The Mechanical, Psychological, and Biological Interventions of a Pandemic

The Mechanical, Psychological, and Biological Interventions of a Pandemic With Johnson and Johnson also pausing it’s #Covid19 #vaccine trial, it is becoming clearer to more of the public, that the long steady path to a vaccine is not something that can be rushed for anyone’s political agenda or preferred view of the world.

We’re learning about and just about have the mechanical interventions worked out – mask wearing, social distancing, continual hand washing and where needed restrictions of movement to ever small circles to stop infection spread.

We don’t yet have a full handle on the psychological interventions – supporting individuals and society placed into smaller circles to stop the spread. Many businesses have done a great job at allowing their staff to find ways to connect whilst at home. Schools and familial disconnections seems harder, and the ideological space harder again.

And the biological intervention, despite the ideological wish-list and myth-making could be years off because it plays in the realm of scientific truth – best knowledge for now, not final knowledge for now. In that space it is always open to new discoveries, some pleasant, some less so. But no amount of myth-making will bring the vaccine to fruition sooner. And myth-making that claims it will, places an ever increasing burden on the psychological and mechanical interventions that have kept many people safe

The coming age of Robotics in In-Home Healthcare

Sep 12, 2011

I’ll be talking with Vicki Kerrigan again this afternoon, this time discussing robotics as in-home carers. I’m due on at about 4.45pm Darwin time which is around 5.15pm on the eastern seaboard. You can listen to the audio stream via the link below   http://www.abc.net.au/darwin/programs/webcam_radio.htm?ref=listenlive  If all things go well, I’ll record the session and…

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Australia 2030 – a view from Siemens

Aug 30, 2011

I recently attended a session with South East Business Networks where the CEO of Siemens Australasia provided some great ideas as to where Australian Manufacturing was headed and could go, and indeed perhaps needed to go. What I found most useful from Allan Goller’s perspective was the encouragement for businesses to just get on with…

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The Future of clothing

Aug 26, 2011

In this very brief chat with Vicki Kerrigan on ABC Darwin, we kick off the discussion of the future of clothing – not the ‘style’ elements but the functional elements like capturing perspiration to convert for water. You can listen to the audio via the   link available here – cue it up about a…

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Futurist Marcus Barber on Scenarios for Water Industry at World Water Week

Aug 19, 2011

Marcus Barber will present the case study of his work with Central Highlands Water and their use of Scenarios for Strategy setting at World Water Week in Stockholm this Thursday. You can follow the twitter feed via #watermanagement, #rightfuture or #wwweek This case study looks at the flaws in a reliance on forecasting as the…

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For a Futurist, 50 Years isn’t so long ago

Aug 17, 2011

A quick note for the history buffs among us – in this month of August fifty years ago, the first components of the Berlin Wall were constructed with rings of barbed wire severing Berlin into visually distinct west and east Berlin. Russia’s main challenge at that time was the 10,000 or so East Germans each…

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The Flaws in Demand & Supply thinking

Aug 7, 2011

Let me start by saying that my Masters of Science qualification is NOT held in economics and with that said I’m holding an interested person’s perspective toward wanting to know ‘why’ and ‘how’. I have some questions and thoughts about the theory of Supply and Demand and would be happy to have some feedback from…

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Cultured Meat’s potential for energy and water reductions

Jul 18, 2011

Below you’ll find this afternoon’s discussion with ABC Darwin radio in which host Vicki Kerrigan chats with futurist Marcus Barber about the emerging research into lab grown meat as a potential addition to or replacement of, existing livestock farming methods.   The program streamed live on 105.7 ABC Darwin this afternoon, discussing the University of…

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Speaking of the Future at the World Futures Conference

Jul 11, 2011

Continuing the futures discussions on ABC Darwin Radio, this time with Paul Dale who is filling in for Vicki Kerrigan whilst Vicki is handling the breakfast time slot, we discuss some of the conference sessions at the World Futures Conference here in Vancouver   You can listen to the audio stream here and cue this…

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Getting Your Future Right

Jul 8, 2011

My slides from today’s presentation on ‘Getting You Future Right’ can be found at the link below   To those at the session, my apologies for the technical challenges and hope these slides can provide more context for you – contact me if you have any questions.  Access the Slides Here

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The Future of You Part 2

Jun 27, 2011

Here’s the upload of my conversation with Vicki Kerrigan at ABC Radio Darwin. In it I offer the first three of ten steps designed to help you get your future right. In last week’s session I left Vicki with a question to ponder: Is my life headed where I want it to go, and if…

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