Throwforward Thursday 72: The end of frogs
Graeme Codrington's Future of Work
Release Date: 09/29/2022
Graeme Codrington's Future of Work
Come with me to the future, where we realise that Artificial General Intelligence is not just an improvement on Generative AI but something different, developed on a different path. <P>GenAI / LLMs are brilliant. They're amazing tools, taking the sum of human knowledge (including all the incorrect stuff lots of people believe) and making it very accessible. Keep using and improving GenAI, but don't get sucked in by the hype of AGI just yet. <P>AGI is coming. But it is coming down a different path than we are on right now.
info_outline Throwforward Thursday 148: Download data to our brainsGraeme Codrington's Future of Work
Imagine a world where the boring parts of learning - the dumping data into our brains - is all done easily using neural transfers, augmentation and technology assistants. What's left is for the human brain to do what it does best: creative thinking, problem solving, idea generation, and more. This week's leap into the future takes a view that Generative AI is not actually that intelligent - it just has access to all the data. When human beings have access to the same data, we will come up with much better new ideas, insights and wisdom than GenAI seems capable of now. The future is bionic:...
info_outline ThrowForward Thursday 147: Digital Democracy 2052Graeme Codrington's Future of Work
Imagine the Indian elections in 2052 taking just 5 minutes to process, rather than the 6 weeks it takes this year. The vision is of digital first, ubiquitous, secure, personal technology connections in every sector and industry, reducing friction, demolishing time scales, flattening barriers.
info_outline Throwforward Thursday 146: Rocking the afternoonGraeme Codrington's Future of Work
Ageing musicians still touring, and ageing fans still wanting to go to their concerts, might prefer an afternoon start time rather than waiting until 9pm or later for the main event. It's not just Festivals that should schedule afternoon concerts - maybe every band should do so. The theme of this week's "jump into the future" is that we should be open to questioning what is considered "normal" in our industries, especially when doing so could open us up to new opportunities, markets and customers. What's "normal" in your industry? And what experiments could you try to see how you could...
info_outline ThrowForward Thursday 145: Phytomining (extracting minerals and metals from plants)Graeme Codrington's Future of Work
All plants extract minerals and nutrients from the soil they're growing in, but some appear to be able to extract metals as well, or at least metal ions that we can in turn extract from the plants. If we can do this at scale, we can use phytomining to get the metals we need to build the batteries we use to power our lives. <P>Here are some links to experiments underway on phytomining, and the promise of what this might bring in the future:
info_outline ThrowForward Thursday 144: Future Experiments in GovernmentGraeme Codrington's Future of Work
As we watch elections in 2024 spanning nearly 70 countries and 4.2 billion people, one thing is clear: the current systems are not working. Voters are not happy, and have little enthusiasm for the politicians they can choose between (if they have any real choices at all). <P>So, come with me to the future, and consider four 'ridiculous ideas' for new approaches to Parliaments and Governments. We need to stretch our strategic imaginations in an effort to come up with new political systems. <P>Watch episode 9 about AI Politicians: <P>Download the Strategic Imagination...
info_outline ThrowForward Thursday 143: LAMs: Large ACTION Models and the future of smartphonesGraeme Codrington's Future of Work
ChatGPT, CoPilot, Llama, Bard, Grok and all the other Generative AI Large Language Models have demonstrated that we can engage with our technology using natural language. Now we need to get our devices to understand the heuristics of requests and actions we ask them to do. <P>Rabbit R1 was launched to much fanfare in December 2023, as a first model of a device that can do this. I doubt it can deliver yet, but it's definitely heading in the right direction. And I love their coining of the LAM: Large ACTION models. <P>I think that Apple's AI play later this year will integrate Siri...
info_outline Throwforward Thursday 142: Water WarsGraeme Codrington's Future of Work
As the world gets more and more water stressed, those who control water supplies in rivers, lakes and dams, will exercise more power and restrict access to water to those downstream. This could lead to conflict - legal and physical - that is both internal and crosses national boundaries. Some countries may even use the need for water as a reason to invade a neighbour. Whether as an individual or a business, or a region or country, we need to have a plan for water security that is equitable, agreed on by everyone, and future proof. We cannot live without water.
info_outline ThrowForward Thursday 141: No More PlasticGraeme Codrington's Future of Work
We have to do this! In our lifetimes we have to find a way to end the use of plastic as we use it now, so that we stop adding more toxins and pollution to our planet.
info_outline ThrowForward Thursday 140: No More Ships at SeaGraeme Codrington's Future of Work
Imagine a world in which Rogue Waves made the oceans too dangerous for ships to sail, and we had to stop cruise liners and container ships from sailing. It would change our world as we know it. <P>It is an extreme and alarmist scenario, with one of the worse cases for the impact of climate change and global warming. It's designed to keep us thinking about what needs to be done to mitigate the impact of extreme weather on our world.
info_outlineOur story starts 20 years, as a fungal infection wiped out the world's frogs. It continues today as we see a resurgence in malaria and other tropical diseases because the frogs are not eating insects. And we realise that this is an all-too-familiar story of how our actions are damaging fragile ecosystems.
We therefore look to the future, hopeful that we can find a way to stop the harm, reverse the damage and restore the environment.
The end of frogs? Let's hope not.
READ MORE ABOUT THIS:
* https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/amphibian-apocalypse-frogs-salamanders-worst-chytrid-fungus
* https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-47735823
* https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2019/03/bd-frogs-apocalypse-disease/585862/
* https://www.grid.news/story/science/2022/09/23/malaria-cases-surged-in-central-america-after-a-fungal-pandemic-wiped-out-frogs/