Future Today #039 - Metaverse, Brain Implant, Prehistory of the future

Welcome to Future Today!?A newsletter for those curious about social innovation, disruptive technologies and futures studies. In it I will share weekly blog articles, interesting links and recommendations for books, movies, series and courses.

?? New brain implant turns thoughts into text. Stanford scientists have developed a brain implant that allows a man with paralyzed hands to “type” up to 90 characters per minute, just by thinking of the words. The researchers published their findings in Nature back in May and presented them at WE Summit.

?? Disney CEO: We’re Ready for “Our Own” Metaverse. Disney CEO Bob Chapek is preparing the company to blend its physical and digital assets in the metaverse. “The Walt Disney Company has a long track record as an early adopter in the use of technology to enhance the entertainment experience,” Chapek said Wednesday during the company’s quarterly earnings call.

?? Patagonia Has a New Mission to “Save Our Home Planet”. Patagonia has always enjoyed its outsider status. Since Yvon Chouinard started the company with a few adventurous friends in 1973, he’s happily rebelled against expectations: To this day, Patagonia has never collaborated with a fashion brand, nor does it work with influencers or advertise in fashion magazines.?

????♂? Microsoft Teams enters the metaverse race with 3D avatars and immersive meetings. Microsoft is entering the race to build a metaverse inside Teams, just days after Facebook rebranded to Meta in a push to build virtual spaces for both consumers and businesses. Microsoft is bringing Mesh, a collaborative platform for virtual experiences, directly into Microsoft Teams next year.

?? Thinking about tomorrow: projecting the past to imagine the future (ES) In one image, children attend to their class through a screen. It is not a photograph from last year, when the pandemic forced pupils to interact with their classmates through Zoom and other applications; it is an advertising drawing from the 1960s. This and other ideas are included in the exhibition 'The Great Imagination".

?? The Future Is Ours: Strategic Foresight toolkit – making better decisions. This toolkit offers a set of 12 techniques to help teams navigate the present and shape the future. Working with the School of International Futures, we have selected foresight tools widely used in the public and private sectors, and adapted them to serve the particular needs of Save the Children and our partner organisations.

?? They have asked 1,785 philosophers what they are thinking about and these are the results (ES) Perhaps it is best to start with the points that arouse most agreement among the participating philosophers. The position that receives the most support, with almost 80% of the votes, is realism about the external world, that is, the thesis according to which there is a world independent of our mind.

?? Nike to go all-in on the metaverse (ES) The company could soon launch its first products for the new immersive digital reality known as the metaverse, according to the brand's patent filings and people close to the matter. Business Insider's analysis of the brand's patent filings dating back to 2018 shows that Nike's plans go beyond simply selling digital products.

?? These Houses Are Affordable, Carbon Neutral, and Assembled Like IKEA Furniture. A Seattle-based company wants to be part of changing this, and they’ve just joined forces with a partner to make home building more sustainable and efficient while driving down its costs. “The construction industry is ripe for disruption and evolution,” said NODE co-founder Bec Chapin. “It’s a giant industry that has been losing productivity over decades and is not meeting our most crucial demands for housing.”

?? The prehistory of the future (ES) Popular science programme broadcast on TVE in 1974 presented by Luis Miratvilles. It consisted of reports on different aspects of science and technology, space flights...

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