Category Archives: forecasting

economics, forecasting, government, virtual reality, work

The Dream of an ‘Internet Country’ That Would Let You Work From Anywhere

Plumia, which has thus far received 5,000 applications to join, isn’t the first to propose an Internet country. Wirtland launched in 2008 with “witizens” and its own currency and Bitnation arrived in 2014 as a “voluntary crypto nation,” but Plumia is the first to be backed with investor money—health insurance provider SafetyWing has financed the project since its December 2020 launch. Acceptance would be somewhat selective. Citizens of Plumia would be required to pass background checks, a familiar requirement for those familiar with Global Entry, but would also have to share their employment information and annual income.

https://time.com/6211405/internet-country-plumia-remote-work/
artificial intelligence, economics, education, ethics, forecasting, generations, semiotics, society, work

Analyzing Hybrid Work

I have been getting students in my Fall Analyzing Trends class at Parsons School of Design – The New School up to speed in mapping speculative past/futures over the last few weeks. We started off by looking at the topic of hybrid work that has been in the news so much of late. As companies begin to put a stake in the ground on where they might sit in designing the meaning of work.

The archetypal extremes of “everyone back” (Tesla) to “work anywhere” (Airbnb) frameworks have been getting the most attention as to where work and the office might be going next. From the evolving design of offices from open plans to the emerging new types of privacy needs, to the ways technology and human skills begin to overlap and hint at possible emerging unknowns that will impact education, skills, and sustainable investment. #work#foresight#speculativedesign#mural#midjourney

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artificial intelligence, cars, ethics, forecasting, gender, politics, semiotics, society, technology, transportation

Does Dalle think it makes more sense that men should drive than women?

Here is a quick study into the narrative tropes within AI and some interesting work for semiotics. Apparently, #Dalle thinks it makes more sense that men should drive than women. In a simple experiment using an image of my daughter taking me for a drive to generate variations (the last image in this series) – in all instances, #Dalle switched the man to the driver’s seat. Even imparting imagined active gestures for the male and passive gestures for the female in the image. #ai #bias #tropes #gesture #semiotics

https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6978117340840259584/?commentUrn=urn%3Ali%3Acomment%3A(activity%3A6978117340840259584%2C6978839553402912769)&dashCommentUrn=urn%3Ali%3Afsd_comment%3A(6978839553402912769%2Curn%3Ali%3Aactivity%3A6978117340840259584)
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Generative
Generative
Generative
archetypes, culture mapping, dystopia, ethics, forecasting, generations, history, language, semiotics, society

The Dark Side Of Nostalgia Culture

We are living in a time of global uncertainty. The world has changed irrevocably since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic and current news cycles detail the effects of climate change, the cost-of-living crisis, energy shortages, the death of Queen Elizabeth II and the Russo-Ukrainian war. Fashion trends respond to our environment and consequently runways in recent years have been awash with bright waves of nostalgia, reflected in the recent resurgence of the Y2K aesthetic. In an age of social unrest, the allure of a more carefree time is understandable. Low-rise jeans, Von Dutch caps, bandanna crop tops and micro skirts have made a comeback. Gen-Z have heralded the return of ‘indie sleaze’, a chaotic, dishevelled era which developed in reaction to the slick celebrity culture of the early 2000s, when American Apparel disco pants, rosary beads, backcombed hair and smudged eyeliner were the norm.

https://www.elle.com/uk/life-and-culture/culture/a41209755/nostalgia-culture-dark-side/
forecasting, generations, work

Global youth expect better access to skills. 

What do young people think about skills? As the largest generation of young people in history begins to enter the labour market, this question has never been more important. And yet, while there is growing momentum in the public and private sector around the need to strengthen skills provision, young people are often not at the table. The global momentum for public-private partnership around upskilling is hugely positive, but this is something that needs to be done with young people, not just for them.

As we mark World Youth Skills Day, we asked a global sample of 5,506 people aged 18-24 who are active in the labour market. The results, which are part of the Global Workforce Hopes and Fears survey, suggest a generation divided in their capabilities but united in their high expectations of employers.

https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2022/07/youth-workers-skills-access-business?utm_source=linkedin&utm_medium=social_video&utm_term=1_1&utm_content=27379_skills_kids_future&utm_campaign=social_video_2022
climate change, economics, ethics, fashion, forecasting, retail, society, sustainability

How fast fashion can cut its staggering environmental impact

‘Fast fashion’ is so called partly because the fashion industry now releases new lines every week, when historically this happened four times a year. Today, fashion brands produce almost twice the amount of clothing that they did in 2000, most of it made in China and other middle-income countries such as Turkey, Vietnam and Bangladesh. Worldwide, 300 million people are employed by the industry.

But incredibly, more than 50 billion garments are discarded within a year of being made, according to a report from an expert workshop convened by the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), published in May.

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-02914-2?utm_term=Autofeed&utm_campaign=nature&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1663357413