an interview.

He points out that 51% of Albertas energy is still generated by coal and 39% by natural gas, while hydro and wind only account for 2% and 5%, respectively. In B.C., on the other hand, 90% of power is hydro-generated.

According to Badminton, the beginning of the great shift away from fossil fuels is already evident. Last year Tesla Motors announced it was planning to produce 500,000 all-electric vehicles in 2018, two years ahead of schedule. And Ford announced last month it is launching a fully electric SUV by 2020, as well as 13 new electrified vehicles over the next five years including hybrid F-150s and Mustangs. By 2023, Badminton said, battery-powered cars will be the same price as combustion-engine cars.

The disruption is here.

Its happening in agriculture too, he added: John Deere has just come out with a prototype electric vehicle. I think we can see farming going all electric in the next few years. And last November Alaska Airlines flew the first commercial flight with a renewable biofuel.

Badminton says Alberta should be channelling its talent towards innovation, thinking about technology startups ... Theres such a huge branch of talent in Calgary, Edmonton and across the province that I think it could become a huge innovation centre.

In addition to shifting towards renewables, Badminton endorses the circular economy, an idea advocated by The Ellen MacArthur Foundation, a think tank. The concept envisions a world without junk yards; consumer products would be designed to be disassembled, once theyre no longer wanted, so that their materials can be re-used. Things that have to be thrown away, such as packaging, would be compostable.

However, Badminton acknowledged such a massive transformation of the economy would be unlikely to happen without government intervention.

Without these incentives, without certain regulations in place to actually start to force the change, the change is slow to come.

Badmintons talk starts at 8:45 a.m.

khampson@postmedia.com

Twitter @kevinhampson

Excerpt from:
Renewable energy will displace oil and gas: Futurist - Alberta Daily Herald Tribune

A week after Michael Flynns abrupt fall from grace, President Trump will smooth things over with a national security adviser that at least some people can agree on.

Called everything from a warrior scholar to the rarest of soldiers,, Army Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster is an about-face from the divisive Flynn, who resigned amid the escalating controversy over his contact with Sergey Kislyak, Russian ambassador to the U.S.

McMaster, often described as the armys own futurist, holds a complex view on technology, cautioning against technological hubris as a solution to modern warfare. Be skeptical of concepts that divorce war from its political nature, particularly those that promise fast, cheap victory through technology, McMaster wrote in a 2013 op-ed in the New York Times titled The Pipe Dream of Easy War. He continued:

Wars like those in Afghanistan and Iraq cannot be waged remotely. Budget pressures and persistent fascination with technology have led some to declare an end to war as we know it. While emerging technologies are essential for military effectiveness, concepts that rely only on those technologies, including precision strikes, raids or other means of targeting enemies, confuse military activity with progress toward larger wartime goals.

That same characteristic deep perspective appears to be on display in his controversial but largely well-respected book, Dereliction of Duty, about the failing of military leaders, particularly theJoint Chiefs of Staff, during the Vietnam war. McMasters academic streak is just one of the traits that paints him in stark contrast to Flynn, who is widely regarded as ideologically driven, particularly by anti-Islamic sentiment.

During an April 2015 symposium on Army innovation, McMaster expanded on the risk inherent in an overreliance on military technology.The biggest risk that we have today is the development of concepts that are inconsistent with the enduring nature of war, McMaster said. What we see today is really an effort to simplify this complex problem of future war and to essentially make it a targeting exercise. The idea is that the next technology we develop is going to make this next war fundamentally different from all those that have gone before it.

At a defense conference in London a few months later, McMaster emphasized that traditional manpower cant be ignored in favor of flashy technological advances that appear to provide short-term gains. [There is a] delusion that a narrow range of military technologies will be decisive in future war, he said. Technology is the element of our differential advantage over our enemies which is most easily transferred to our enemies.

McMaster is no technophobe, but he dismisses conceptions of the future of war that cut against wars political nature, wars human natures, wars uncertainty and war as a contest of wills.

Notably, he also really, really hates PowerPoint. Its dangerous because it can create the illusion of understanding and the illusion of control, McMaster told the New York Times. Some problems in the world are not bullet-izable. (Good luck telling that to the commander-in-chief.)

Its too early to tell how McMaster will fit into Trumps roiling inner circle, or perhaps the outermost circle of his concentric inner circles, but McMasters willingness to critique authority around issues of national security is likely to prove relevant.

As Middle East scholar and former U.S. Army officer Andrew Exum writes in the Atlantic:

One thing that stands out in the book is the way in which McMaster criticized the poorly disciplined national security decision-making process in the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, and especially the way in which the Kennedy administration made national-security decisions by a small group of confidants without a robust process to serve the president.

Its not hard to imagine howthe Armysbig picture thinkermightextend that criticismto a president who prefers to craftdecisionsthrougha small clusterof loyalists, incorporating little outside input. It remains to be seen if Trump will bring McMaster fully into the fold or if hell just freeze him out like so many other administration officials who have expresseddissent.

Whatever role he ends up playing, McMaster will joinDefense Secretary James Mattis and Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly to round out the trifecta of well-respected military leaders who have Trumps ear.

Go here to read the rest:
Trump's new national security adviser is a futurist with warnings about technology - TechCrunch

As the world gets excited about the possibilities that VR unfolds for all of us in the business of marketing brands, Im reminded of the golden adage: People will forget what you did, but theyll never forget how you made them feel.

Yes, emotions are back in business and today they are becoming even more measurable in real-time. As the buzz on building smarter cities and a smarter life gains momentum, one can expect technology to play a larger role in driving marketing engagements.

We expect to see more IOT and tech-enabled conversations driving B2B and B2C relationships. Marketers will be expected to find compelling narratives to better emote and engage with customers. As such, leading global telcos and tech brands are converging their products, services and infrastructure to create a more immersive and pronounced engagement with customers.

Marketing beyond VR

Sure, newfangled tech and nifty platforms, such as AR, VR, wearables and apps do help take the brand experience narrative forward, but often they dont necessarily form the narrative itself. This is a reason why more and more marketers have started investing increasingly in collaborative commerce platforms and experience centres.

Collaborative commerce platforms are fast becoming a new model of marketing engagement especially with IT and telco corporations. Brands are increasingly involving their member/customer base in not just running campaigns, but the business itself.

The active advocacy and emotional ownership that such engagements presents are tough to match through conventional social/digital marketing routes. Brand experience centres are not your flagship stores and they dont substitute for the experience. Today, brands from across industries are investing significantly in building their marquee experience centres.

While the wave of customer experience centres started as an effective way to engage B2B customers, with the likes of British Telecom and VADS back home inviting its prospects to come and experience how they could help solve complex real-life business issues in real time, the marketing practice has caught the fancy of non-tech companies as an opportunity to immerse and excite the public in the types of possibilities it creates.

Companies from across the industry spectrum are actively engaging in creating mini experience centres to immerse target segments.

The digital paradox for marketers

Organisations are busy bucking up their respective digital transformation journey. While it will ease the pressure of marketing in organising, managing and serving various customer segments, invariably it will make it increasingly tougher for brands to connect emotively with their customers in the digital age.

However, on the other hand, brands such as Amazon have effectively created a well thought out customer gratification model that keeps its emotive connect intact. In fact, the brand for the first time in its history has gone from a pure click to a brick and mortar model with physical stores in countries such as India.

Underscoring the realisation that marketing in the digital age will increasingly rely on creating immersive brand experiences be they physical, virtual or collaborative in nature.

Yes, advancements in tech be they AR, VR, bots, wearables or 3D printing will serve as effective special effects, but the narrative will need to rely on telling an effective story that engages all the five senses, which creates memorability, talkability and shareability beyond likes and views.

The author of the article is Izlyn Ramli, vice-president, group brand and communication Telekom Malaysia.

Original post:
The Futurist: Making an emotional connection | Marketing Interactive - Marketing Interactive

Children are insane. Or, more precisely, they don't think logically as adults do. Children aren't burdened by hardened adult preconceptions and expectations, so suffer fewer roadblocks to learning new things. This different way of seeing things is why children adapt so easily to high tech that confuses the rest of us.

That's the theoretical basis behind "Mimsy Were The Borogoves," a classic science fiction tale from 1943 in which two children find a box of toys from the future that they totally grok but which flummox their Euclidian-conditioned parents. (You can read "Mimsy" here or watch the movie version, The Last Mimzy.)

Could we be approaching the unidentified future from which Mimsy's high tech toys originated?

At the annual Toy Fair, held this past President's Day weekend in New York city, I found some playthings instilled with bleeding edge technologies even I barely understand but that today's youngsters should have no trouble taking to just like the children in "Mimsy" hopefully, without the story's strange consequences.

For instance, there was a futuristic version of one of the most iconic toys of all time Barbie. Mattel showed off Hello Barbie Hologram, which is sort of a personalized 3D animated Amazon Alexa.

You can ask Hello Barbie Hologram Alexa-like questions, prefaced by "Hello, Barbie," such as for the weather. But instead of Stephen Hawking-like monotone responses, you get an effervescent Barbie not only playfully announcing the local outdoor conditions, but you get a visual; for instance, if Barbie tells you it's raining cats and dogs, you get a holographic visual of canines and felines pouring from the sky. You can voice command the hologram Barbie to set alarms, night lights and daily reminders. You can also change hologram Barbie's size and skin tone and ask her to perform a number of dances.

Hello Barbie Hologram will be available sometime this fall for less than $300.

VR has been popping up in a few toys in the last couple of years, but at Toy Fair I saw three unique applications that seem to more holistically integrate VR into the design of the toy rather than haphazardly tacked on.

A start-up called Tilt is advancing "textile tech" in its SpinTales, which uses a duvet, a rug and VR to, well, put a new spin on some old stories for children. The SpinTales app includes three stories: Little Red (as in Little Red Riding Hood), 3 Pigs (as in the Three Little Pigs) and Magic Beans (as in Jack and Beanstalk). You then buy either the SpinTales Enchanted Duvet or the throw Jungle Rug ($99.99 each).

Your child activates one of the games on their smartphone or tablet and picks different activities. When prompted, the child then holds the tablet or smartphone over a matching section on the duvet or rug to activate the 3D VR, which displays an exploration of the immediate vicinity as the character moves around.

What makes SpinTales fascinating is that the bedspread and throw rug are ever-present; they don't have to dug out of a closet or toy chest or located under a pile of other discarded toys, dirty clothes or the bed.

One of the more fascinating VR games I saw isn't a product you'll be able to buy, but a "mixed reality game" technology concept that combines VR and RFID from a Quebec-based developer, bkom Studios. You move physical RFID-equipped tokens around a board; each token then generates a VR character that can be seen on the corresponding app on a smartphone or tablet or a more 360-degree view through VR goggles. Scanning playing cards triggers each character's activities.

bkom hopes to sell the technology for game developers to create new VR/RFID games.

A mixed reality learning VR plaything you soon will be able to buy is "Animal World with Jessica" from Odyssey ($39.95, April/May). Inside the smart box the cover acts as an interactive VR game board includes 65 VR animal cards, VR goggles, eight coloring paper sheets and a combined smartphone/tablet holder.

After downloading the "Animal World" app, a child holds a card so the smartphone or tablet camera can see it, which activates a moving, interactive VR version of that animal viewed on either a touchscreen device or more fully through the VR goggles. The animal can be manipulated while information about it is imparted to the child. Two animals can be created to interact with each other, or your child can switch the camera view and take a selfie with the animal.

At some point, the "Animal World" developers hope to update the app so children will be able to virtually feed the animals as well as talk to them ala Dr. Doolittle. Additional mixed reality educational card sets with different topics are planned.

A plethora of companies have been developing simplistic robot toys and robot learning and construction kits for the last few years. But Fisher-Price has built instead an inexpensive version of a home robot designed to help your youngest kids learn while playing.

The company's cute, nearly foot-tall Teach n' Tag Movi ($49.99, fall) is an interactive learning buddy that can follow directions, play games and displays animated facial expressions that help give it a personality. It can roll around via voice command on three wheels on nearly any surface.

Movi, which will operate on three C cells and is designed for youngsters 3-6, includes three play modes: Alpha Fun Actions, Think & Move Shapes and Learn & Play Games including Red Light/Green Light and Silly Sounds Tag. Two buttons on top of Movi allow for a child's direct input.

Not quite Isaac Asimov's Robbie, the first robot presented in his "I, Robot" collection, another, more optimistic look at our robot buddy future, but getting there.

Hopefully, these robot, VR and hologram toys won't cause the mischief the sci-fi playthings do in "Mimsy," but merely prepare your prodigy for life in their non-fictional future.

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Futurist Sci-Fi Toys Are Here Now - Huffington Post