Tracking Future Technology: nanotechnology, robotics, biotechnology, rfid

Jack Uldrich Videos

To help potential speaking clients better understand how I present complex information in an insightful, entertaining and informative manner, I have compiled a series of recent video samples. Enjoy ... and have a wonderful weekend!

Jack Uldrich

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Prolonging the Future

”Aging is, unequivocally, the major cause of death in the industrialized world and a perfectly legitimate target of medical intervention.”

The above quote by Aubrey de Grey was taken from this interesting article (Two Mammals’ Longevity Boosted) in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal.

I written about both de Grey (here) and the topic of aging (below), and I am convinced that de Grey’s theories will continue to pick up supporters in the scientific and medical communities. The result being that many of us can expect to live a lot longer than we are currently planning. The implications of shifting the paradigm of aging from something that is inevitable (our current paradigm) to something that is treatable will be huge.

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10 Reasons We Will Live to 1000
Unlearning Death
The Future of Aging

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The Future of Manufacturing

“If you’re in the manufacturing business and you’re not worried, really concerned about what the future will do to your company, you’re not really cognizant of what’s going to be coming down the pike.” Peter Diamandis, Co-founder of Singularity University

I love the above quote. It is a message that I constantly emphasis with my corporate clients and it is why I recently put together this short 4-minute video explaining why business leaders need to unlearn their worldview. For additional information on how fast the manufacturing world is changing, I refer you to the articles below.

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Robots: A Major Game Changer
15 Ways Nanotechnology is Making Your Life Better Today
3-D Printing the Shape of Things to Come
The Future Lays in Convergence

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Jump the Curve with a Nice, Cool Corona

It isn’t often that a company can successfully revive a decade old television ad but that is precisely what Corona is doing with its commercial “Lagoon.”

You may recall the original commercial—which I have posted below—showing a relaxing executive sitting on the beach with a nice, cool Corona beer when his beeper begins vibrating. His way of dealing with this unwelcome disruption is to skip the device into the coral blue ocean.

What is funny is that the commercial is only 8 years old—just think of the advances modern communication technology has made in that relatively short amount of time. I have written before about the startling changes we have witnessed in the past decade (here and here) and this is just another example. Still, in 2001, it would have been difficult to imagine iPhones, SmartPhones, Facebook, text-messaging, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc.

Now, if you want to jump the curve, try to imagine what communication devices, methods and social networks might look like in the year 2017. At a minimum, I would begin by considering how advances in flexible electronics, computer algorithms and haptic technology will continue to transform our world. (It may be enough to make you want to drink!)

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The Power of Zenzizenzizenzic

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A New Stage of Evolution

Last year, I wrote a piece arguing that evolution is exponential. Stephen Hawking’s has reached a similar conclusion and now believes society has arrived at the era of self designed evolution. If one tracks the advances in the field of genomics alone—as I do -- it is difficult to avoid reaching a similar conclusion.

The great question before us now is whether we humans, as a species, will handle this transition wisely. I’d welcome any feedback people have on either the wisdom of “self designed evolution;” the possibility of unintended consequences; or even your ideas on how a more optimistic, transhumanist future might unfold.

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Exponential Evolution
Is Evolution Exponential?
The Coming Healthcare Revolution

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When the “Unusual” Becomes Usual

It was recently reported that US life expectancy topped 78 years as a variety of diseases—including heart disease, diabetes and flu—decreased this past year.

More interestingly, life expectancy—which has been increasing about two or three months from year to year—jumped an impressive four months this year. This caused one demographer to note that the increase was “an unusually rapid improvement.”

It was “an usually rapid improvement,” but I’d like to argue that such rapid improvements will become “usual” for the foreseeable future. If one tracks the amazing rate of progress in biotechnology, genomics, stem cell research and nanotechnology; it is hard—barring a devastating calamity that kills thousands or millions of people—to envision how life expectancy will do anything but continue to increase at an accelerating rate.

At a minimum, given the existing pressure on such social programs as Social Security and Medicare, it seems only prudent that we should at least begin preparing for life expectancies in the neighborhood of 100 within the next few decades.

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Healthcare is the “Verge” of Something Big
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The Future of Health Care: Preventing Disease
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The Future of Health Care: Part 3 (Robotics)The Robot Will See You Now
Hospitals Robotic Future: Part 2
Hospitals Robotic Future: Part 1
Hospitals Get a Lift

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Intel Jumps the Curve

In the interest of open and honest disclosure, I am investor in Intel. One of the reasons I am a long-term investor is because I like how the company constantly and relentlessly engages the future—as this recent article entitled A glimpse at Intel’s futuristic gadgets suggests.

For anyone interested in where the future may be headed, I encourage you to read the article.

A few things caught my attention in the article. First, I was attracted by this quote from the company’s chief technology officer Justin Rattner, “We believe our mission is to take risks.” It is common for executives at many large companies to say such things but Intel puts its money where its mouth is. Consider, for example, the fact that the company is working on something called a “Dispute Finder.” It is essentially a smart software program that will call “bullshit” on an article or blog posting you may be reading if it contains erroneous (or even contradictory) information. Or, last year, the company announced it was working on a shape-shifting human-computer interface. The article also suggests it is aggressively investigating emerging opportunities in the field of robotics which, as I have written about numerous times, is a very promising field.

The second thing that caught my attention was mention of a poster displayed at the conference. It read, “Your kid’s kid’s kid won’t think what we’re doing is crazy at all.” Personally, I’d love to get my hands on a copy of that poster but, regardless, it is a perfect example of developing a future bias. Intel is not simply content to focus on incrementally improving its existing products, it is actively engaging the future in an attempt to “jump the curve.”

As an investor and a fan of the future, I wish them all the best.

Interested in reading about other corporations and organizations who are jumping the curve? Check out these past articles:

Google Jumps the Curve
The CIA Jumps the Curve
BMW Jumps the Curve
Mars Jumps the Curve
IBM Thinks Small
Lockheed Martin Jumps the Curve

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The Future of Energy—A Sustainable Carbon Economy?

I have written about carbon capture technology before (here) but one of my favorite websites, Crave, is now reporting on the same technology. What I like about the article is that it refers to the technology as a “synthetic tree.” From this perspective, I believe it is easier for the average person to envision how truly beneficial the technology might be if it can deliver on its promise to capture—or pull out like a sponge if you will—a 1000 tons of CO2 every year. (A real tree needs 100 years to accomplish this same task.)

More broadly still, if innovative researchers at such places as Sandia’s National Lab and Georgia Tech can learn how to “reenergize” this carbon it is possible that carbon could become a “sustainable” fuel. In other words, our automobiles and coal plants will still spew out CO2 but we may soon be able to recycle and reuse it.

I know environmentalists and “Greens” might not warm to such an idea but the future often has a funny way of playing out. The vision of a “sustainable” carbon economy may not hold as much appeal as, say, a zero-carbon hydrogen economy but it has one large and distinct advantage—it won’t require people or large industries to change. And if there is one thing everyone needs to keep in mind when contemplating the future it is this: People don’t like to change unless it is absolutely necessary.

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Georgia Tech Jumps the Curve

Goodbye Global Warming?

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The Future of Gaming

I can still recall the joy I experienced when I first played my brother in the game of Pong back in the mid-1970’s. (We played on an old black-and-white TV console in our basement.) It would have been difficult for me to imagine back then that sometime in the distant future, Pong and its video-gaming successors would ultimately be a bigger industry than all of Hollywood. Yet that is exactly what occurred in 2005 when revenues from video gaming surpassed the revenues of all the Hollywood blockbusters—combined.

I would now like to introduce you to a new “mind-control” game which will be out this fall from Mattel. I invite you to watch the six-minute CNET video below, but don’t concentrate on how crude the game’s underlying technology is today, rather imagine how much more advanced it and other “mind-control” games will become in the future.

My prediction is that just as Pong’s crude technology predicted the future success of video games; Mattel’s mind-control technology offers a similar glimpse into the future of next generation of gaming.

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Pong and the President’s Brain

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Adopt a New Mind-Set

One of my favorite columnists, Janet Rae-Dupree, had an insightful article in her column a while back in theNew York Times. In it, she explained the difference between people with a “fixed mind-set” and those with a “growth mind-set.”

The difference can be summed up in how a person views the issue of talent. People with a “fixed mind-set” view talent as innate. Those with a “growth” perspective see talent as something that can grow over time.

What I found interesting was this paragraph:

”People who believe in the power of talent tend not to fulfill their potential because they’re so concerned with looking smart and not making mistakes. But people who believe that talent can be developed are the ones who really push, stretch, confront their own mistakes and learn from them.”

In a sense, the former are less likely to unlearn; while the latter have a more open perspective and are receptive to the idea that yesterday’s knowledge or dogma is no longer sufficient to address the new challenges of today.

The distinction is especially critical in hiring decisions. If you want to position your organization to compete successfully in today’s ever-changing and ever-accelerating world, you would do well to look not necessarily for the most talented but instead for those who are willing to unlearn and grow.

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