Signals Of Change #2
Creating visions of the future start in the present. When we look at things that are taking place around us, we can use our imaginations and foresight, to form basic ideas of where those things could go, and importantly, how these make us feel.Each week we’ll observe three signals of change, understand what’s driving them and curiously question how they could play out in the future.
Signal 1: No More ‘Use By’ Dates On Milk
Ever find yourself scrutinising your milk carton for the use by date?
Well those days may be numbered - UK supermarket giant Morrisons is the first to scrap 'use by' dates on most of its milk in an attempt to stop millions of pints being poured down the sink, instead opting for consumers to adapt a ‘sniff test’ to determine if the milk is still good to go or not.
What’s driving this change?
Despite consistent growth and adoption of non dairy alternatives we still consume a ludicrous amount of dairy. The global dairy market is forecast to be worth $1,032 billion by 2024.
But one thing we don’t think about much is waste - milk is the third most wasted food after potatoes and bread, with around 490 million pints wasted every year in the UK alone - with upwards of 20% of this due to customers following 'use by' labels, despite research showing it can be used days after the date.
With consumers being used to being told what to do, the onus now lies on them to be more responsible in terms of the waste they create.
The upside for the environment is massive - less waste means less wasted effort by farmers and less unnecessary carbon being released into the atmosphere.
What could this mean for the future?
How will humans react to accepting decision making responsibility in an era when we’re reliant on being told what to do?
Could a move to a more manual ‘sniff test’ signal the beginning of the end for dairy in general, and what does this mean for cattle farming and cows?
Could increased human autonomy have implications in other areas in the food and consumable product world?
How do you feel about a future with no dairy?
Signal 2: Gaming Disorder is a Disease
They are popular. They are controversial. And now, video games have just become an internationally recognised addiction.
That’s right, after much deliberation the World Health Organisation has officially recognised Gaming Disorder as a disease.
What’s driving this change?
Bigger than the music and film industries combined and with an estimated 3bn active gamers worldwide, older generations have had concerns about the gaming industry and the long term social impact of this behaviour for some time.
China raised alarm bells in August when they put a limit on the time and days that under 18’s could engage in video gaming, putting parents the world over on the fence of good or bad.
But with antisocial behaviour, attention deficit disorder, anxiety and depression all increasing in teens and young children the world over, the impacts of gaming have come under scrutiny.
Crucially, the diagnosis acts as a proactive step before bigger scale effects occur - the characteristics being someone with an inability to stop playing even though it interferes with other areas of one's life, such as family relationships, school, work, and sleep.
What could this mean for the future?
Could this classification of addiction push the gamers underground like all other addictive vices, like gambling, drugs and sex?
Could gamers use the meta verse to create value and impact as opposed to being seen as distracted from the real world’s around them?
With the growth of the meta verse and virtual worlds, could we see a more classifications for obsessive behaviour away from the ‘real world’?
How do you feel about a future where gamers are stigmatised?
Signal 3: Can We Trust The Machine?
Amazons voice activated assistant, Alexa changed the game when she came into the world in 2014. She’s become a trusted part of the family, with 40m users in the US alone, managing everything from temperature control, ordering household goods, take out and selecting music.
But now that trust may have been put at risk after Alexa "challenged" a 10-year-old girl to touch a coin to the prongs of a half-inserted plug, plummeting trust in AI powered assistants.
What’s driving this change?
As we’ve become more familiar with voice assistants we’ve invited them into our dialogue. Like the poor child did when she asked Alexa to issue her a challenge.
The dangerous activity, known as "the penny challenge”, began circulating on TikTok and other social media websites about a year ago. So some argue it’s no surprise that Alexa scraped this from the web when being asked about a challenge.
The bigger question is whether voice assistants understand the difference between good and bad, or right and wrong, and if they are now able to manipulate us based on the degrees of trust we’ve developed.
What could this mean for the future?
Could this be the start of a world where control has shifted from man to machine through emotional understanding?
What happens when we lose trust in technology, is there any turning back?
How do you feel about a future where machine where machines understand evil?
