The algorithmification of life
I moved my newsletter to Revue after a long summer break due to a personal loss. Basically nothing changes from the shift 2020 Brain Food newsletter, except I brand this one in my personal name. In this issue, you’ll find links and opinion on the future of business, society and work, news on my own activities, and a series of interesting reads from the last week, including topics such as IoT, smart cities, AI/machine learning, automation, affective computing, genetics and regenerative medicine, decentralised web, neuroscience, graphene super silk, the next digital economy, blockchain, education and politics.
While bots and AI are on their way soon to be reading our emotions, VR startups are creating a virtual office world where desks or physical tools will no longer be needed to do the job, office buildings getting equipped with sensors for employers to improve employees’ productivity, we’re witnessing every day the collapse of secure pillars of our society.
As corporations are influencing politics on a large scale, business leaders of tomorrow will have to take more responsibility for society. They will have to reflect strong human values for customers and citizens to identify with, to avoid them to stop buying their products. Strong leaders will have to come up with a vision and a plan how to integrate lifelong learning, for example, as an enjoyable experience, for people affected by technological unemployment.
How are we contributing to a healthy society is the real question every responsible leader has to ask himself. Leaders who understand this are the winners of tomorrow. Are you one of them?
“People worry too much about the technology being bad when faced with disruptive innovation, when they should be worrying about how can we use the technology to create shared prosperity. If we do this right, this should be the best news that ever happened to humanity. We’re talking about a world with less work and more wealth. The key to facing these changes is reinventing education to focus on skills like creativity, interpersonal collaboration and innovative problem solving” - Erik Brynjolfsson.
IoT Stars Networking event @ IoT Solutions Congress
IoT Stars is back with a must-attend networking event on Monday, October 24 at the IoT Solutions Congress in Barcelona.
We are gathering some top global influencers for some inspiring talks, insightful panel discussions and start-up pitches offering you a glimpse into the future of the Internet of Things, its current trends, opportunities and challenges.
Join us for a quality networking opportunity in the emblematic Fàbrica Moritz with some 250 IoT innovators, leading entrepreneurs, start ups, investors and Corporations working in the Internet of Things (IoT) ecosystem.
Currently confirmed stage presence include:
Rob Tiffany, CTO, Lumada IoT, Hitachi Insight Group
Ignasi Vilajosana, CEO, Worldsensing
Oisin Lunny, Market Development, OpenMarket
John Romero, Philips Healthcare hero
Parma Duvuri, Head of Business Development at Electric Imp
Tom Raftery, Global Internet of Things Evangelist, SAP
More speakers to be announced soon.
Go to iotstars.com for more info and tickets. Early Bird tickets are already SOLD OUT but I’m offering 10 FREE tickets for my newsletter readers: use code SHIFT2020 to redeem your ticket (first come first serve).
Socratic Design is coming to London November 25!
Raphael's School of Athens
Socratic Design Workshop and Salon for Business London
The Public Sphere and shift 2020 are bringing the first Socratic Design workshop and salon for business to London. Join us for this unique learning experience conducted by Humberto Schwab and Justine Kolata.
Learn to use the Socratic Design Method in your personal life, your startup, company or organization. Gain insights into the world we are rapidly moving towards, and learn how to transform and adapt your business to prepare for the perpetual technological changes ahead. Test your newfound skills in salon conversation. All details and ticket info in the link below.
Socratic Design Workshop and Salon for Business London, Fri, 25 Nov 2016 at 08:30 at IET London: The Savoy
I’m offering my readers a 25% discount for the workshop. Please use code SDLONDON to obtain the discount.
Post Socratic Design Workshop Salon and Dinner
After the full day Socratic Design workshop there will be a dinner and salon discussion on the same topic “Building Meaning Futures.” This will be a time to socialise with other participants over an enjoyable meal, engage in stimulating conversation on important aspects of the topic, hone the collective knowledge generated and test essential skills learned in the Socratic Design workshop.
Read Justine Kolata’s essay below on the Renaissance of Salon Culture.
New culture of debates - The European
What is the history of salon culture? How did the salon contribute to the formation of a European public sphere? In what ways did salons create new forms of community through culture and ideas? What lessons can be learned for communication, discursive action and human interaction today? These are questions we must consider in envisioning new forms of participatory democracy in the 21 st century.
Opinion pieces on Smart Cities World
Some of my opinion pieces I wrote recently for Smart Cities World.
The Internet of meaningful things
Does the Internet of Things has the potential to become a meaningful enabler of personalised solutions to improve urban quality living?
The connected experience economy
Cheaper hardware, better network connectivity and software platforms are boosting the IoT to become the foundation layer for the future experience economy.
New materials for smart (er) energy
Innovative energy start-ups are experimenting with new ways of generating energy in creative ways never thought of before.
“Hello Sadiq, what’s the plan?”
We haven’t seen a concrete mobility plan yet from the new London Mayor.
My stuff
Links to slides and videos of some of my recent presentations
The Internet of Meaningful Things
Slides from my presentation on Disruptive Internet of Things Trends & Innovations at the Digital Ecosystem Management Global Summit in London on September 28, 2016
Future of Technology Keynote at Samsung Note 7 launch, Dublin
My first keynote filmed for a VR experience, recorded with the Samsung Gear 360. Best viewed on a smartphone (August 2016).
Future of Work & Leadership in the Era of Exponential Change, Google for Work, Mexico
My talk on the Future of Work and Leadership in the Era of Exponential Change at the Google for Work Atmosphere event in Mexico City (April 2016).
The IoT Show with Sudha Jamthe - Combinatorial of IoT innovations
Google Hangout I did this week on The IoT Show with Sudha Jamthe from Continuing Studies at Stanford University on the top innovative disruptions of The Internet of Things and combinatorial innovation.
Random interesting reads
Some of the most interesting reads from last week
Barack Obama on Artificial Intelligence, Autonomous Cars, and the Future of Humanity
The president in conversation with MIT’s Joi Ito and WIRED editor-in-chief Scott Dadich.
Millennials need to ditch their parents' outdated career ladders and embrace job-hopping
It’s not all about the impact of automation, robotics and AI. The real game changer for the next decade is a generational shift towards connected values in personal AND professional life affecting all industries.
“Deloitte’s 2015 milllennial survey found that 75% of millennials believe businesses are too focused on their own agendas, rather than improving society. Only 28% believe their current organization is making full use of their skills. A full 50% would take a pay cut to find work that matches their values, and 90% of respondents said they wanted to use their skills for good.”
A decentralized web would give power back to the people online
Tim Berners-Lee: “The web was designed to be decentralised so that everybody could participate by having their own domain and having their own webserver and this hasn’t worked out. Instead, we’ve got the situation where individual personal data has been locked up in these silos. […] The proposal is, then, to bring back the idea of a decentralised web.”
How the education gap is tearing politics apart
In the year of Trump and Brexit, education has become the greatest divide of all – splitting voters into two increasingly hostile camps. But this is not a clash between the ignorant and the enlightened.
8 digital life skills all children need – and a plan for teaching them
A generation ago, IT and digital media were niche skills. Today, they are a core competency necessary to succeed in most careers.
As Silicon Valley fights for talent, universities struggle to hold on to their stars
Tech firms are plundering departments of robotics and machine learning for the highest-flying faculty and students, luring them with big salaries similar to those fetched by professional athletes
Data-Driven City Management
Data and analytics promise to improve urban living. But are cities ready? Excellent overview and a close look at Amsterdam’s Smart City initiative
15 Leading Affective Computing Companies You Should Know
While great advances are being made in the analytical capabilities of computer systems there are also impressive developments being made in making computers more emotionally intelligent. This field is known as Affective Computing, and is defined as the study and development of systems and devices that can recognize, interpret, process, and simulate human emotions (or affects).
Would you let your boss monitor your brain to improve your productivity?
“What if the last bastion of freedom, your brain, is no longer free after all?”
Did you know that employers can now monitor brain activity (firing neurons) when an employee is most alert, focused and productive?
MUST SEE video (via WEF)
16 Great IoT Articles Published in 2016
This reference is a part of a new series of articles, offering selected tutorials, references/resources, and interesting articles on subjects such as deep learning, machine learning, data science, deep data science, artificial intelligence, Internet of Things, algorithms, and related topics.
Automation Will Make Us Rethink What a “Job” Really Is
“Recognizing how technology and AI can transform the performance and value equation provides a significant competitive advantage. Successful leaders will translate the evolving pivot points in their business models into specific implications for work, looking beyond jobs, and understand the transformative role AI can play in redefining the performance curve for the work of the future.”
How AI will change the world
Get ready for “a whole generation of new, very important AI companies.” Venture capitalist Marc Andreessen explains how AI will change the world.
Amazon's full on-demand streaming music service launches
Amazon Music Unlimited is designed to pair nicely with your Echo. The company is launching its new service as Amazon Music Unlimited, a on-demand competitor to the likes of Spotify, Apple Music, and Google Play Music.
Graphene 'super silk' could be the future of wearables
Silkworms were fed graphene to produce ‘super silk’ and it could be the future of wearables. The silk was twice as strong, could cope with 50% more stress before degrading and was shown to be conductive.
Scientists Grow Full-Sized, Beating Human Hearts From Stem Cells
A team of scientists from Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School has gotten one step closer, using adult skin cells to regenerate functional heart tissue from stable scaffolding.
The Pitchforks Are Coming… For Us Plutocrats
Written two years ago by a 0.01%er.
“And so I have a message for my fellow filthy rich, for all of us who live in our gated bubble worlds: Wake up, people. It won’t last.
If we don’t do something to fix the glaring inequities in this economy, the pitchforks are going to come for us. No society can sustain this kind of rising inequality. In fact, there is no example in human history where wealth accumulated like this and the pitchforks didn’t eventually come out. You show me a highly unequal society, and I will show you a police state. Or an uprising. There are no counterexamples. None. It’s not if, it’s when.”
Fuck You Startup World
That’s right, I said it. But more than all, start-up world, fuck you for making me one of you.
The next digital economy: Why refusing to grow is better business
Douglas Rushkoff interviews himself about the digital economy and his latest book, Throwing Rocks at the Google Bus.
Don Tapscott: How the blockchain is changing money and business
Don Tapscott demystifying the world-changing, trust-building Blockchain technology which, he says, represents nothing less than the second generation of the internet and holds the potential to transform money, business, government and society.
Welcome to the Dark Net, a wilderness where invisible world wars are fought and hackers roam free
Through the eyes of a master hacker turned security expert, William Langewiesche chronicles the rise of the Dark Net—where weapons, drugs, and information are bought, sold, and hacked—and learns how high the stakes have really become.
On a closing note, dear reader, let’s not forget:
“Great then is the good fortune of a state in which the citizens have a moderate and sufficient property; for where some possess much, and the others nothing… tyranny may grow out of either extreme. Where the middle class is large, there are least likely to be fractions and dissensions.” - Aristotle in Politics (+2,300 years ago).