Category Archives: Transhuman News

In January 2020, when the coronavirus started making headlines around the world, Jane McGonigals inbox was flooded with emails from Silicon Valley execs, government officials, and nonprofit leaders. They all had the same question: Jane, didnt you run a simulation of a respiratory pandemic?

Yes, she had. All the way back in 2010.

McGonigal is a game designer. She builds simulations that help players imagine the unimaginable. And in 2010, she invited nearly 20,000 people to immerse themselves in a future world besieged by a global pandemic. How would you change your habits? she asked. What social interactions would you avoid? Can you work from home?

A decade later, when COVID-19 went from nascent threat to full-blown crisis, McGonigal started hearing from folks who had participated in the simulation. Im not freaking out, one of them said with relief. I already worked through the panic and anxiety when we imagined it 10 years ago.

According to the latest research in psychology and neuroscience, we can all learn to make the shift from panic to poise by training our brains to think about the unthinkable. But what does that training look like? In her new book,Imaginableand on todays episode of The Next Big Idea podcastMcGonigal shares evidence-based techniques you can use to see the future coming. Listen to the full episode below, or read a few key highlights. And follow host Rufus Griscom on LinkedInfor behind-the-scenes looks into the show.

Rufus Griscom:Your path from studying and designing video games to working as a futuristsome would see that as counterintuitive. I think you see this as a logical progression. Why does that sequencing make sense?

Jane McGonigal: What first really fascinated me about the gaming community was this trend that I was observing in gamers: They were developing real skills, real abilities, collective intelligence, and collective imagination that they wanted to apply in a bigger contextmaybe help solve some real-world challenges.

This was back in 2001 when I was starting my PhD work. And I thought, This is amazing! It would be really good for humanity if we could channel these new skills that are coming out of online gaming into real-world problem-solving. But at that time, there were not a lot of games to play that actually connected this community with real-world challenges.

After studying it for six years, writing my dissertation on this topic, I rolled right into, Im going to be the one to make games that help gamers apply those strengths to real-world contexts. And the context that I wound up working in was trying to anticipate hard-to-predict futures, or apply that collective imagination to seeing future scenarios from massively many points of viewthe same way that we see a game worldso that we might discover the outlier risks or unexpected opportunities. And thats what Ive been doing for 15 years now.

This mission to take our interest in gaming and collective imagining exercises and use them to help us better understand possible future outcomesyou and your team have been engaged in this for a while, and you have an astoundingly impressive track record at anticipating possible future outcomes. Can you share some of the details of what you all have done?

2020 was a really strange year to be a future forecaster, in that I had an experience of living through a very difficult future that we had been forecasting for a decade or more. My work at the Institute for the Future involved creating these social simulations way back in 2008, 2010, where we were inviting thousands of people to spend weeks in a private social network. It would look like Twitter, Facebook, or Discord, but everything being posted and shared was about a hypothetical future.

Futurists love to look 10 years ahead because that gives us enough mental distance to think creatively. And if were imagining problems that might not happen for 10 years, it gives us enough time to prepare for them or prevent them. So we were looking at the years 2019 and 2020; and back then, our simulation centered around, How would we survive and adapt to a respiratory pandemic that started in China that was also complicated by cascading crises?One of the things that I specialize in is figuring out how different crises and disruptions intersect. So were not just looking at it from a public health perspective or an epidemiology perspective. We were also thinking about how we would survive and adapt when we have the supply-chain disruptions, when there is misinformation and conspiracy theories about the pandemic being spread on social media, when there are historic wildfires and extreme heat waves due to climate change. And thats just what we lived through in 2020.

What made me sort of crazy for a little while, and made me want to write the bookImaginable, is that there was this incredible proliferation of news stories and headlines using the word unimaginable to describe the pandemic and its consequences. But itwasntunimaginable. We just didnt have a critical mass of people imagining it. We had 20,000 people in one of our simulations, and 8,000 in another. My goal is to have 20millionI think that would really help us prepare for the future.

McGonigal:When we give ourselves these long, luxurious deadlines, we feel time rich. And when we feel time rich, we think, I have all this time! I can do what I want. I can do what matters to me.

When we have urgent deadlines or too many tasks on our to-do list for today, we feel time poor, time deprivedand then we just dont use our time because even though we still have the same amount of time, it feels scarce.

Another thing that researchers have found is that when we imagine 10 years out, we tend to think about things that are more relevant to our most important valuesthe kinds of goals that would help us live a life that we would consider really authentic, really true to our dreams or what we find meaningful and purposeful.

I give people this challenge. Its not, Where would you like to be in 10 years or what would you like to be different? The challenge is to try to vividly imagine waking up on a specific day. So, pick a day of the week; is it a Monday? Is it a Saturday? A Sunday? You imagine yourself waking up, and you try to picture every detail. Where are you? Are you in the same room that you woke up in today, or is it a different room? Where is it? Is there somebody with you? Is it a person? Is it a pet? Is it a different person or pet than you might wake up with today? And then imagine what mood you are in. What mood would you like to wake up in? What would put you in that mood? What might be on your calendar for that day that would put you in that mood?

And then I tell people, Go put it on your calendar. If youve just imagined yourself doing this amazing thing that makes you feel a certain way, go ahead and open up your Google or Apple calendarthey do go 10, 20, 30, 40 years in the futureand put it on your calendar. Even better, invite somebody. Invite a loved one.

It can spark some really interesting conversations about our real hopes and dreams. What is it going to take to get there? Because weve given ourselves 10 years, it allows us to dream bigger and also enjoy that sense of time spaciousness to really make some changes or explore possibilities that we would dismiss as impossible today.

Griscom:Are there any other future scenarios that you think our listeners should consider?

Things to pay attention to: government-mandated internet shutdowns is a huge future force that is spreading globally. If youre not aware of this phenomenon and not potentially prepared to live through weeks or months of the government turning off the internet, thats something to think about.

Another one is climate migration. Weve got to be willing to think about the risks where we live. Are we in a climate-secure, climate-resilient place that will probably be welcoming others who are migrating out of climate-unsafe regions? If so, we should be prepared to see a higher density of living, to be welcoming to people who have been forcibly displaced. Are we emotionally ready for that? Are we economically ready for that? Also think about our pathways to move if we need to. That is something that every serious futurist that I know is thinking aboutpathways of human movement within countries, and across borders. How can we support people economically, socially, mentally, psychologically? How can we make a home? Thats a problem space that warrants so much imagination and innovation and creativity. If I could get all of the smartest minds on the planet to work on something, it would be thinking about movement. That is the biggest future scenario that would benefit from our imagination, and also our innovation.

This article originally appeared in Next Big Idea Club magazine and is reprinted with permission.

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Futurist predicts Covid and what's coming in a decade - Fast Company

AnimationHistoryIllustration #anime#architecture#drawing#film#science fiction

Akira, cut #1, Final production background detail, Toshiharu Mizutani, poster color on paper, 93 x 53 centimeters. All photos from AKIRA (Movie), based on the graphic novel AKIRA by Katsuhiro Otomo. First published by Young Magazine, Kodansha Ltd. MASH ROOM / AKIRA COMMITTEE, shared with permission

Katsuhiro Otomos 1988 sci-fi classic Akira has had an unparalleled influence on anime and film, and an exhibition at the Tchoban Foundation in Berlin showcases the original drawings that brought its futuristic cyberpunk setting to life. Akira The Architecture of Neo Tokyo features 59 production backdrops, layouts, concepts, and image boards, many of which have never been shown publicly. The collection includes now-iconic works by art director Toshiharu Mizutani and collaborators Katsufumi Hariu, Norihiro Hiraki, Shinji Kimura, Satoshi Kuroda, Hiromasa Ogura, Hiroshi no, Hajime Soga, Tsutomu Uchida, and Takashi Watabe.

Otomo first released the dystopian story as a manga series in 1982 before turning it into the highly influential action film a few years later. The narrative follows characters Shtar Kaneda, the telekinetic Tetsuo Shim, and their friends, who navigate the imagined Japanese metropolis of Neo Tokyo with its neon streetlights, crumbling infrastructure, and unrelenting post-apocalyptic vibe.

Ahead of the exhibition, curator Stefan Riekeles also released the book Anime Architecture: Imagined Worlds and Endless Megacities. The volume contains fantastic scenes from various animated classics including Ghost in the Shell and Metropolis. You can see Akira The Architecture of Neo Tokyo through September 4, and according to Its Nice That, the show might travel to London next.

Akira, pattern no. 182, final production background, Toshiharu Mizutani, poster color on paper, 55 x 42 centimeters

Akira, pattern no. 2211, final production background, Hiroshi Ohno, poster color on paper, 50 x 36 centimeters

Akira, pattern no. 2204, picture board, Toshiharu Mizutani, poster color on paper, 25 x 35 centimeters

Akira, pattern no. 700, final production background Toshiharu Mizutani, poster color on paper, 26 x 37 centimeters

Akira, pattern no. 214, final production background, Toshiharu Mizutani, poster color on paper, 25.5 x 37 centimeters

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An Exhibition Unearths Rare Production Drawings from the Futuristic Neo Tokyo of the Anime Classic 'Akira' - Colossal

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--For the Metaverse to achieve its promise, it requires a base-level blockchain protocol equal to the technical, economic, and philosophical origins of the Metaverse idea itself an open and expansive virtual universe. To fulfill that promise, cryptocurrency pioneer Peter Vessenes and renowned futurist Neal Stephenson are announcing Lamina1, a new Layer-1 blockchain technology designed for the Metaverse with Web3 principles in mind.

Co-founders Vessenes and Stephenson serve as Lamina1s chief executive officer and chairman, respectively. Later this year, the company will launch a testnet and a subsequent betanet. Beyond 2022, the co-founders plan to seed a new immersive environment inspired by Stephenson's million-selling novel Snow Crash, building infrastructure and releasing tools to support the work of third-party creators who want to build Open Metaverse experiences at scale.

Lessons Learned from Web 2.0

As titans of the technology industry implement their vision of the Metaverse - a sector projected to grow to $1T in the coming decade - Lamina1 is working to ensure it does not repeat the missteps of the past by continuing to perpetuate existing structures of centralized ownership and inequality.

Lamina1 proposes an alternative a more modern and integrated Web3 community and ecosystem as the first building block for a truly Open Metaverse. The provably carbon negative Lamina1 chain will offer high transaction volume and an economic design with new incentive mechanisms to help create thriving, vibrant economies for creators and entrepreneurs.

Lamina1 Co-founders Bridge Visionary Science Fiction to Imminent Metaverse Reality

The concept of the Metaverse, an immersive version of the internet was first brought to life in 1992 with the publication of Snow Crash. Now, 30 years later, Stephenson is for the first time founding a company to create the digital world he envisioned.

The 30th anniversary of Snow Crash, and recent interest in actually building the Metaverse, has got me thinking about how to do it in a way thats true to the original concept, said Stephenson. That means creative ferment rooted in a strong base layer of open source tech that provides key services to creators while making sure that they get paid. The purpose of Lamina1 is to provide that, using the best and most up-to-date ideas from the industry. Well build first-and second-party experiences just to make sure it all works. But well know weve succeeded when Lamina1 is adopted by third-party creators.

This vision will be brought to life by the considerable engineering and business acumen of Lamina1s co-founder, Peter Vessenes. Vessenes is known in the cryptocurrency industry for a series of firsts, namely launching the first VC-backed Bitcoin company (2011) and forming the Bitcoin Foundation (2012) - today a blueprint for the way the now $1T+ blockchain industry engages communities and manages and creates cryptocurrencies.

Lamina1s Founding Team Brings Together Experts in Virtual Worlds

Joining the Lamina1 team is Metaverse pioneer Tony Parisi, former head of AR/VR at Unity. He was also an early leader in Web3D and virtual reality, the inventor of VRML (the original standard for 3D graphics on the web) and co-creator of glTF, the open file format that today powers millions of 3D objects. Rounding out the Lamina1 leadership team is advisor Rony Abovitz, founder of Sun and Thunder, Magic Leap, and MAKO Surgical.

I am incredibly excited about Lamina1, said Abovitz. When Neal and Peter told me what they wanted to do (and if I would join their quest), it felt right and good. Neal brings wisdom, empathy, creativity, and a moral framework to his work- attributes deeply needed in creating a good future and a Metaverse that works for humanity. There is no one better to lead the way to build a more Open Metaverse. It is also the right time in human history for there to be a connection between the decentralized open innovations we see in the crypto world and Neal's innate vision and deep insights. I also loved the meshing of Peters genius in crypto with Neals visionary imagination.

I dont know how to describe this other than a true meeting of the minds, said Vessenes. "As an active investor and cryptographer, I have a list of the technology, economic and social innovations I'd like to see in a Layer-1 chain, so being able to team up with Neal and his personality, wisdom, and vision was compelling enough that it brought me out of retirement, so to speak. Seeing some of the earliest Bitcoin and Ethereum investors in the world back the project personally feels like a super special moment for all of us. I can think of no better way to honor Snow Crash's 30th anniversary than by co-founding Lamina1 with Neal.

Initial Investors in Lamina1 include Rony Abovitz, Geoff Entress, Jeremy Giffon, Bing Gordon, James Haft, Reid Hoffman, David Johnston, Joseph Lubin, Patrick Murck, Matthew Roszak, Tihan Seale, Peter Vessenes and Wu Ying.

Lamina1 will be formally introduced at Consensus 2022 presented by CoinDesk. For more information, visit lamina1.com.

About Lamina1

The brainchild of Neal Stephenson (Chairman), who first conceptualized the Metaverse in his 1992 million-selling book Snow Crash, and Peter Vessenes (CEO), a foundational leader from the early days of Bitcoin, Lamina1 is a Layer-1 blockchain purpose-built to empower the Open Metaverse. Lamina1s chain technology, cryptographic model and extensive intellectual property partnerships (to be announced throughout 2022) will establish it as the preferred destination for this generations most creative minds those who are crafting the digital societies of the future. It is the first provably carbon-negative blockchain in the world.

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Visionary Futurist Neal Stephenson and Crypto Pioneer Peter Vessenes Announce Lamina1, the Layer-1 Blockchain for the Open Metaverse - Business Wire

Teslas futuristic diner with drive-in theater and Supercharger station is finally becoming a reality, and we get a look at what could look like thanks to renders based on the construction plans.

This project has been in the work for a long time.

In 2018,Elon Musk said that Tesla plans to openan old school drive-in, roller skates & rock restaurant at one of the new Tesla Supercharger locations in Los Angeles. It was yet another, Is he joking? kind of Elon Musk idea, but he apparently wasnt kidding.

A few months later,Tesla actually applied for building permits for a restaurant and Supercharger station at a location in Santa Monica. However, the project has since stalled, apparently due to local regulations. Nevertheless, Tesla still moved forward with a Supercharger at the location, but it had to move the diner project to Hollywood earlier this year.

Last month, Tesla filed the construction plans with the city giving us the first look at what the automaker intends to build.

We learned from the plans that it will be a semi-circular two-story diner with 29 Supercharger stalls and two movie theater screens, but everything is from architectural plans.

Ed Howard, an expert in architectural models, built renders based on those plans to give us a better idea of what the Tesla diner could look like:

Obviously he took some liberties for things that werent in the plans, like the name of the diner, Milliways, the restaurant at the end of the universe from Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.

But for the most part, thats what the building and layout should look like:

It looks like the right mix of retro-looking, which was the original plan, and a more futuristic design, which was the new plan once it got moved to Hollywood. The renders are accurate down to the bamboo walls that are going to separate the Tesla diners lot from the rest of the block.

We dont have a solid timeline on when Tesla plans to open the diner, and it is going to be dependent on permit approvals, but things are moving forward.

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Heres what Teslas futuristic diner with drive-in theater and Supercharger could look like - Electrek

Eat your heart out!Apethony Hopkins

Elder statesman of the silver screen Anthony Hopkins appears to be getting into crypto and NFTs but there may be a deeper reason the actor has taken on his cringiest role yet.

In a widely dunked-ontweet, the "Hannibal" star tagged three of his fellow A-listers Snoop Dogg, Reese Witherspoon, and Jimmy Fallon to ask them where he should start on his NFT-buying journey.

"Im astonished by all the great NFT artists," the tweet read, with Hopkinsesque aplomb. "Jumping in to acquire my first piece, any recommendations?"

As Miles Klee of Futurism's sister siteMEL jokingly suggested, Hopkins might want to look into firing whoever put him up to this debasing promo.

In terms of exactly who that was, another Twitter user noted thatthe Welsh superstar recently signed with the Creative Artists Agency talent managers the very same agency that represents Snoop, Witherspoon, and Fallon.

Unfortunately, it goes even deeper than that.

Since Hopkins' public turn towards blockchain, Twitter users have been quick to point out that CAA is an investor in the OpenSea NFT market, and others still suggested that the agency is pushing its talent to shill NFTs because of this investment. Media commentator Max Read even outlined, conspiracy map-style, the manifold connections between CAA, its clients, and the NFT world on his Substack.

Futurism has reached out to Hopkins' representation for comment about whether his contract with CAA plays a role in his newfound interest in NFTs. Regardless, it sure is interesting that so many celebrities repped by the same agency are all suddenly interested in this weird new "art" world.

READ MORE:Mapping the celebrity NFT complex [Read Max]

More on celebrity NFT shenanigans:Lawyers Ponder Whether Stealing an NFT Should Give You Legal Rights to It

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There's an Interesting Theory About Why Anthony Hopkins Is Suddenly Shilling NFTs - Futurism

With the latest upgrade on its database, you can use Toncoin as a payment method on 1xBit. Toncoin, one of the few established cryptocurrencies, has proven itself a remarkable asset a blockchain platform from Telegram founders who initiated the Telegram Open Network (TON) founded in 2018. Today, the network has moved from Telegram to the birth of the new TON, which stands for The Open Network with Toncoin as the native cryptocurrency.

These latest developments prove that the crypto betting site is determined to offer a more inclusive platform for every bettor.

Scalability has always been a hot topic in the cryptocurrency realm. Bitcoin may have been a revolutionary project, but once the possibilities that the world could achieve with crypto were seen, and how Bitcoin appears primitive in this regard, there was a clarion call for the development of other projects that could solve this underlying problem of scalability.

Although Ethereum and Solana appear to have answered the eternal question, they still lack some functionalities. Thus, Toncoin stands out and remains the best positioned to solve the problem.

1xBit added Toncoin as a payment method because the platform envisages the role that its blockchain ecosystem, TON, will play in the future. Even an analysis from Coinmarketcap reveals that TON has all the potential it needs to create the futuristic Web 3.0 an upcoming generation of the internet where software applications will process information in a smart human-like way.

Fast Transaction: Toncoin transactions are like no other, a revolutionary project that allows millions of transactions per second with no queue or lag.

User-Friendly: The Open Network explores a smoother way of making transactions more convenient for users. For instance, with TON DNS (Domain Name Service), you will be able to send and receive Toncoin with human-readable names rather than random strings.

Decentralized: As many crypto projects are becoming more centralized in the hands of a few individuals, TON returns the power of voting to the users to become a self-governing financial ecosystem.

Current statistics show that Toncoin has amassed an enormous following and currently trades at over 1.2 USD with a market capitalization of more than 1.5 million USD. The cryptocurrency is also accessible in major crypto exchanges like OKX, FTX, etc.

Toncoin is something crypto enthusiasts should check out on 1xBit as it has been gaining popularity for a while now.

1xBit is a cryptocurrency gambling site with over 40 crypto assets, including Toncoin, available as a method of deposit or cash out. The online sports book is all for the fun of the game; there are options for betting, Esports, live casino and slots.

The user experience on 1xBit is superb, from the registration process, which requires only an email, to the cashout process, where the waiting time is insignificant as you can get your earnings within an instant.

You also get to enjoy a welcome bonus of up to 7 BTC for your first four deposits on the gambling site. Apart from the welcome bonuses, every member on 1xBit gets to experience what it is like to transact with zero fees and access to monthly tournaments.

Your privacy is best secured with crypto betting sites, especially 1xBit, a unique crypto online sports book that ensures total anonymity for every transaction and action taken on the website.

Be the first to try the new token on 1xBit, do not miss the opportunity to try Toncoin and become part of this futuristic community.

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Discover Futuristic Opportunities of Toncoin on 1xBit - Coinpedia Fintech News

The first time Cesar Cappa stepped foot on the farm, he thought he was on another planet.

He grew up on a small family farm in Argentina. But this facility, located just outside of Guelph, Ont., was unlike anything he had ever seen.

I thought I was on Mars. Its incredible, he says. You dont realize the magnitude of something like this, a project like this, until you see it with your own eyes.

Towers of large metal trays, full of leafy greens, are stacked on top of each other in a large warehouse bathed in a bright fuchsia light. Theres an earthy scent in the air and the room is ever so slightly humid.

Indeed, if humans were to inhabit the moon or Mars someday, GoodLeaf Farms facility is a blueprint of how produce could be grown. The 45,000-square-foot facility is the largest vertical farm in Canada. GoodLeaf grows baby lettuce, spinach, arugula and an assortment of microgreens using the latest agricultural technology.

If greenhouses are the suburbs of farming, then vertical farms are the condos. By stacking layers of crops, growers can produce a great deal of food even where real estate is scarce and the weather isnt agreeable. LED lights replace the sun and the plants receive nutrients through recycled water rather than soil.

Every aspect of this environment is controlled and optimized for growth, from the hue of the lights to the amount of carbon dioxide in the air. The result is astounding: higher crop yields that require less space and 95 per cent less water than a traditional farm. And theres no need for pesticides, herbicides or fungicides.

Cappa is the head grower at GoodLeaf Farms. He studies how the crops interact with their manufactured environment in order to make the system more efficient. While giving me a tour of the facility, Cappa says its technically possible to grow a variety of produce in these conditions. But so far, leafy greens are what the company has perfected and whats profitable. This single facility provides roughly 70,000 pounds of leafy greens to grocery stores across southern Ontario each month.

I really think were making a difference in terms of food security for Canada, Cappa says. This is pretty much the only way to grow produce year-round.

Canada currently imports most of its leafy greens from California. But labour shortages and an unprecedented drought have led to supply chain disruptions over the last two years, exposing how precarious it is to rely exclusively on produce from abroad.

By the time we get lettuce in Vancouver, its already travelled for eight days and its shelf life is really only about 10 days, says Lenore Newman, the director of the Food and Agriculture Institute at the University of the Fraser Valley.

So when it comes into the distributor, they usually throw away a third to 40 per cent of what they bought. And when you take whats left home, youve only got a couple of days to make a salad, max.

More than $18 billion of food is wasted each year in Canada at this stage of the food cycle. That food ends up in landfill, where it releases tonnes of methane gas a greenhouse gas 25 times more powerful at trapping heat in our atmosphere than carbon dioxide as it decomposes.

So you take a look at all of those elements and you say, is there an alternative? Is there a better way? says Barry Murchie, the CEO of GoodLeaf Farms. This is an example of how technology and agriculture have merged to create an alternative that is really better in every element.

Vertical farms have become a solution to many of the issues plaguing traditional outdoor farming. They are impervious to the effects of climate change, occupy less land, use fewer resources, grow produce faster, and cut out long-haul transportation and fertilization emissions. These farms are also scalable, meaning they can be as big or small as the community they serve.

Commercial vertical farms have started popping up near many of Canadas major cities. In Quebec, producers are growing strawberries and mushrooms indoors. In B.C., urban vertical farms have focused on herbs and microgreens. GoodLeaf is expanding, too two new facilities are underway in Montreal and Calgary.

With all of the benefits attached to vertical farming and really no downside, its only going to continue to get bigger and expand, says Murchie. His goal is to build a national network of vertical farms across Canada.

This technology is also being used in rural and remote areas where fresh fruits and vegetables are expensive or unavailable.

In 2016, Opaskwayak Cree First Nation in northern Manitoba began operations at their vertical farm. The facility, which was made possible through partnerships with the federal government and the University of Manitoba, provides fresh vegetables to its 6,420 members, year-round.

With all these benefits, you might wonder why we dont just grow everything this way. There is a catch: these farms require a lot of electricity. How sustainable these farms are depends, in part, on where that power comes from.

GoodLeaf sources its energy through the Ontario power grid, which uses a mix of natural gas, nuclear, hydroelectricity, wind and solar. The company estimates its carbon footprint is half that of a traditional farm. Its Guelph facility, though, does use peat as its substrate, which is a natural carbon sponge many people want left in the ground. It is composted and upcycled into landscaping material after use.

As LED technology improves and brings down energy costs, Newman says she anticipates more farmers moving their crops indoors, especially as they contend with the more severe weather to come.

During the heat dome (in 2021), it was 39 degrees on my front porch in Vancouver and I was getting reports of fruit actually cooking on the vine, Newman says. We had massive crop loss due to that and then, we had flooding. Were really seeing people say, well, what can we do?

With the worlds population expected to climb to 10 billion by 2050, we will need to produce more food while confronting climate change. The United Nations estimates that food production will need to increase by 70 per cent to meet increasing food demand.

Nearly 40 per cent of the earths land surface is already used for agriculture. Of that, about one-third is cropland, while the remaining two-thirds is used for grazing livestock.

The animal protein sector is one of the urgent issues facing humanity, says Newman. We know demand for protein is rising rapidly. We cant scale animal agriculture to make it any bigger.

The greenhouse gas emissions resulting from the cultivation of animals for food, as well as livestock feed, are twice that of plant-based food production, according to a 2021 study. Beef and cow milk production are the worst culprits, contributing 25 per cent and 10 per cent of emissions, respectively.

As the granddaughter of proud dairy farmers, even this writer found that statistic a hard pill to swallow.

I grew up drinking a glass of milk at breakfast and dinner something my mother still enjoys. I revere my grandparents for their hard work; my grandfather and grandmother would go up to the barn at 5:00 each morning to milk the cows, returning after 8:00 most evenings.

Farming is in my blood, but its difficult to square this part of my identity with my environmental bent and affinity for animals. Many people experience a similar quandary; almost half of Canadians are concerned about the environmental impacts of animal consumption, according to a recent survey, but the vast majority of Canadians continue to eat meat. (In recent years, though, there has been more of a general effort to reduce meat consumption.)

Theres a name for this cognitive dissonance: the meat paradox. Author Rob Percival, who wrote a book by the same name, says our societys relationship with the animals we consume is fundamentally broken.

The split between what we say we believe and the values we hold and what we do is becoming increasingly apparent, Percival says. Were very detached from what goes on and wrapped up in all these psychological strategies of evasion and denial.

This tension is becoming more pronounced, he argues, due to the worsening climate crisis and the growing availability of plant-based alternatives that make a vegetarian or vegan diet more attainable.

But for those who simply dont want to give up meat, scientists are working hard on an ethical and sustainable alternative. In highly secretive labs across the Bay Area in the U.S., various biotech companies are growing poultry, beef, seafood and dairy products from cells.

One such company is Wildtype, a cell-based seafood company producing a very convincing replacement for wild Pacific salmon.

In its San Francisco-based facility, microscopic salmon cells harvested from a fish are grown into a perfectly rectangular sushi-grade filet ready for consumption. Wildtype co-founder Arye Elfenbein first worked with stem cells as a cardiologist. Then on a visit to Australia, where he grew up, he watched as cattle grazed where a lush rainforest once was and got to thinking: Do we need animals to have meat? Could we just create what we consume just outside of the animal?

The question propelled him and his business partner, Justin Kolbeck, into the emerging field of cellular agriculture. The pair decided to focus on salmon because it is the most consumed finfish in the U.S., and Elfenbein says, it was also a way for them to give back to their hometown fish.

Wild salmon stocks along the West Coast have been struggling for decades due to overfishing and the destruction of natural habitats. Elfenbein hopes that Wildtype salmon will take some pressure off wild fisheries and help them replenish.

There are other benefits too. Wildtype salmon is free of mercury, microplastics and other contaminants commonly found in seafood and it takes only four to six weeks to grow a filet. In comparison, farmed salmon takes about three years to go from egg to harvest.

There have just been more and more of these realizations that our current method of production is not just unsustainable, but also deleterious for our environment and also for our own personal health, says Elfenbein.

The biggest hurdle for Wildtype and other cellular agriculture companies now is scaling up production to a commercial level. For that, cells need to be grown in bioreactors large brewery-style tanks where they can multiply at high densities and volumes. In order to mimic the shape of a filet you might find at a fish market, Wildtype uses a rectangular scaffold that the cells grow into.

Its a complex and costly process, but Wildtype is forging ahead, building a larger production facility as it awaits regulatory approval, which could come as soon as this year in the U.S.

Weve made an enormous amount of progress in terms of coming down that cost curve, says Elfenbein. Our mission is one of greater accessibility. Thats not one that we can reach if we are just selling expensive salmon.

When Wildtype was in the prototype stage, a small serving of sushi-grade salmon cost thousands of dollars to produce, but today, the company says it only costs US$25 to make two pieces of salmon nigiri.

Lab-grown protein, or cultured meat, is still a very new technology. It was just in 2013 that the world was first introduced to the first lab-grown burger to much fanfare. It cost US$330,000 to make and was eaten in a matter of minutes.

In the nine years since, the industry has made leaps and bounds forward, but it is still missing what David Kaplan calls a strong scientific foundation.

Kaplan is a professor at Tufts University and one of the leading researchers into cellular agriculture. At his lab in Boston, he is working to answer the many questions regulators have, including: What is the best nutrient-rich medium to feed the cells? How nutritious is cultured meat compared with traditional meat? How do you produce these products at scale in a cost-effective and sustainable way?

These unanswered questions havent scared off investors, though. Cultured meat and seafood companies secured US$1.4 billion in investments in 2021 the most capital raised in any single year in the industrys history, according to The Good Food Institute, a non-profit that supports and studies alternative protein creation.

There are now dozens of cellular agriculture companies worldwide producing animal products without the animals.

Any new technology takes roughly 20 years to become acceptable. So were embryonic, Kaplan says. However, that does not mean the field cant move fast and become more real in the next few years. It takes a lot of effort by a lot of folks and youre seeing that.

Singapore became the first country in the world to approve the sale of cultured meat at the end of 2020. San Francisco-based Eat Justs lab-grown chicken nuggets are now being sold in restaurants across the region.

In the U.S., you can already buy milk and other dairy products such as ice cream and cream cheese that were made without any cows. Using precision fermentation, a process similar to brewing beer, Perfect Day creates whey protein that is molecularly identical to cow whey protein. It has the taste and texture of traditional dairy, but is naturally free of lactose, hormones and antibiotics and carries a significantly reduced environmental footprint.

We are focused on offering a sustainable alternative to factory farming, says Ravi Jhala, the head of global commercial operations at Perfect Day.

Jhala envisions a world where cow-less whey products replace the supply of dairy milk provided by these large industrial farms, while allowing small family farms to thrive.

These technologies work in tandem with that high-end (product), says Newman. Seventy per cent of dairy in the U.S. goes into powdered milk thats used in food products. We can replace that without even noticing and we can actually make food slightly cheaper, better for us, and we can eliminate a giant chunk of industrial dairy.

Startups in Canada are developing these innovative products too. Toronto-based Cell Ag Tech is working on a cultured snapper. Montreal-based Opalia is creating a cell-based milk. And Edmonton-based Future Fields is selling the liquid medium used to grow the cells.

With the exception of a few skeptics, onlookers in the agri-food sector are optimistic that cellular agriculture is the meat of the future. Studies have already shown that climate-conscious younger people will be resoundingly open to eating cultured protein. And with the price of meat anticipated to continue to rise, lab-grown meat may someday become the cheaper option. Thats when things will get interesting, Newman says.

One hundred and fifty years ago, we ate a lot of wild game. Back then, I might have gone out to get a pigeon pie. What we eat changes, she says.

I quite confidently predict that in 100 years therell be very little animal agriculture on earth. Well look back at industrial slaughter and well say, Wow, its amazing we did that. And the labour conditions were horrible, the animal conditions were terrible. And, wow, we have a way better product.

More here:
Food supply chains are in crisis. Could these futuristic farms fix that? - Global News

OHTNYC, the rising jewelry label loved by K-pop stars, has released a new collection titled Within The Unknown.

Inspired by the desire for fantasies and dreams, the range is captured in a series of futuristic sci-fi visuals. Cyber avatars wear pieces from the latest drop, which includes lockets holding crystals, daggers and talons, as well as the labels first-ever Alchemists Necklace and Earrings, Siren Crystal Locket Necklace and Hair Pin. In true OHT style, each accessory serves as a statement piece to any outfit with bold chains and pendants.

For those unfamiliar with the brand, OHTNYC is an up-and-coming name helmed by Jinsol Woo. Those who follow K-pop will have seen the labels designs on stars such as aespas KARINA and WINTER, IVEs Wonyoung, (G)I-DLEs Minnie and Yuqi, Sunmi and more.

Peep the Within The Unknown collection above. You can head over to OHTNYCs website to get your hands on the accessories, priced from $58 to $116 USD.

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OHTNYC "Within The Unknown" Jewelry Collection - HYPEBAE

For millions of people, coffee is an essential part of the day. Whether youre into instant coffee or have a barista-style machine in your house, your coffee is only really as good as the tools you use to make it. If youre looking to level up your coffee game, or just want to change up your routine, these accessories can jump start your morning jolt.

Key Selling Point: This medium-roast, fair-trade blend is certified to be USDA Organic.

You cant get a good cup of coffee without, well, good coffee. This blend from Bean & Bean which was started by a mother-daughter duo uses beans from Latin America, Africa, and Asia to deliver a flavor rich with roasted nuts, cedar, and herbs. We also like that the packaging is compostable and recyclable.

Key Selling Point: This small kettle is attractive, lightweight, and award-winning.

This electric kettle from BALMUDA makes two to three cups of coffee and weighs around two pounds. Its spout allows you to easily control the pour, and it takes up little real estate in the kitchen. It's available in black and white models.

Key Selling Point: These reusable pods help you cut down on waste. Its well-documented that single-use coffee pods are terrible for the environment. I definitely sympathize with pod-lovers its just so much easier to pop one in a machine, press a button, and get your favorite cup in seconds. These reusable pods give you the best of both worlds add your favorite blend to them and simply clean them after every use for guilt-free podding.

Key Selling Point: Sweeten your tea or coffee in a healthier way with honey instead of sugar.

Tea lovers, this ones for you. Honey is a great alternative to sugar, and its usually the healthier option. The Coffee Blossom Honey from Dona is sourced from a Guatemalan farm, using honey from the bees that pollinate the farms coffee trees.

Key Selling Point: No need to brew a cup just grab the can in the morning and head out the door.

Taika uses Guittard cocoa and macadamia milk to deliver a rich, creamy mocha latte. We like that this pre-made beverage saves you time in the morning you can either pour it into a mug or drink it straight. Its low-calorie but high in caffeine. Taika also offers a matcha latte, black coffee, oat milk latte, and macadamia latte.

If youre keen on caffeine, theres no need to opt for flat instant coffee. If you want a great mug first thing in the morning or just want to broaden your horizons, look into a great blend or tasty additives to keep yourself from hitting snooze.

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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Brew a Better Cup With These Coffee Accessories - Futurism

Climate change. Social inequity. Global pandemics. These subjects are just as relevant to the present as they are to past and future, and for Museum of Discovery (MOD.) Director Kristin Alford, museums should offer free-ranging dialogue on all of it.

Theres a fascinating discussion to be had here about theories of time, Alford told ArtsHub from her base at the University of South Australias MOD. ahead of her keynote address at the 2022 Australian Museums and Galleries Association (AMaGA) conference HEAR.US.NOW.

If you look at neuroscience, the part of our brain thats responsible for imagining the future is the same part that holds memory, she continued.

So, I think theres something important there in terms of how we imagine and interpret stories of the past, present and future its important to acknowledge those similarities, she said.

Alford admitted that as a museum director and futurist she is highly attuned to whats coming next, but she also sees how closely her forecasting aligns with historians journeys through the past.

Futurists always talk about there being multiple futures, and that the future is uncharted and uncertain, Alford explained. But when you speak to historians, they talk very similarly about the past.

Historians talk about how there being many interpretations of the past, and how the past is up for imagining and reimagining.

So, thinking broadly about how people engage with museums, they are coming into spaces where they are expecting to hear stories of place and of people and sense-making out of that, and that applies just as much to the past as it does to present and future, she said.

A lot of Alfords work champions futures literacy a term coined by UNESCO as part of their advocacy for museums and learning worldwide.

UNESCO describes futures literacy as the ability to better understand the role of the future in what we see and do and our capacity to empower our imaginations to prepare, recover and invent in response to changes brought on in the 21st century.

Alford said that in her work at MOD. and as a consultant to other museums, she routinely applies these big-picture ideas to local contexts.

When I think of futures literacy its about the need for our communities to be thinking about the future, and to ensure they have the capabilities to imagine some alternatives futures, and then put some of that imagination [about what the future will look like] into action, she said.

Read: Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallerys new Director is a scientist who loves art

At MOD. Alfords focus is on helping young people, especially those considering tertiary study and careers in STEM, to navigate the future.

We want to present plausible representations of what the future might entail, so we can help them work through some of those uncertainties, she said.

In terms of what other museums can do to filter futures literacy into more of their existing programs, Alford advised that it could be as simple as using their collections to tell stories that can be extended into the future.

Or, they might think about what future questions might be prompted by the collection their featuring, she said.

Alford sees museums as facilitators of curiosity as much as they are experts in their fields, and said this formidable reputation is not something thats likely to be threatened by any new curatorial directions.

Letting people in to discussions around future possibilities, and the ethics around those possibilities is something museums are well placed to do as high trust institutions, Alford said.

Yes, there needs to be that body of expertise and evidence that is held by the institution, she continued. But there are also ways for the museum to invite other ways of knowing into the discussion of a topic.

Alford said this open-mindedness to other knowledge systems is something often seen in the actions of highly capable leaders.

Good leaders will have a good body of expertise and they will know what they are talking about, but theyll also open opportunities for other people to share their lived experiences and share other perspectives, and theyll allow paths of mutual discovery to open, to find out things we dont know, she remarked.

So, good leadership is about being prepared to reconsider and reframe and re-tell. And thats absolutely attributable to the changing nature of the expertise of museums in their being less fixed and authoritative, and being more about capable leadership.

Kristin Alfords keynote address at the 2022 AMaGA conference takes place on Tuesday 14 June, Perth. Browse the conference program.

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What every museum reveals about past, present and future - ArtsHub