Architecture: Asian Cairns

These Asian Cairns Architect Vincent Callebaut are a fresh look at the concept of vertical farming:

"The cities are currently responsible for 75% of the worldwide consumption of energy and they reject 80% of worldwide emissions of CO2. The contemporary urban model is thus ultra-energy consuming and works on the importation of wealth and natural resources on the one hand, and on the exportation of the pollution and waste on the other hand. This loop of energetic flows can be avoided by repatriating the countryside and the farming production modes in the heart of the city by the creation of green lungs, farmscrapers in vertical storeys and by the implantation of wind and solar power stations. The production sites of food and energy resources will be thus reintegrated in the heart of the consumption sites ! The buildings with positive energies must become the norm and reduce the carbon print on the mid term."

OpEd: Computers Are Going To Disappear

Computers Are Going To Disappear:

"Unfortunately, using a computer sucks. The workflow for interacting with a computer goes something like this:

• 1. I want to know something
• 2. I decide to ask the computer
• 3. I get the computer ready to accept my question
• 4. I pose my question so that the computer can understand and enter it
• 5. The computer returns information relevant to my answer
• 6. I search that information for an answer
• 7. I know the thing I wanted to know

I interact with the computer for steps two through six, but I only care about steps one and seven. I want to get rid of every step that involves a computer, and, luckily for me, computers are getting smart enough to do those steps for me.
That’s why computers are going to disappear. They’re learning how to do everything I use them for. There are three awesome examples of this that are leading software to help computers disappear."

Source: Seersucker Magazine

Inspiration: The Future is Ours

The Future is Ours from Michael Marantz

"The future excites me so much, that is why I made this video. We need to be inspired by the immense possibilities of the future and work extremely hard to achieve them. We can do it, we just have to commit."

Video Distraction: Seeing the Digital Future

AT&T Archives: Seeing the Digital Future (1961) by ATTTechChannel

Lecture: The Future of Business

Gerd Leonhard on the Future of Business & Communications

The Future of Business & Communications. Social. Local. Mobile. Cloud. And why Data is the New Oil. Futurist and CEO of TheFuturesAgency Gerd Leonhard was the keynote speaker at the Olavstoppen POL conference on May 3rd 2012 in Stavanger, Norway.  Read more at Media Experiences to Go.

Architecture: City in the Sky

The 'Megatropolis' project started in London with few companies and artists invited to create a vision for the future mega developed city. The overall "Megatropolis" project didn't make it to its final stage but the concept grew into this architectural utopia and animation.

City in the sky is a concept about a tranquil oasis above the mega developed and polluted city where one can escape from the everyday buzz, smog and dirt. The concept is inspired by the Lotus flower which is known for its ability to emerge above the murky waters pure and clean. As you can see, it is pretty amazing!

OpEd: The Third Industrial Revolution

The Third Industrial Revolution:

3D printing, and other rapid prototyping technologies combined with intelligent software are described by Paul Markillie of the Economist as drivers of a third industrial revolution. Jeremy Rifkin also uses the term and both writers point to the new rise of decentralized, global and individualized manufacturing and economic systems now coming on stream. Rifkin’s The Third Industrial Revolution explores how Internet technology and renewable energy are merging factors in the future too.

Everything in the factories of the future will be run by intelligent software systems. Digitisation in manufacturing will have a disruptive effect every bit as big as in other industries that have gone digital, such as office equipment, telecommunications, photography, music, publishing and films.

The effects will not be confined to large manufacturers; they will need to watch out because much of what is coming will empower small and medium-sized firms and individual entrepreneurs. Launching novel products will become easier and cheaper. Communities offering 3D printing and other production services that are a bit like Facebook are already forming online—a new phenomenon which Markillie calls social manufacturing.

As manufacturing goes digital, a third great change is now gathering pace. It will allow things to be made economically in much smaller numbers, more flexibly and with a much lower input of labour, thanks to new materials, completely new processes such as 3D printing, easy-to-use robots and new collaborative manufacturing services available online. The wheel is almost coming full circle, turning away from mass manufacturing and towards much more individualised production. And that in turn could bring some of the jobs back to rich countries that long ago lost them to the developing nations.

Source: 33rd Square

Lecture: David Brin Talks at Google

David Brin is a scientist, speaker, technical consultant and world-known author. His novels have been New York Times Bestsellers, winning multiple Hugo, Nebula and other awards. At least a dozen have been translated into more than twenty languages.

As a speaker, he is best-known as a "futurist" who comments plausibly and entertainingly about trends in technology and society, including some of the challenges that may confront our rambunctious civilization in the decades ahead. One favorite topic: creativity, or helping members of the audience think "out of the box" about both near- and long-term problems.

Tech: 10 Future Technologies That Exist

From human organ printing to hologram TV, here are 10 technologies that come straight from the future.

Interview: Futurist Stowe Boyd

IBMSocialBiz ( IBM blogger Todd Watson) interviews Stowe Boyd at South By Southwest Interactive 2012 (SXSWi 2012)  from the IBM Future of Social Lounge. Boyd talks about Cluetrain, the social revolution online, work media tools, the impact on media companies, the changing way we read, and his upcoming ebook, The Business Of Social Business.

Interview: Futurist Gerd Leonhard

Interview recorded during Digital London with Gerd Leonhard, Futurist, Author and CEO of The Futures Agency.

Tech: Keiichi Matsuda’s Vision of the Future

We are living in the future -- Keiichi Matsuda knows that. Working from London and Tokyo, the 27-year-old designer and filmmaker creates innovative videos that blend architecture, virtual reality, social networking and sci-fi, offering a glimpse into how augmented reality could play out in the coming years.His two most recognized films, “Augmented (hyper)Reality: Domestic Robocop” and “Augmented City,” displayed his artistic vision and racked up thousands of views on YouTube.

“I’m still not quite sure how to tell others what I do, which I hope is a sign that I’m breaking new ground!” Matsuda told Wired.com in an e-mail interview. “I always seem to hover around the intersection of technology, media and urbanism. The tensions that emerge when we try and combine the virtual and physical are an underlying thread that link my projects.”

Source: Underwire