So I’ve just moved house and lost just about everything including my mind. My office is currently paperless due to a lack of printer cable and I’ve had 2 days with no easy email access or internet. Oh, and did I mention that the kids are on school holidays and the dog keeps running off?

Last night we all went to the Olympics, which was interesting in that almost nobody in the crowd seemed to be taking pictures or video. They were actually watching what was going on direct. It was a live event and people appeared to instinctively feel that they wanted to experience it and everyone around directly. Sponsorship was also surprisingly low key (almost non-existent) inside the stadium and outside it was quite tasteful too.

What else is going on? My book ’50 Things’ is done and Future Vision (previously Four Seeable Futures) is getting close. I’ve also been working on an idea my eleven-year-old son had, which is a web 2.0 website for kids called…the future for kids. More on that soon.

Other than that I’m working at about 20% for a change due to the move plus the fact it’s August. Oh, and my new shed-quarters is coming along nicely to, but more on that soon too. You want more? Check out this then – the world in 2100 courtesy of the World Future Society.

Server farms generate 23% of all emissions produced by the ICT industry – ‘Accounting for the Energy Consumption of Personal Computing including Portable Devices‘ (Witchita State University).

OK, still up to my eyes. Writing something today on the customer in 25-years time for a short film. I’m going to post some of my notes on geo-politics in 2045 tomorrow (if I can remember), but a few things caught my eye today.

First is the news that Facebook is testing online banking, which would seem quite logical to me and a potential game-changer for the retail banking industry.  Second is something from Volkswagen about driving in 2028.

Good article in the Guardian two days ago about the looting of Barclays bank by those at the very top. Two statistics that really caught my attention were that Barclay’s top 238 staff took home £1.01 billion last year , which is £4.27 million each. Meanwhile, the bank carries £1.8 trillion in gross credit risk, which is more than the UK’s entire annual income.

You can spin these figures various ways, not all bad, but what stands out for me is how  a plethora of major public companies nowadays are seemingly run for the enrichment of senior staff. The true owners have lost control.

Full article right here

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Off to a conference about water today, one of my favourite subjects alongside oil (yes they do mix actually). Also, love this for some reason…a bit Blade Runner perhaps?

“The only way to save the Euro is to print it” (I can’t remember who said this, but it was possibly Niall Ferguson)

I’ve had an idea. I’m not sure if it’s really any good at this stage, but I’m going to try it out. The idea is the future in a box. A physical box containing a handful of movies, novels, factual books, articles and perhaps some physical items that help to explain, or at least illuminate, what the future will be like five or ten years hence.

The only thing is, what’s in the box? I’ll post my box contents in a week or two.

Not sure whether you will have seen this, but it’s very interesting indeed. It’s a video hologram of the dead rapper Tupac performing ‘live’ with Snoop Dogg. Beware of the language if this kind of thing offends, but it’s ****ing fantastic. Link here.