One of the CSIRO’s recent projects is the compilation of a database from which trends all over the world could be recognized and analysed. This database is an online Wikipedia-style site, where CSIRO scientists and researchers could enter information on global trends. Once begun, a rapidly expanding pool of knowledge grew from the database, allowing primary and recurring trends to be recognized. Once analysed, the most prominently recurring of the trends were distinguished, and described as Megatrends.
MEGATRENDS
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| CSIRO Megatrends (2010, CSIRO) |
MORE FROM LESS
A world of limited resources, a world in which we are quickly exhausting our natural resources such as coal and oil, and now must work to find other solutions.
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| Open cut mining in Australia (2010, Impact Lab) |
A PERSONAL TOUCH
Personalisation of products and services – services and companies now tend to offer services they claim are tailored to the individual, targeting you and your sense of individual self and needs.
DIVERGENT DEMOGRAPHICS
Older, hungry and more demanding. The future holds the certainty of a tipping of the bell curve – an aging, dependant population, as well as huge food shortages; in order to feed the world’s future population, we must produce more food in the next 50 years than in the whole history of human civilization.
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| Statistical graph of Australia's projected demographic (2009, Australian Government) |
ON THE MOVE
Urbanising and increasing mobility. Today and in the future, the number of people relocating to and living in the city is rising exponentially. Rising, too, are the amount of times each person changes jobs in their lives, or countries to live in. We are also physically on the move, globally linked by hundreds of plane routes ferrying people to and fro.
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| People are utilising fast and easy transportation around the globe more than ever (2009, Chris B.) |
iWORLD
Digital and natural convergence. Today, we are experiencing a rapid technological advancement. We are online, plugged in and running out of IP addresses. Digital devices has become indispensible to our daily lives.
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| A digital world (2009, Blackberry Cool) |
MEGASHOCKS
While researching, the CSIRO also identified a category of ‘Megashocks’ – dramatic events such as 9/11 which affect the world and the way we live. Megashocks are sudden, hard to predict and have major consequences. They pose serious global risk are capable of affecting the direction our future unfolds in.
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| Global Megashock of the 9/11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center (2009, Eskenazi) |
Megashocks prompt futuristic planning, and we now must consider; how do such events affect us?
Read the full CSIRO report here.
REFERENCES
23/4/2010, CSIRO, Our Future World: an Analysis of Global Trends, Shocks and Scenarios, CSIRO, viewed on 24/10/2010, http://www.csiro.au/resources/Our-Future-World.html
2010, Impact Lab, Megatrends and Megashocks that Will Change the Future of the World, WordPress, viewed on 24/10/2010, http://www.impactlab.net/2010/04/23/megatrends-and-megashocks-that-will-change-the-future-of-the-world/
24/4/2009, Australian Government: Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs, 5. The Birth Rate, Cohort Size, Population Ageing, Commonwealth of Australia, viewed on 24/10/2010, http://www.facs.gov.au/about/publicationsarticles/research/socialpolicy/Documents/prp13/sec5.htm
12/5/2009, Chris B., More Planes with Wi-Fi Flying to More Places than Any Other Airline, Delta Air Lines Blog, viewed on 24/10/2010, http://blog.delta.com/2009/05/12/welcome-to-the-wi-fi-club/
11/8/2009, Blackberry Cool, Top 10 Themes for the Blackberry Tour 9630, Blackberry Cool, viewed on 24/10/2010, http://www.blackberrycool.com/2009/08/11/top-10-themes-for-the-blackberry-tour-9630/
17/8/2009, Eskenazi, J., 9/11 Truther Film Festival Brought To You By… The San Francisco Bay Guardian?, SF Weekly, viewed on 24/10/2010, http://blogs.sfweekly.com/thesnitch/2009/08/9-11_truther_film_festival_bro.php
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