The future is here, it’s just unevenly distributed
From bug-busting honey to a gum-eating polymer, the seeds of a brighter tomorrow are being sown in 14 different places across seven continents
United States
The new jet
Icarus would be chuffed. First prototyped back in the 1960s, the personal jet pack is finally taking off. Sort of. They are now called rocket belts, are fuelled by hydogen peroxide (not jet power), and may be on sale this summer for less than $100,000 from Thunderbolt Aerosystems in California.
A word of warning: a pilot at a rival firm has suffered six knee injuries testing a similar device. Influential magazine Popular Mechanics thinks rocket belts are a distraction, insisting: “It’s time to get back to the business of making jet engines wearable.”
Kenya
Making banking mobile
Mobile or ‘m-banking’ could, if Kenya emerges from its political turmoil, offer a brighter economic future. A free account called M-Pesa from network operator Safaricom allows users to make transactions on the go, for roughly 50p a time. Making financial services accessible to poorer users, the scheme has had one unexpected benefit: sending money at the start of a journey, then collecting it at the other end, has made travellers in rural areas feel a lot safer.
Norway
The road less travelled
A layby is rarely a thing of beauty, but the Public Roads Administration has been working with 40 architects and landscapers in Norway to transform the nation’s rest stops, bridges, public toilets and walkways into functional, stylish spaces that enhance, rather than detract from, the stunning natural landscape. This design-led, far-sighted project (it runs to 2015) shows that municipal planning needn’t cause a blot on the landscape.
South Korea
Goodbye to gridlock
Imagine soaring above the chaos of a traffic-choked city in your own personal capsule. In the Personal Rapid Transit (PRT) system being developed by South Korean-based Vectus, lightweight, driverless vehicles run on a track raised above a city, stopping at stations small enough to fit inside hotel lobbies. Pods only run when occupied and follow individual routes to find the shortest journey. A test track is nearing completion and a commercial version may follow.
Marshall Islands
Blast-off on a budget
The space race has been the preserve of nations, not entrepreneurs; but PayPal pioneer Elon Musk’s company SpaceX plans to slash the cost of sending a satellite into orbit, bringing space tourism a step closer. For decades, the cost of blasting a rocket into space has been roughly $10,000 per pound of weight. Musk’s Falcon 9 cuts that to just $1,600 a pound, in part by launching from the remote Marshall Islands. SpaceX hopes to be the first private firm to fly manned resupply missions to the International Space Station.
India
Knowledge is power
Mumbai is no longer the call centre capital of the world. In the second phase of the outsourcing revolution, known as knowledge process outsourcing, firms are now off-shoring high-end knowledge work – like architects’ blueprints and patent applications – to India. Research by GlobalSourcingNow says this kind of outsourcing will be worth $17bn by 2010, and India expects to win $12bn of this business.
Palau
Heating up nicely
This tiny Pacific nation, composed of several islands and home to 20,000 people, is the test-bed for technology that could save the planet. Palau’s uninhabited Helen Island is the site of the first experimental “rectifying antenna” in a UN-backed, space-based solar energy system which will beam power from a low-orbiting satellite back to Helen’s 260-foot-wide “rectenna”. The Pentagon believes this technology could ameliorate climate change by becoming the world’s number one source of energy generation.
I want to make rockets 100 times, if not 1,000 times, better. The ultimate objective is to make humanity a multiplanet species. Thirty years from now, there will be a base on the moon and on Mars, and people will be going back and forth on SpaceX rockets Elon Musk, SpaceX founder
São Paulo, Brazil
Sociable networking
Forty years ago, the thinker Ivan Ilich envisaged a deschooled world where technology would create webs of learning. That vision is being realised at the Universidade de São Paulo which is using Elgg software, developed by the University of Brighton, to run a customised social network that helps students share information in class – think of it as an academic MySpace. ‘One undisputed finding in educational research is that group study works,’ says São Paulo professor Ewout Ter Haar.
Germany
Words of wisdom
Adult illiteracy is a large, expensive, problem in Germany, but an innovative website is tackling some of its social causes. The German Adult Education Association’s ich-will-schreiben-lernen.de (literally, “I want to learn how to write”) site provides a series of free courses tailored to individual needs and marked instantly online. Because participants can join and learn in their homes, without the stigma of taking part in a class, uptake and success rates have been high. Spin-off numeracy and English sites have followed.
Bristol, UK
Non-sticky solution
Every piece of chewing gum on the UK’s streets costs 10p to remove, leaving local authorities with an annual bill of £150m. Revolymer, a spin-out company from Bristol University, may have solved this sticky problem with a biodegradable gum containing a low-cost polymer that makes it dissolve in water. Plain old rainfall should be enough to clean it from pavements.
Spitsbergen, Norway
Seed funding
Four hundred feet into the permafrost beneath a mountain on the island of Spitsbergen, contingency plans for apocalyptic disaster will soon reach fruition. The air-locked chambers of Svalbard’s global seed vault will protect 4.5 million different seed samples from doomsday so future generations can restore Earth’s biodiversity.
Japan
Revolution on the rails
The nation that gave us the bullet train is now pulling ahead in the race to develop greener railways. The East Japan Railway Company is investigating the possibility of generating power from a station’s ticket gates (using materials that give off an electric charge), while Japan Rail is trialling a hybrid train which uses a diesel engine and lithium-ion batteries – which recharge every time the brakes are used – to cut power, noise and carbon emissions by 60%.
Beijing, China
The world’s mall
This year, the Beijing Cyber Recreation Project (CRP) will turn a 100 sq km site in the city into a vast server hub and distribution centre which could provide the infrastructure for nine virtual worlds and attract more online shoppers than eBay. The government-backed project can support seven million simultaneous users and attract up to 150 million users worldwide. CEO David Liu estimates that the project will create 10,000 jobs, and will help the environment by enabling many Chinese in rural areas to work from home. But will that be enough to turn the tide of urbanisation and lessen pollution?
Hamilton, New Zealand
Honey in hospitals
Cherished by cartoon bears and beekepers, could honey prove to be the future of healthcare? At the University of Waikato’s Honey Research Unit, honeys – especially those made from leptospermum (manuka) flowers found in Australia and New Zealand – are being used to combat superbugs, tackle burns and heal the wounds of diabetic patients.
Article first published in Design Council Magazine, Issue 4, Summer 2008