Ariadne

Climate change – determination over despair

Robert Hickson • Sep 19, 2019

• clean energy,
• climate change,
• Economics,
• Environment,
• geoengineering,
• Society,
• Sustainability,
• Technology

  There is much to be despondent about looking ahead to the consequences of a changing climate. But adopting Jonathan Franzen’s defeatism isn’t the best response. Reducing adverse impacts of climate change isn’t as simple as regulating automotive emissions, banning a pesticide of refrigerant, or changing to LED lights. But nor is it as … Read More

Biology’s next revolution

Robert Hickson • Sep 09, 2019

• artificial intelligence,
• Automation,
• biology,
• future,
• hypotheses,
• scientific process,
• sociology,
• Technology

  A quarter of a century ago, when I thought my future was in science, automation and the idea of “big data” had just arrived for genetics. Automated sequencing, mathematical models, algorithms. Similar innovations spread to others areas of biology through things like better sensors, imaging systems, smarter radio tags for wildlife, data-loggers, and the like. Wet labs … Read More

Beyond the moon(shot)

Robert Hickson • Jul 17, 2019

• Apollo 11,
• clean energy,
• climate change,
• disruptive technologies,
• moon,
• National Science Challenges,
• renewable energy,
• sociotechnical

  There is a lot now being talked and written about the success of Apollo 11, and the Apollo space programme, half a century ago. The BBC podcast 13 minutes to the moon is fantastic. It tells well the story leading up to and during the 13 minutes that Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin descended to … Read More

The evolution of work and workers

Robert Hickson • Jul 09, 2019

• Employment,
• evolution,
• future of work,
• networks,
• skills

  If you have a job (say, driving a truck, or working in a warehouse) and that job gets automated, what are your future employment options? A recent analytical paper on networks by Jordan D. Dworkin looks at this situation mathematically. It brought to my mind studies of fitness landscapes … Read More

Robot dog meet robot stick

Robert Hickson • Jul 03, 2019

• biomimicry,
• evolution,
• robotics

  Four years ago I wrote about getting too carried away with evolutionary metaphors for robots. But I can’t deny that we’re are seeing an increasing diversity of robotic forms and capabilities. The technological sophistication of high-end robotics, and the speed with which they are improving, is impressive. Check out SpotMini’s moves.   … Read More

Jill of all trades, and mistress of some

Robert Hickson • Jun 24, 2019

• education,
• Employment,
• future of work,
• knowledge,
• skills,
• trends

There are at least three inter-related factors shaping the nature of work – technologies aiding or replacing human workers; off-shoring (businesses sending work to other countries where labour is cheaper); and a shift from specialist to generalist skills. The latter is well discussed by Jerry Useem in the Atlantic. The US Navy’s been … Read More

The robot strikes back

Robert Hickson • Jun 20, 2019

• Automation,
• behaviour,
• future of work,
• human-robot relationships,
• robotics,
• robots

  No one seems to have much trouble with robots fighting each other – RobotBattles, BattleBots. People pay good money too to watch movies of good gals and guys with guns, metal presses, and vats of molten metal killing bad bots. We are now also seeing … Read More

Game of Futures

Robert Hickson • May 27, 2019

• futures methodology,
• narrative,
• scenarios,
• socio-economic transformation,
• storytelling,
• technological transformation

No one needs telling that the Future is Coming. But there are different perspectives and attitudes toward it. Some see the future as “dark and full of terrors” – The machines are taking over; Democracy is dying; We are doomed! Others see nothing but light – Technological utopianism; Singularities; Becoming an interplanetary species; Or a delight for … Read More

The elephants not in the room

Robert Hickson • May 09, 2019

• elephants,
• evolution,
• foresight,
• futures methodology,
• History,
• imagination,
• scenarios

Elephants can be an important futures symbol. The “elephant in the room” – also, unnecessarily pigmented, called a “black elephant” by some futurists – is the well known large and obvious issue that people refuse to address.  Then there is the parable of the “blind men and the elephant”, which … Read More

NZ scenarios for technological change

Robert Hickson • Apr 20, 2019

• foresight,
• future of work,
• futures methodology,
• New Zealand,
• scenarios,
• technological change

New Zealand’s Productivity Commission has developed draft scenarios to examine the future of work. The  scenarios are intended to describe a range of future impacts of technological change on the future of work, the workforce, labour markets, productivity and wellbeing. They will be used to test the effectiveness of different policies. The Commission is … Read More