Technology Revolution: The Future of Now

The Buzz 1: There's no telling what the futuristic inventions of the world hold, but we can start by taking a few wild and speculative guesses: Robot butlers – Fully immersive VR – Cryonics – Exo-skeletons – Flying Cars –Artificial gravity – Fusion power – Self-sustaining space colonies. [bigthink.com] The Buzz 2: The U.S. patent system is detailed in the Constitution. A patent's assurance of the...

The Buzz 1: Headlines: Drones are helping to restore power in Puerto Rico. A drone attacked targeted the U.S. electrical grid. Google's drone service will deliver library books. Submarine drone can swim for months and then fly away. Drone waiters will take your restaurant order. ESPN shot the X Games with drones. A bouncy search-and-rescue drone could save your life. The military wants a dancing d...

Remember the TV sitcom "Who's The Boss?" (ABC TV 1984 – 1992) It's time to ask the question again! The Buzz 1: Everyone will be a leader in the workplace in 2030. Work will thrive in teams, not with dictators. The Chief of Work will set the culture in the organization. All workers at all levels will use robotic helpers like Siri or Alexa, for incoming email, scheduling meetings, creating spreadshe...

The Buzz 1: Retailers expect 17.8% or $158 billion of merchandise sold during the 2022 holiday season will be returned, according to National Retail Federation. [digitalcommerce360.com] The Buzz 2: Retail returns jumped to an average of 16.6% in 2021 versus 10.6% in 2020, according to a survey by the National Retail Federation and Appriss Retail. That adds up to more than $761 billion of merchandi...

We're living 'on the edge', but in ways you might not be aware of: edge computing. The Buzz 1: Edge computing means putting processing power, software services, and data as close as possible to end users – like you – where the speed of light is still too slow for data packets traveling from server to server across thousands of miles of fiber. It's also less exposed to cyberattack and less prone to...

The Buzz 1: "In the 19th century, inventors were heroes … Their ideas helped drag humanity from agrarian poverty to manufactured plenty. These days, though, inventor-superstars, while not absent, are fewer and farther between." [economist.com] The Buzz 2: "While we've had our fair share of inventive breakthroughs in the past that have changed the world, the dazzling and world-shaking inventions of...

Looking ahead to 2030: How will we work? How will we get around? What will we eat? How will we dress? How safe will our privacy be? Will we all be space travelers? What old and new challenges will we face? The Buzz 1: The top seven emerging future technology booms that will redefine the future and the world we live in by 2030: More AI companies. Growth of self-driving cars. More robots doing manuf...

The Buzz 1: Grateful people feel more optimistic and happy, better mitigate aversive experiences, and have stronger interpersonal bonds. Gratitude interventions have been shown to result in improved sleep, more frequent exercise, and stronger cardiovascular and immune systems. [psywb.springeropen.com] The Buzz 2: Children spend an average of 53 hours per week with digital media — video games, soci...

The Buzz 1: Wine tourism —aka oenotourism, enotourism, vinitourism— lures wine lovers to vineyards, wineries, cellars, and museums dedicated to wine. The wine tourism global market size is expected to more than triple by 2030 to ~29.6B euros. (statista.com) The Buzz 2: According to a late-2020 www.statista.com survey, wine tourists are mainly casual wine tasters rather than wine geeks. The Buzz 3:...

The Buzz 1: "Privacy and security are those things you give up when you show the world what makes you extraordinary." (Margaret Cho, stand-up comedian) The Buzz 2: Millions of people are unaware of and uninformed about how their personal information is being used, collected or shared in our digital society. Data Privacy Week aims to inspire dialogue and empower individuals and companies to take ac...

The Buzz 1: Drones are a transformative technology that, over the next decade, will change in ways you likely never imagined… Similar to Electronic Automobiles, drones offer another important option in fending off greenhouse gasses and becoming carbon neutral. (forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2021/06/30) The Buzz 2: Google announced on Oct 6, 2021 that it has started drone deliveries straight f...

The Buzz 1: It's easier to write about a period you've lived through, but what do you do when everyone who lived during that time is long gone?…The obvious first place to start is with non-fiction books. (Kat Clay) The Buzz 2: Historical nonfiction is a broad category that depicts historical, real-life events…literary nonfiction, narrative nonfiction, creative nonfiction overlap with historical no...

The Buzz 1: Sustainability is no longer just a buzzword, but an environmental, economic and social driver that's changing our day-to-day lives… committing to sustainable practices is no longer a "nice to have" but a "must do"…. (forbes.com) The Buzz 2: The fully circular shoe brand Thousand Fell launched in 2019 embracing the circular economy, but the linear 'take-make-waste' system continued to d...

The Buzz 1: Today's female reader is pressed for time, demanding as hell, and both scared and excited about the future…Female detectives, athletes and presidential candidates were rule breakers simply for trying … Today's heroine has declared herself her own authority. www.writersdigest.com The Buzz 2: The best literary heroines are worth imitating… (mostly) fictional, but they have a great deal t...

The Buzz 1: "Music is the shorthand of emotion" (Leo Tolstoy). "Hell is full of musical amateurs" (George Bernard Shaw). "The only truth is music" (Jack Kerouac). The Buzz 2: In 1930, Albert Einstein met with Bengali polymath Rabindranath Tagore in Caputh, Germany, to discuss the nature of music… Einstein served as the vice president of the Princeton Symphony from 1952 until he died in 1955… Durin...

The Buzz 1: The term 'Great Resignation' was likely coined by Anthony Klotz, a psychologist and professor at Texas A&M, in May 2021. He told Business Insider that events like the pandemic make people step back and rethink their lives. In some cases, that can cause people to change up careers — and companies will have to adjust. The Buzz 2: Kerry Brown asks, Should We Resign Ourselves To The Great...

The Buzz 1: "Ten years ago, e-books made up less than 1 percent of the trade book market… traditional publishers have lost their former iron grip on the industry…Successful major authors are even choosing to self-publish.…" (izzardink.com) The Buzz 2: Recent research from Global English Editing and Written Word Media reveals … 66% of readers across the globe say print offers "a more fulfilling and...

Algorithms are buzzing all around us, but exactly what and where are they – and how will they continue to impact each of us – for good or not so good? The Buzz 1: "Algorithm: Word used by programmers when they don't want to explain what they did." (Book title on amazon.com) The Buzz 2: "The algorithms that orchestrate our ads are starting to orchestrate our lives." (Eli Pariser, MoveOn.org) The Bu...

The Buzz 1: "My first customer was a lunatic. My second had a death wish." (Carl "Karl" Friedrich Benz, whose 1885 Benz Patent Motorcar was the first practical automobile in series production) The Buzz 2: "I couldn't find the sports car of my dreams, so I built it myself." [Ferdinand Porsche, founder of the Porsche AG, Volkswagen Beetle, Mercedes-Benz SS/SSK) The Buzz 3: "The car has become the ca...

The Buzz 1: "The book is better. Book adaptations have become must-see TV, from Game of Thrones to The Handmaid's Tale and beyond…. [and] classic series like the 1995 Pride and Prejudice still standing up to today's viewing." (stylist.co.uk) The Buzz 2: "A new take on Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones spin-offs, plus plenty of mystery, drama, and superheroes.…Shadow and Bone, The Queen's Gambit,...

Today's "The Buzz" comes from vintage classic movies. * Buzz 1: "I guess you guys aren't ready for that yet. But your kids are gonna love it." (Marty McFly, Back To The Future, 1985 sci-fi film) * Buzz 2: "What are we gonna do?". "The question isn't 'What are we going to do?' The question is 'What aren't we going to do?'" (Sloan and Ferris, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, 1986 teen comedy film) * Buzz 3...

The Buzz 1: "Fasten your seatbelt. It's going to be a bumpy night." (Margo Channing, played by Bette Davis, All About Eve, 1950 film) The Buzz 2: "Shut up and deal." (Miss Fran Kubelik, played by Shirley MacLaine, The Apartment, 1960 romantic comedy film) The Buzz 3: "To infinity and beyond!" (Buzz Lightyear, voiced by Tim Allen, Toy Story, 1995 film) The Buzz 4: "As if!" (Cher Horowitz, played by...

Today's The Buzz comes from vintage classic movies. Buzz 1: "Fasten your seatbelt. It's going to be a bumpy night." [Margo Channing, played by Bette Davis, All About Eve, 1950 drama film] Buzz 2: "Do, or do not. There is no try." [Yoda, voiced by Frank Oz, Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, 1980 sci-fi adventure film] Buzz 3: "I guess you guys aren't ready for that yet. But your kids are gonna lo...

Today's Buzz is from Marty McFly and Doc Emmett Brown in Back to the Future, 1985– 1990 sci-fi movie trilogy. ** Buzz 1: "Roads? Where we're going, we don't need roads." ** Buzz 2: "Whoa, this is heavy!" ** Buzz 3: "1.21 gigawatts!?! 1.21 gigawatts?!?" ** Buzz 4: "Your future is whatever you make it." ** Buzz 5: "I guess you guys aren't ready for that yet. But your kids are gonna love it." Could Y...

The Buzz 1: "Someday, somewhere we'll find a new way of living." ('Somewhere' lyrics, West Side Story, 1957 Broadway play) The Buzz 2: "Anything you want to do, do it, want to change the world, there's nothing to it." ('Pure Imagination' lyrics, 1971 film Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory) The Buzz 3: "You can't start a fire without a spark." (Dancing in the Dark, 1984 lyrics by Bruce Springstee...