A great wall! Thanks to ZID Visions, Sokar Uno, Alaniz,Colors for the people, Caro Pepe, Alk Faen, Kobe one. Special thanks to Andreas for the organisation!!! BIG UP! It was a pleasure! This is pleadge to opressed famiies, man women and children that are fleeing to Europe and the ones WE HAVE TO WELCOME them!

 

#RefugeesWelcome

My part of the Refugees Wall in Berlin Pankow. Next to me Alk Faen and Kobe one.

NSW Minister for Industry, Resources & Energy Anthony Roberts talks to exhibitor Michael Clancy and Donald Hellyer from BigFuture on the opening day of CeBIT Australia, 2016 Homebush, Sydney, 2 May,2016.

 

In times of volatility, people tend to become pessimistic about what's next.

 

But, the future doesn't care - it marches on.

 

The result is that we tend to see short-term trends but miss out on big long-term ones. We lose faith in the future when short-term volatility happens, but the long-term future fails to notice our apathy. We stop innovating and inventing at the very moment in time when history tells us that it is critical to double down on initiative. The speed of change also seems to numb us to the impact and potential of our longer-term future - as trends come at us with greater speed and intensity, we tend to lose sight of the long-term opportunities as short-term issues come to dominate our views.

 

With that in mind, it’s a good time to think about "The Big Future."

 

If you really think about it, we live in the most amazing period of time in human history. We are seeing, for segments of the population that take care of themselves, significant increases in longevity. We are on the edge of the discovery of the eradication of significant diseases. Research scientists are oh, so close, to growing human body parts in labs through the magic of regenerative science. We can 3d print human prosthetic devices to assist the disabled and immobile. We are seeing the arrival of intelligent sensors that can go on our skin or in our eyes that can provide real-time healthcare monitoring and diagnosis. The world of healthcare and medical science is accelerating at a pace never before seen in the entirety of human history.

 

Energy is becoming an industry of magic. We're figuring out how to build little local intelligent energy microgrids so that entire neighborhoods can share their renewable energy sources. We're about to turn our cars into electrical storage devices as a part of that grid through battery science technology, which itself is a form of magic that is forever changing our relationship with energy. We are getting so good at generating energy from the sun and feeding it into an intelligent grid that we have a real shot at living in a low-carbon future. Not only that, but it's very likely that the electric cars that we drive will, at some point, generate energy from micro solar panels on their roof as they drive. The buildings we work and live in? The windows and roofing tiles that provide us protection from the elements will also be energy generators - smart solar windows and solar tiles will be common in all new building construction.

 

Every industry has a 'big future.' In agriculture, we're entering an era of 24-hour farming and intelligent plants that can 'talk to us.' In manufacturing, we're entering a world of mass customization, building things for an audience of one, with highly customized production becoming routine - thereby dramatically changing the market reach of new entrepreneurial startups. Automobiles are becoming computers on wheels, intelligent and connected, perhaps significantly reducing collision risk. We are evolving the process of insurance actuarial science, moving from looking back in order to assess risk, to looking forward based on real-time information, thereby providing better insurance coverage at a lower cost. In sports, we are changing the very nature of the relationship between humans and sports devices - leading us to a world of the intelligent, connected golf club that provides real-time information on our progress with our golf swing. In construction, robotics and AI promise to radically reshape the method by which we bring new facilities to the world, at the same time that digital twin technologies help us to understand how to better create, manage and monitor that which we have created.

 

Radical innovations, new ideas, and entrepreneurial initiatives fuel our economy. We know that - we've recently been through the longest economic boom in history. We are likely to see this pattern repeat itself as new discoveries, significant inventions, far-reaching innovations and a new entrepreneurial class fuelled by connected collaboration continues to discover how to invent a better future.

 

You'll only be a part of that if you subscribe to the belief that while you manage short-term volatility, you need to keep your eye firmly focused on long-term opportunities. It's for all of these reasons that I've decided to launch, this week, my "Big Future" series.

 

I'll take a look at all these trends and more, providing real insight into what is happening, and why it matters. It will unfold over time - rather than trying to take on one key trend each day, it will come over a week and months as I dive deeper into the many long-term trends - one trend at a time.

 

I think this type of insight matters right now. I am convinced that the current era of volatility - with corporate layoffs, never-ending talk of a recession, techno-skepticism, raging political volatility, and relentless uncertainty - has caused many people to turn away from the future, focusing instead on their current short-term challenges. And as I have said many times before, right now is exactly the WRONG time to be doing myopic and near-sighted.

 

I'll cover these trends in the Daily Inspiration as I write them, so you will see them here, but you can also bookmark the Big Future page, which will be a pathway into the trends that will reshape our lives. You can find this page at bigfuture.jimcarroll.com. Because when it comes to the future, you've got to be ready to jump on a trend when it happens. You've got to "keep your powder dry" - be ready for any trend when it "explodes and goes supernova!".

 

Because the future is bigger than you think!

 

It truly is a BIG future, and it's only by re-emphasizing and rethinking what is unfolding that you can choose to be a part of it.

 

jimcarroll.com/2023/01/daily-inspiration-think-big-your-f...

  

Are you thinking about the trends that matter? Consider this statement:

 

"When it comes to the future, it’s always important to think about a trend from a long-term perspective while acknowledging the short-term issues that occur along the way.

 

But as the future comes at us with greater speed and intensity, it could be that we lose sight of the long-term view of where the future is taking us as short-term issues come to dominate the discussion. With that in mind, it’s a good time to think about The BIG Future."

 

That's how I open my page about what I call the BIG Future - which you can find, of course, over at bigfuture.jimcarroll.com.

 

It's a page that I started pulling together last year when AI was becoming all the rage; my thought process was that while there was something significant happening with accelerating AI technologies, we might see everyone forget about all the other 'stuff.' I believed (and rightly so) that many people would commit the fundamental mistake of focusing mostly on the 'hot' trends (i.e. AI), and ignoring other trends that were equally, if not more, significant. My goal with my 'BIG future' series was to begin to pull together a group of disparate, unrelated but very significant trends that would have a big impact on us going forward, but that was often not covered in the context of everything else.

 

So far, I've covered such issues as vertical farming, the acceleration of brain science, regenerative medicine, "connected" energy, materials science, the longevity divide, and more. Each of these trends is massive in scope, significant in their potential (or risk), and involves a LOT of opportunity. If you haven't had a look, you might want to make sure you do.

 

In addition to that, I've sprinkled throughout the page a variety of images that summarize the major, long-term transformative trends that are redefining entire industries, including healthcare, insurance, agriculture, retail, manufacturing, and others. Each of these bears a mention - and is all a part of what I do within my stage work when I am doing a deep dive into a particular industry. My overall goal? People should think BIG about the BIG transformations occurring within entire industries.

 

With that in mind, here's an overview of a bit of what I believe you need to consider, with a variety of industries under the microscope. Each of these BIG trends will take years and perhaps decades to unfold but will have a profound impact. There's more of this thinking over at another one of my trends series - trends of 2030, which you can find, of course, at 2030.jimcarroll.com.

 

Automotive and transportation? The BIG trend is that we're moving from a world in which today, while we mostly drive carbon-based cars - tomorrow, they are essentially becoming big computers with big batteries on wheels, with some big thinking on autonomous technology (although I will admit that I have soured somewhat on the whole 'self-driving car' thing.) Despite the short-term noise around the electrification of vehicles, the long-term trend is such that in just over a decade, you'll be hard-pressed to find a gasoline or diesel vehicle; and the typical vehicle will essentially be like a big iPad on wheels.

 

Construction? We're moving from a world in which do much more factory-based manufacturing offsite, with rapid final assembly on-site. Add to that new methodologies and new material science based on 3d printing technology, and the entire process of construction is changing. In numerous construction and infrastructure-oriented keynotes over the last few years, I've pointed out that we are implementing new methodologies and new thinking to the entire process of construction, with more and more of the processes undertaken offsite, in large-scale facilities dedicated to the construction process. It's assembly line thinking coming to the manufacturing sector.

 

Education? We're moving to a world of just-in-time knowledge - getting the right knowledge at the right time for the right purpose. Education becomes less about 'teaching specific knowledge' and more about how to 'find specific knowledge.' This is going to become particularly relevant as the era of AI is unleashed upon us, and we continue to drown in massive volumes of information. On stage, I speak about the rapid emergence of new knowledge and the fast obsolescence of existing knowledge - and the knowledge industry will increasingly focus on how to navigate this complexity.

 

Energy? Let's face it - despite the political machinations at COP28, we all know that carbon is over - even the Saudis and BP and others know that. In the utility sector, the big trend is 'connected energy' - we are moving a world of local energy microgrids based on renewable technologies, carefully balanced and managed through advanced AI technologies. In that context, batteries are the future of just about everything, and production is all about solar, wind, and other new forms of energy generation. Spare me the pushback - the science and economics don't support the whining.

 

Food? As new science takes hold and massive urbanization takes place, we are chasing new ideas on how to produce more food with few inputs - and eat healthier. This leads to ideas like vertical farming, cellular agriculture, and customizable, programmable, AI-based, real-time food planning based on instant health assessment! The future of food is all about new ideas, rapid innovation, and bold thinking.

 

Healthcare, medicine, and pharmaceuticals? In essence, we're turning the global healthcare system upside-down with precision medicine, targeted therapies, and accelerated science - fixing people before they are sick rather than after! It's all about DNA-based medicine, connected medical devices, the virtualization of healthcare, and the rapid discovery of new science, methodologies, treatments, and forms of diagnosis.

 

Insurance? We're moving from a world in which insurance risk is assessed by actuaries looking back in time, to one that involves real-time predictive risk analysis. As we extend connectivity to every device, we can underwrite insurance risk based on real-time data. We won't do your health insurance based on a urine or blood test - but based on your current blood pressure, glycemic index, and more. The entire philosophy of insurance is undergoing a massive change, on both the life as well as the property and casualty insurance side of the industry.

 

Manufacturing? We're moving from a world of mass production to one of mass customization, accelerated by digitization, and robotics. It leads to build-to-demand as opposed to building-to-inventory business models for many industries, with a LOT of highly intelligent robotics leading the way. New materials science - which I cover within my trends series - leads to the invention of all kinds of new products that can be manufactured in new and different ways.

 

Retail? We're moving from a world in which we go out to get all the stuff we need, to one in which more of the stuff comes to us - accelerated, of course, by the global pandemic. The future of the industry is driven by drone technology, robotics, and advanced last-mile logistics methodologies. We will continue to see an ongoing collapse in traditional retail locations and an acceleration of everything involving home delivery - it's all Amaon-like concepts all the time.

 

Last but not least? One of my favorites is agriculture. We're moving from a world in which we only farm when the sun is up - to farming 24 hours a day, based on robotics, autonomous technology, virtualization, and more. I like to emphasize that the kid playing Farmville today is the young adult who will be managing the high-tech, autonomous virutalized farm of tomorrow!

 

All of these industry transformations involve massive, significant trends, many of which have already been underway for quite some time. These are not necessarily fast trends - they are slowly moving and will take years and decades to unfold. As they do, they will continue to lead to the birth of new companies, entire new sub-industries, new jobs and careers, massive new knowledge sets, and so much more. It's by delving into and understanding these trends that you will be able to discover and shape so much of your future.

 

The interesting thing is that many of these trends now involve significant pushback by what I referred to in post #1 of this series - what I call the anti-future futurists. I suggested that you ignore their whining, prattle, and political efforts, because ultimately, in the face of the relentless march of tomorrow, most of their compelling will essentially go nowhere.

 

That's why, throughout 2024, I would encourage you to not only keep involved with today's hot trends (hello AI!) but also keep your eye on the BIG trends that over the long term matter. Consider what you need to do to understand them, align with them, and align your career, knowledge, and industry path toward them.

 

It's only by following the first part of my mantra - "Think BIG, start small, scale fast" - that you can capitalize on tomorrow, today.

 

Original post: jimcarroll.com/2023/12/daily-inspiration-24-strategies-fo...

 

I've long noticed that many people like to chase the hot trends. In doing so, they forget all about the obvious ones, with the result that they miss out on so many opportunities. Busy chasing the shiny new toy, they fail to find the joy in the old, well-used toy that is right next to them.

 

When I began my speaking career, most of my events were in my home country of Canada. I often shared the agenda and the stage with a University of Toronto demography professor by the name of David Foot. The book he co-authored, Boom, Bust and Echo: How to Profit from the Coming Demographic Shift, was at the time a national bestseller (as was one of mine!). The book took a look at understanding the past and forecasting the future through the lens of demographics.

 

The book cover said it all:

 

---

 

Demographics is the key to understanding the past and forecasting the future. From financial planning to urban planning, David Foot shows us how to track the trends that will have a profound impact upon our lives.

 

The boomers, the busters, and the echo generation: discover the nation's future - and yours - in demographics, the simple but highly potent tool for understanding the past and foretelling the future, by Canada's foremost expert. What are the best investments? Where are the new business opportunities? What will become of our cities? What are the prospects for real estate? The job market? Education? Health care? Foot and Stoffman provide answers in a book full of arresting insights and practical ideas.

 

---

 

The boom? Baby boomers. The bust? Gen-X. And the echo? Today's 35-and-under generation is the technology-weaned, social media-driven generation. The numbers for this demographic breakdown are staggering - 78, 46, and 76 million strong. (Today? I will often share the statistic on stage that half of the global population is under the age of 25 - they're wired, collaborative, changed oriented, and that is one of the most significant trends defining our tomorrow, today. I shared this slide just last week!)

 

So much of what David predicted in his book and on the stage turned out to be correct - because it was so blindingly obvious. I often had the chance to listen to his words of wisdom while waiting offstage for my follow-up keynote on the impact of the Internet, connectivity, and accelerating technology. To me, so much of what I was sharing at the time was blindingly obvious - big things will happen when we plug together everyone around the world.

 

People often forget about the obvious stuff - and shouldn't - because that is so often the crucible of much opportunity. That's why this is strategy #12 of my 24 Strategies for 2024 series.

 

For me, much of our future is defined by the 'obvious' stuff.

 

People often ask me about how I figure out my predictions for tomorrow, and I will simply explain that I take a look at what is going on in the world around me today, and figure out what it means for tomorrow. It's not rocket science - take a simple trend and extrapolate it into the future, figuring out what it means and its implications.

 

Here's a good example - many years ago, I began to share my thoughts on the implications of what I call 'bio-connectivity.' The world was beginning to see the arrival of Internet-connected, intelligent, home-based medical devices - think blood pressure cuffs, glucose monitors, fitness trackers, and such. I quickly understood that once we empowered people to measure key healthcare metrics at home, we had massive opportunities in front of us - the virtualization of healthcare through realistic telehealth technologies, the sharping of clinical pharmaceutical trials through access to larger population sets that could share real-time analytics, and acceleration of wellness through a more direct connection that people have with their healthcare conditions. To me, all blindingly obvious. Today, this trend has profound implications as AI technologies mature, because we have huge opportunities to reach more patients for pharmaceutical clinical trials, measuring the impact of particular new drug candidates directly, in real-time.

 

Similarly, at the same time, I began to despair at what eventually became my post on The Emerging Healthcare Reality Crisis.

 

My observation - and trend prediction - was simple and to the point.

 

---

 

Clearly there are vast sections of the population today who do not believe in science. They don’t believe in facts. They don’t believe in much other than what they want to believe in.

 

Their belief system will increasingly drive their attitude and understanding of their healthcare circumstances.

 

Going forward, this new reality will prove to be a tremendous challenge for the healthcare system.

 

--

 

Post-pandemic, it's pretty clear that vast sections of the population have opted out of reality, and the strain and challenge for the healthcare system going forward is severe. In the face of massive demand, our healthcare system is likely to break down because we've got a bunch of wing-nuts around us. Sad, but true. Once again, an obvious trend that was all around us, and yet simply needed some interpretation.

 

Obvious trends are everywhere and are, well, obvious.

 

Every once in a while, I go and tackle an 'obvious' trend in my Big Future series, capturing the reality of some of the obvious trends of our time that people often forget. So far, I've covered such things as the acceleration of 'regenerative medicine,' the idea of 'connected energy,' vertical farming, and what I call 'methodology modification.' (I've also got 'The Longevity Divide' in there - which takes a further look at the impact of the healthcare reality crisis on our future.) Read the series at bigfuture.jimcarroll.com

 

One of the trends that I've been meaning to add to that series has to do with 'massive urbanization' - the simple fact that around the world, more people are moving to urban centers and away from rural communities. Closely tied to this trend is the fact that by 2030, the world could have 43 so-called megacities (up from 31 today, according to reports). These trends have profound implications, in that many new ideas, concepts, methodologies, and inventions will come about as we deal with the new challenges of megacity living and infrastructure.

 

Did I mention that to me, obvious trends are, well, obvious?

 

Take farming - we know that we are seeing the arrival of smart farming technologies, such as autonomous,self-driving tractors. That's a given. But what is also obvious is that today's kid playing Farmville will help to define the farm of the future that utilizes such technology. Today, they're busy managing a virtual farm in a video game such as Farmville or SimCity - tomorrow, they'll be busy managing a virtual farm in reality, managing and operating all this autonomous stuff. That helps to take us to the trend in which we won't just be farming when the sun is up - we'll be farming 24 hours a day.

 

That, for me, helps to define one of the most significant trends having to do with one of the world's oldest professions.

 

Trend prediction? It's simple really! The future is all around you - you just need to know where to look. And in many cases, that simply involves looking at the obvious stuff, not the hot stuff!

 

Original post: jimcarroll.com/2023/12/daily-inspiration-24-strategies-fo...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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(Futurist Jim Carroll is writing a series on 30 Megatrends, which he first outlined in his book Dancing in the Rain: How Bold Leaders Grow Stronger in Stormy Times. The trends were shared in the book as a way of demonstrating that, despite any period of economic volatility, there is always long-term opportunity to be found. The book is now in print - learn more at dancing.jimcarroll.com)---

  

Farming is transforming through vertical integration, robotics, data science, and 24/7 operations. This is not just about feeding more people, but instead, completely reimagining food production for the technology and digital age

I previously covered this megatrend in my "Big Future" series, which I ran a few years ago - you'll find the whole series over at - where else! - bigfuture.jimcarroll.com.

As I've always liked to say on stage, we're moving from a world in which we are no longer restricted to farming when the sun is up - we're moving to a world in which we can be farming 24 hours a day.

Here's what I wrote:

One of the most fascinating trends unfolding in our future involves the world’s oldest profession.

No, not that one.

Agriculture!

Imagine skyscrapers full of plants. That’s what begins to happen when the marriage of radical concepts, technology, and a pressing need for innovative thinking collide to provide for a very BIG trend.

One that leads to a potential future in which we are no longer restricted to farming outdoors – in the future, we will be doing much more of it indoors as well. As a global society, we need to do this because as the world’s population grows to 8 billion, we need BIG, bold solutions to come up with new ways of growing global food production. And what has happened is that our early experiments with the concept of growing indoors are about to enter the industrial scale, as we see the arrival of trends that bring together technology, advanced science, disruptive ideas, and new concepts – bringing into reality a new industry that promises to provide fast innovation that solves one of the biggest challenges of our time!

Vertical farming at scale.

Although a few years old, the post is well worth a read, but I've also updated it a bit more here, particularly with the investment outlook. You can read the full PDF, Agricultural Reinvention: 24/7 Food Production for the Digital Age, here.

 

Let's dig in. The reinvention of agriculture through vertical farming and other ideas represents a fundamental paradigm shift in global food production - not just an improvement on existing methods, but a complete reframing of agriculture as a technology and engineering-driven industry. Like I always say - it's not granddad's farm anymore!

There are three foundational pillars to this new paradigm:

Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA). The practice of growing crops indoors within enclosed, highly managed structures. This pillar provides the physical foundation for precision and control.

Robotics and Automation. The deployment of autonomous systems to manage tasks continuously. This pillar provides the engine for 24/7 operational efficiency and scalability.

Data Science, AI, and IoT (Internet of Things). The use of sensors, predictive analytics, and integrated software platforms. This pillar serves as the central nervous system, transforming farming into a data-driven enterprise.

All of this means that we have the opportunity to take farming 'indoors' to become a high-tech, manufacturing-oriented industry. There's been a lot of innovation and investment already occurring in this space, with a lot of optimists about - you'll find that over in my original post on this trend. That said, there's also a lot of skepticism and doubt, particularly with the big farming industries in Canada and the US.

I'm with the optimists, believing this trend will unfold at scale outside of North America and will come about as food security comes to the forefront in many nations. Not only that, but the trend itself offers up some magical opportunities for innovation.

For example, to give you a sense of the magical impact of some of these trends, consider what we call Digital Terroir,which is the idea of "engineering flavor." In traditional viticulture, "terroir" describes the unique character imparted to a wine by its natural environment. In the new paradigm, terroir is engineered into food! The flavor, nutritional content, and texture of a crop are determined not by soil and sun, but by:

Specific LED light recipes

Precisely balanced nutrient solutions

AI-controlled microclimates

This allows for standardized quality profiles that can be replicated with perfect fidelity anywhere in the world.

What are the implications? When a strawberry's taste profile can be programmed and replicated in Dubai to be identical to one grown in Japan, it transitions from a unique agricultural good to a high-tech, replicable commodity.

This shift challenges traditional notions of premium value tied to origin and opens up new competitive landscapes based on technological prowess and intellectual property. That's a big disruptive change!

What brings this about is the idea of 'light' as a 'programmable ingredient' for food production. Specialized horticultural LED lighting enables 24/7 production independent of day/night cycles and seasons, transforming light from a simple energy source into a precise tool for 'steering' plant biology. Different wavelengths serve specific functions:

Blue light (430-460 nm): Crucial for vegetative development

Red light (640-680 nm): Stimulates flowering and fruit production

Far-red light (730 nm): Influences seed germination and leaf expansion

Then there is the impact of robotics and automation, which is the engine of 24/7 operations. Automation enables continuous, round-the-clock operations, driving efficiency, reducing labor costs, and increasing precision across the entire farming cycle.

Seeding & Planting: Autonomous ground rovers and tractors guided by GPS and lidar for high-precision seeding and tilling.

Crop Monitoring: Aerial drones and ground rovers equipped with sensors and cameras for continuous health monitoring.

Weeding & Pest Control: Mechanical, laser, and precision spraying systems for targeted intervention without chemicals.

Harvesting: Multi-armed robots with computer vision and soft robotics for delicate fruit picking.

Then there is data, AI, and IoT! This is the 'central nervous system' of this new world of agriculture.

Ubiquitous Sensor Ecosystem: A dense web of IoT sensors monitors every critical variable 24/7

AI and Predictive Analytics: Algorithms transforming raw data into actionable insights for anticipating problems in the 'farm'

Integrated Management Platforms: "Digital twins" of the entire operation enable autonomous decision-making and management

Blockchain Technology: Creating immutable records of a product's journey from seed to shelf, a critical component of new food safety trends

How is this coming about? Via two very different, divergent development models. First, the state-sponsored "Food Security" model, most evident in Singapore and the Middle East:

The primary driver is national security, not commercial profit

Governments act as principal investors and often anchor customers

Success is measured by food self-sufficiency and supply chain resilience

De-risks massive capital expenditures required for large-scale CEA

Then there is the venture-backed "market disruption" model prevalent in North America and parts of Europe

The primary driver is commercial opportunity

Startups raise private capital to disrupt existing markets

Focus on high-value niche products with price premiums

Success is measured by ROI, market share, and profitability

As a megatrend, it's important to keep in mind the timeline in which this might continue to unfold:

Phase I: Efficiency & Optimization (2025-2028). Focus on reducing operational costs (OPEX) through energy-efficient LEDs, AI-driven energy management, and precision input application. CEA crop focuses on high-value leafy greens, herbs, strawberries, and specialty tomatoes.

Phase II: Automation & Crop Diversity (2029-2032). Focus on reducing labor costs and expanding viable crops through autonomous harvesting for delicate fruits and breakthroughs in automated pollination. Full-stack operators begin achieving economies of scale.

Phase III: Integration & Scalability (2033-2035). Focus on system-level integration and niche staple production. CEA makes strategic contributions to staple crops in resource-scarce nations, with vertical farms integrated into urban infrastructure.

As I wrote in my original vertical farming opost: "As someone who tracks trends and the future, I believe that this trend is so compelling, and moving so fast, solving big problems, that it is one of the most significant trends that will unfold at speed over the next ten to twenty years."

I still believe this to be the case.

Keep your eye on this one!---

  

Futurist Jim Carroll was once asked, after a keynote for several thousand farmers, how long he had been a farmer. He considers that to be the ultimate compliment.

Original post