Welcome to New World Same Humans, a weekly newsletter on trends, technology, and society by David Mattin.

If you’re reading this and you haven’t yet subscribed, join 18,000+ curious souls on a mission to build a better shared future 🚀🔮

This week, news from Silicon Valley got me thinking about the ongoing battle over the future of work. And about a niche but influential idea that can help us make sense of what it means for our shared future.

There’s much here that’s familiar ground for NWSH: the nature of creativity and innovation, the role that physical presence plays in those processes, and the future of online communities. But the central idea here is new. And it started, weirdly enough, with Brian Eno.

Intrigued? Hit play!

If you’d prefer to read this week’s instalment, go here for the text version of Our Collective Genius.

Links in this week’s instalment

1. LinkedIn has just announced that its global staff of 16,000 will be allowed to work remotely forever.

2. Global market research firm Ipsos just published a new survey of knowledge workers across nine countries: one-third said they’d quit their job if forced to return to the office full time.

3. In 1996, the British musician Brian Eno coined the word scenius to describe, ‘the intelligence and intuition of a whole cultural scene’.

4. I’ve written before on the evidence that physical presence facilitates organisational innovation and creativity: a phenomenon I called the Chit-Chat Economy.

5. The arrival next-generation ‘virtual HQs’ – think Branch and Huddle – are a first attempt to move closer to true remote collaboration.

6. You see the ‘physical scenius’ mindset indirectly in projects such as Launch House, a new incubator that brings the creator hype house model to tech founders.

7. Is the charter city movement that I covered a while back best understood as, in part, a new play around the power of scenius?

New World Scenius

Thanks for listening this week.

In 2021, as you’ve no doubt noticed, we’re living through a newsletter explosion.

There’s a lot to read out there. And that’s just one of the reasons I so deeply appreciate the time you spend with NWSH.

I’m busy working on a next evolution of our community, which I hope will enable us to become a nano-scenius all of our own. And there’s one thing you can to to help: share!

If this week’s instalment resonated, why not take a second to forward this email to one person – a friend, family member or colleague – who’d also find it valuable? Or share New World Same Humans across one of your social networks, and let people know why it’s worth their time. Just hit the share button!

I’ll be back as usual on Wednesday; until then, be well.

David.

David Mattin sits on the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Consumption.

Welcome to New World Same Humans, a weekly newsletter on trends, technology, and society by David Mattin.

If you’re reading this and you haven’t yet subscribed, join 17,000+ curious souls on a mission to build a better shared future 🚀🔮

I’m back from a week beside the sea!

There’s nothing like a few days away from the desk to prompt new thinking. As you’d expect, I took the chance to ponder the future of our community. It’s about time I wrote an update on the state of the NWSH union, including the new projects I’m planning. Expect that instalment soon.

In the meantime I’m picking up where I left off, with the greatest shared challenge we face: global heating. You can think of this instalment as something of a companion to the last Sunday note, Is This the Climate Turning Point?

Three climate stories caught my eye this week.

Each is a telling glimpse of the crisis as it is manifesting in 2021. And each points towards a broader set of issues that we must confront if we’re to address a heated world in the 21st-century.

Hit play!

If you’d prefer to read this week’s instalment go here for the text version of Three Climate Stories.

Links and Images in this week’s instalment

🗺️ Mapping climate justice

1. New research by the Monterey Bay Aquarium in California allows us to visualise the global injustice baked into climate change.

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3. Back in NWSH #36 I wrote on how the Global North was built on carbon, and the Global South is set to pay the price.

🌳 Rainforest reward scheme

1. Gabon has become the first country to be paid for taking action to slow deforestation. The payments came via the Central African Forest Initiative (CAFI).

2. Because rainforests absorb and store carbon, halting tropical deforestation and allowing regrowth could mitigate up to 50% of net global emissions to 2050 according to the Rainforest Trust.

🌧️ Make it rain

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2. Back in NWSH #60 I wrote about the search for tech-fuelled solutions to climate change, including a Bill Gates-sponsored experiment in spreading chalk dust across the sky to reflect sunlight.

Calling planet Earth

Thanks for listening this week.

Climate change is an empirically observable reality. We even understand the fundamental mechanisms driving it.

It’s when that reality – when the truth of what we’ve done – collides with human nature that the picture becomes complex. We know systemic change is necessary. But how do we effect it? Who pays the price? Who wins, and who loses?

This kind of collisions – between a changing world and age-old human nature – are exactly the stories New World Same Humans was set up to track.

And there’s one thing you can do to help with that mission: share!

If this week’s instalment resonated, why not take a second to forward this email to one person – a friend, family member or colleague – who’d also find it valuable? Or share New World Same Humans across one of your social networks, and let people know why it’s worth their time. Just hit the share button!

Your membership of our community is valued. I’ll be back on Wednesday; until then, be well.

David.

David Mattin sits on the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Consumption.

Welcome to New World Same Humans, a weekly newsletter on trends, technology, and society by David Mattin.

If you’re reading this and you haven’t yet subscribed, join 17,000+ curious souls on a mission to build a better shared future 🚀🔮

A third heatwave is pummelling California and parts of the Pacific Northwest. Just two weeks ago, the same region saw temperatures that climate scientists say should have had a zero per cent chance of being realised.

We’re living through an era of impossible weather.

So this week, reflections on the idea that 2021 is a climate turning point.

Links in this week’s instalment

1. On Saturday, the temperature at Death Valley in California reached 130 degrees Fahrenheit, or 54 degrees Celsius. There’s controversy around the record, but it’s probably the highest temperature ever reliably recorded anywhere on Earth.

2. Finland registered its hottest June since records began in 1844, and Kevo, in Lapland, hit 33.6C last Sunday.

3. Scientists at World Weather Attribution are now investigating the idea that a slowing of the jet stream may be amplifying heatwaves in ways we hadn’t anticipated.

4. The most widely shared estimate says climate change will force 200 million people to migrate into the Global North by 2050. The International Organization for Migration says the figure may reach 1.5 billion.

Buy now pay later

Thanks for reading this week.

In November the UN’s COP 26 will bring world leaders together in search of an answer to the era-defining question: what today, for tomorrow?

New World Same Humans will be watching closely. And it will continue to examine the implications of a changing climate for our shared future.

And there’s one thing you can do to help with that mission: share!

If this week’s instalment resonated, why not take a second to forward this email to one person – a friend, family member or colleague – who’d also find it valuable? Or share New World Same Humans across one of your social networks, and let people know why it’s worth their time. Just hit the share button!

Your membership of our community is valued. I’ll be back on Wednesday; until then, be well.

David.

David Mattin sits on the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Consumption.

Welcome to New World Same Humans, a weekly newsletter on trends, technology, and society by David Mattin.

If you’re reading this and you haven’t yet subscribed, join 17,000+ curious souls on a mission to build a better shared future 🚀🔮

A judge dismissed the US government’s antitrust lawsuit against Facebook this week. Half my Twitter timeline celebrated; the other half were appalled.

So this week, reflections on what many say is an increasingly urgent question.

Should we do everything we can to accelerate the pace of technological advance? Or act now, via regulation, to apply the brakes?

Hit play!

If you prefer to read this week’s instalment, go here for the text version of The Cloud and The Land.

Links in this week’s instalment

1. Judge James Boasberg of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia threw out the US Federal Trade Commission’s antitrust lawsuit against Facebook.

2. Manifestos such as the Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace imagined a world of decentralised power and radical individual empowerment.

Cloud atlas

Thanks for listening this week.

The battle between those who would accelerate technological advance and those who would slow it will continue to rage.

And New World Same Humans will continue to argue for a broader perspective of our shared future.

There’s one thing you can do to help: share!

If this week’s instalment resonated with you, why not consider spreading the word? You could forward the email to someone who’d also enjoy it. Or share across one of your social networks. Remember: the larger and more diverse the NWSH community becomes, the better for all of us.

I’ll be back on Wednesday with New Week Same Humans. Until then, be well,

David.

David Mattin is the founder of the Strategy and Futures Research Unit. He sits on the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Consumption.

Welcome to New World Same Humans, a weekly newsletter on trends, technology, and society by David Mattin.

If you’re reading this and you haven’t yet subscribed, then join 17,000+ curious souls on a mission to build a better shared future 🚀🔮

This instalment of NWSH is brought to you by Skillful.

Starting from this newsletter’s earliest days, I’ve written often about the changing future of work and the disruption of higher education.

A single thread has run through much of that: a changing economy demands radical new visions of learning. Visions that are decentralised, life-long, and peer-led.

Skillful is a new learning platform living that truth when it comes to careers in tech.

Skillful runs online, cohort-based programmes for ambitious professionals who want to launch – or accelerate – their careers in the tech industry. You’ll be matched with exceptional mentors from leading companies: think Netflix, Uber, Instacart and more. During a six-week course they’ll share the strategy, operations, and technical skills you need to go to the next level.

Meanwhile, you’ll gain a new community of peers to share advice and inspiration, and help you find your next gig. Skillful grads have been hired by Stripe, DoorDash, Duolingo and many more, all in roles spanning product, strategy and business operations.

As a special bonus, mention New World Same Humans when you sign up to the waitlist and get priority access to the next cohort.

I believe the kind of lifelong, peer-mentor learning that Skillful is pioneering is a big part of the future of education. If you’re ambitious for a career in tech, this is for you.

This week, reflections on the deep human past. And on the prospect of a post-human future. All thanks to an amazing discovery in China’s Heilongjiang province.

Hit play!

If you’d prefer to read this week’s instalment, go here for the text version of The End of History.

Links in this week’s instalment

1. Scientists say the Dragon Man – Heilongjiang means Black Dragon River – poses a challenge to the story of human evolution as we know it.

2. In 2018, Chinese biologist He Jiankui shocked the world with claims that he had created the world’s first CRISPR-edited babies.

3. Meanwhile, the emergence of new forms of human-machine interface – see Elon Musk’s Neuralink for an example – point to a future in which we merge with our technologies.

4. In his 2016 blockbuster Homo Deus, he argues that human history as we know it is about to end, because we sapiens are about to upgrade ourselves and become something else entirely.

5. Researchers believe our sapiens ancestors killed off the Neanderthals in a long war of attrition that raged on and off for over 60,000 years.

Random access humans

Thanks for listening to a particularly philosophical NWSH this week.

This newsletter will continue to investigate the implications of genetic technologies, human-machine interfaces, and the post-human era that so many futurists seem keen to usher us into.

And there’s one thing you can do to help: share!

If this week’s instalment resonated with you, why not consider spreading the word? You could forward the email to someone who’d also enjoy it. Or share across one of your social networks. Remember: the larger and more diverse the NWSH community becomes, the better for all of us.

I’ll be back on Wednesday with New Week Same Humans. Until then, be well,

David.

David Mattin is the founder of the Strategy and Futures Research Unit. He sits on the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Consumption.

Welcome to New World Same Humans, a weekly newsletter on trends, technology, and society by David Mattin.

If you’re reading this and you haven’t yet subscribed, then join 17,000+ curious souls on a mission to build a better shared future 🚀🔮

Tomorrow is the summer solstice; 2021 will be half over.

At these landmark moments in the year, I always feel compelled to take stock. And this week that intersected with broader reflections: on where we’re at inside modernity, and where we’re heading.

My feeling? We’re only just getting started.

Hit play!

If you’d prefer to read this week’s instalment, go here for the text version of Just Getting Started.

Links in this week’s instalment

1.

Spread the word

Thanks for listening this week.

There are some special New World Same Humans projects in the lab that I can’t wait to share with you.

In the meantime, if this week’s instalment resonated with you, why not consider spreading the word about our community? You could forward the email to someone who’d also enjoy it. Or share across one of your social networks. Remember: the larger and more diverse the NWSH community becomes, the better for all of us.

I’ll be back on Wednesday with New Week Same Humans. Until then, be well,

David.

David Mattin is the founder of the Strategy and Futures Research Unit. He sits on the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Consumption.

Welcome to New World Same Humans, a weekly newsletter on trends, technology, and society by David Mattin.

If you’re reading this and you haven’t yet subscribed, then join 17,000+ curious souls on a mission to build a better shared future 🚀🔮

Here in the UK, we hosted this G7 summit this week.

If nothing else it’s produced some beach pictures that our elected representatives can cherish forever.

But it also felt a moment to pause and reflect. On the hard problems we face as a human collective in 2021. What we’re doing to solve them. And the reasons we have to be optimistic.

Hit play!

If you prefer to read this week’s instalment, go here for the text version of Democracy on the Beach.

Links in this week’s instalment

1. Watching the Global North’s most powerful humans exchange elbow bumps on the sand, it sometimes felt as though this meeting was the long first scene in a novel by JG Ballard.

2. Seen another way, the summit has had strong new Lorde video energy.

3. We’re halfway through 2021, and there have already been as many COVID deaths this year as there were in all of 2020.

4. In advance of this week’s summit, G7 finance ministers agreed a landmark new global tax framework, intended to stop the tax avoidance practised by techno-corporate giants such as Amazon.

5. On China, Biden is pushing a new Build Back Better World plan as an alternative to China’s Belt and Road.

6. G7 leaders pledged this week to move away from coal-burning power stations at home, and the end the funding of them in the developing world.

7. Meanwhile, the summit closed with a promise to donate 1 billion vaccine doses to the developing world.

Solar power

Thanks for listening this week.

The New World Same Humans community is united around the idea that in the 2020s, we shouldn’t leave our shared future to the powers that be.

Instead, we should come together to build a better future for all. I hope this newsletter helps fuel your mission to do just that.

And there’s one thing you can do to fuel our community in turn: share!

If this week’s instalment resonated with you, why not forward the email to someone who’d also enjoy it? Or share it across one of your social networks, with a note on why you found it valuable. Remember: the larger and more diverse the NWSH community becomes, the better for all of us.

I’ll be back on Wednesday with New Week Same Humans. Until then, be well,

David.

David Mattin is the founder of the Strategy and Futures Research Unit. He sits on the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Consumption.

Welcome to New World Same Humans, a weekly newsletter on trends, technology, and society by David Mattin.

If you’re reading this and you haven’t yet subscribed, then join 17,000+ curious souls on a mission to build a better shared future 🚀🔮

This week saw the announcement of a new supersonic passenger jet, set to start commercial flights before the end of the decade.

That inspired these reflections, on flying cars, the future we were promised, and the chance we now have to realise it.

Hit play!

If you prefer to read this week’s instalment, go here for the text version of The Future that Never Came.

Links in this week’s instalment

1. United Airlines is set to buy 15 supersonic passenger jets from aviation startup Boom Technologies.

2.

3. In the 1960s the average US GDP growth rate was above four per cent; for the last ten years it’s been stuck below two per cent.

4. The billionaire VC Peter Thiel coined a phrase that’s since become synonymous with the Great Stagnation: ‘we wanted flying cars, instead we got 140 characters.’

5. In 2011’s The Great Stagnation, the libertarian economist and New York Times writer Tyler Cowan floated his ‘low-hanging fruit’ theory.

6. Meanwhile in 2018 the futurist and independent researcher J. Storrs Hall published Where Is My Flying Car?

7. back in the 1970s, says Hall, flying cars really were emerging as a practical reality.

8. DeepMind’s announcement that its AlphaFold AI had solved the iconic protein-folding problem is one indicator that AI’s electricity moment is coming.

9. The Overture is made possible in part by software that allows Boom Technologies to simulate air flow over the fuselage and so find the most fuel-efficient design.

10. Ten years after Fukushima, we’re on the verge of a new era of innovation in nuclear power.

11. Startups such as Volocopter are working on a flying car.

12. Put it all together, and the idea that we’re about the transcend the Great Stagnation seems very real. Tyler Cowan certainly thinks it’s plausible.

Time to build

Thanks for listening this week.

If those who believe the Great Stagnation is coming to an end are right, we’re about to witness a transformative decade.

New World Same Humans will be watching every step of the way, and striving to make sense of what it all means for our shared future.

And there’s something you can do to help with that mission.

If this week’s instalment resonated with you, why not forward the email to someone who’d also enjoy it? Or share it across one of your social networks, with a note on why you found it valuable. Remember: the larger and more diverse the NWSH community becomes, the better for all of us.

I’ll be back on Wednesday with New Week Same Humans. Until then, be well,

David.

David Mattin is the founder of the Strategy and Futures Research Unit. He sits on the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Consumption.

Welcome to New World Same Humans, a weekly newsletter on trends, technology, and society by David Mattin.

If you’re reading this and you haven’t yet subscribed, then join 17,000+ curious souls on a mission to build a better shared future 🚀🔮

Yale political theorist Hélène Landemore made waves on Twitter this week when she published a constitution for an imaginary human settlement on Mars.

At the heart of the document is a powerful idea; one that Landemore says could revitalise our ailing democracies.

So this week, reflections inspired by that: on the states we’re in now, and how Landemore’s system might just be the answer.

If you prefer to read this week’s instalment, go here for the text version of Democracy Without Elections.

Links in this week’s instalment

1. Yale political theorist Hélène Landemore asked her students to read Red Mars this semester. They complied, and last week Landemore shared the results.

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3. John Rawls’s A Theory of Justicefamously attempted to ground liberalism in an ‘original position’.

4. Landemore’s constitution sees Mars governed by mini-publics; assemblies of 250 adult individuals chosen every two years via stratified random sampling.

5. Landemore calls this system open democracy, and it’s the subject of a book she’s just published under that name.

6. I’ve written before on how our political system stymies effective planning for the long-term future.

A fine balance

Thanks for listening this week.

A sovereign state must always balance a vast range of competing forces. And across the last few years in some liberal democracies, that balance has looked precarious.

In the coming months and years, New World Same Humans will continue to investigate the future for liberal democracy and the nation state.

And there’s one thing you can do to help with that mission: share!

If this week’s instalment resonated with you, why not forward the email to someone who’d also enjoy it? Or share it across one of your social networks, with a note on why you found it valuable. Remember: the larger and more diverse the NWSH community becomes, the better for all of us.

I’ll be back on Wednesday with New Week Same Humans. Until then, be well,

David.

David Mattin is the founder of the Strategy and Futures Research Unit. He sits on the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Consumption.

Welcome to New World Same Humans, a weekly newsletter on trends, technology, and society by David Mattin.

If you’re reading this and you haven’t yet subscribed, then join 17,000+ curious souls on a mission to build a better shared future 🚀🔮

Snap, which sagely calls itself a camera company, held its annual developer conference this week.

One announcement stood out above the others. And it inspired this note: a reflection on technology, meaning, and the human story.

If you’d prefer to read this week’s instalment, go here for the text version of The Worlds to Come.

Links in this week’s instalment

1.

2.

3. To jump into a Yahoo chat room and watch the messages fly once felt something akin to magic. Now, I feel that way when I enter a room in AltspaceVR using the Oculus Quest.

Time to Build

Thanks for listening this week.

We’re at the outset of a world building explosion. I can’t wait to see what happens next.

New World Same Humans will be watching every step of the way. And there’s even a special world building project building of our own up the NWSH sleeve: more on that soon.

In the meantime, if this week’s instalment resonated with you, why not forward the email to someone who’d also enjoy it? Or share it across one of your social networks, with a note on why you found it valuable. Remember: the larger and more diverse the NWSH community becomes, the better for all of us.

I’ll be back on Wednesday with New Week Same Humans. Until then, be well,

David.

David Mattin is the founder of the Strategy and Futures Research Unit. He sits on the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Consumption.