A little extract from a custom video project I did for a client a few years ago!
Bottom line? Science fiction?
Nope. Science fact!
Video : The Acceleration of Medical Science
Daily Inspiration: “You are already living in yesterday’s science fiction!”
“You are already living in yesterday’s science fiction!” – Futurist Jim Carroll
The other day I drove a neighbor – a dear friend – to his appointment for his first cataract surgery. As you are reading this today, I will be driving his wife to her appointment for the very same surgery.
When waiting to meet him later post-surgery – the clinic was located at the University of Waterloo School of Optometry and Vision Science – I happened to spot a group of students huddled around tables in the main building, studying and talking, Presuming to myself that they were in the program, I wondered what types of rapid advances they would see in their field of vision science by the time they are in their 40s, 50s, and 60s.
We can only begin to imagine because we are already living in a time in which the science fiction of our yesterday has become our reality.
Cataract surgery itself is remarkably routine; I had it done almost a decade ago as an alternative to LASIK. Essentially, a small incision is made in the eye; the old lens is sucked out, and a new permanent lens is implanted. What happens, though, when that lens replacement itself becomes a hyperconnected, microchip-based intelligent vision system? What happens when we can truly give eyesight to the blind? What happens if we have full bionic eye implants that link to the optical nerve? What happens when we have heads-up-display technology integrated into said bionic eyeball so that we can enhance our vision with HUD stuff, just like we see in a modern-day airliner?
These are the things a futurist thinks about. What seems crazy is becoming routine. And after all, we can read about such advances in the news all the time.
With that in mind, consider the tremendous advances that have occurred in the science and technology of medicine overall. This is a grab bag of a few of those trends that I wrote about just a few years ago. Many are becoming real at a pace that is, I always say, staggering: our science fiction past is already in our future and is rapidly becoming a part of our today.
- technology is taking over medicine. BIo-connectivity devices such as remote blood pressure monitoring devices allow for the virtualization of many health care services (“bedless hospitals”) at a much lower cost
- Google and other companies are working on a contact lens that will monitor blood sugar/glucose for diabetes patients. We are going to witness a flood of wearable healthcare monitoring technology.
- we will soon see ‘smart medical implants. This will include a contact lens, surgically implanted, that will feature storage, a battery, sensors, and other electronics to aid in vision
- smart pharma with connected pills will one day be here; we will have ingestible pharmaceuticals that will report on how well particular treatments might be working. There’s been a lot of work in this area, and many high-profile failures – but it will soon be common.
- we will soon see a computer chip that will diagnose infectious diseases through continuous bloodstream monitoring
- 3D printing technologies now allow us to provide customized hip replacements and other medical implants, or the printing of prosthetics for amputees
- digital twin technology is already allowing surgeons to prototype forthcoming surgeries – thereby taking on with greater confidence more complicated routines
- smart packaging allows the development of pharmaceutical/drug products that will aid in the use of the product
- digital mobile technologies are allowing many people to ‘get closer to their health, by monitoring, gaining a better understanding and actively managing chronic conditions such as blood pressure and diabetes
- wearable sensor technologies (such as the contact lens mentioned above) allow for continuous monitoring of medical conditions
- personalized medicine and pharmacogenetics provide for more targeted drug and medical therapies
- patient-generated data and shared patent-edited medical records are providing for more consultative medical relationships
- ‘frugal innovation’ is leading to such ideas as smartphone-based medical imaging capabilities
- continued rapid advances in the cost collapse of genomic medicine have driven the acceleration of Moore’s Law
- AI advances led to an ongoing decrease in the cost of medical diagnosis, including pathology slides, x-rays, retina scans, and more
- continued advances in anti-aging strategies are accelerating, aligning with the continued longevity of baby boomers who chose to live a healthy lifestyle
- inexpensive medical tests often referred to as a “lab-in-your-pocket” devices are going mainstream
- the ‘exercise is medicine’ trend which recognizes real methods to reverse the staggering cost of lifestyle disease
- robotic technology advances providing opportunities for those who have lost hands or limbs
There are a lot of big ideas and bold solutions.
Back to vision. Have you thought about how quickly it is changing? I have!
Over the years, I’ve spoken at numerous eyecare conferences and events for major eyecare companies – the highlight of which had Nikon inviting me to Tokyo to a 100th anniversary celebratory dinner which included, among others, key representatives and customers of their eyecare division. The fuure of visioncare? Here’s a clip!
Not only that, but I’ve filmed a few healthcare trends videos along the way! The pace of scientific acceleration is – well – accelerating!
Bottom line? Science fiction?
Nope. Science fact!
Daily Inspiration: “Right now. It’s the only moment in time that you have total control over!”
“Right now. It’s the only moment in time that you have total control over!” – Futurist Jim Carroll
Each morning, I look for some insight that might inspire me, and through that, become the focus of this Daily Inspiration post.
Today, that inspiration came from the fact that so many people commented on this image which was buried near the end of yesterday’s post.
When you look at it, you realize that it provides a wonderful way to capture the essence of our path through life! It’s a roadmap that makes clear that there is absolutely nothing you can do about your past – but a lot you can do about your future – depending on what you do right now. Yesterday? It is what is. Tomorrow? It will be what might be, much of which will depend on what you decide to do at this particular moment in time.
Going forward, your personal and professional life can evolve in numerous different directions. Some are under your control, but many others will be the result of volatility and unforeseen circumstances – but there are certain things you can do to influence the direction you might take. That’s why how you manage your ‘moment-in-time mindset‘ matters: never be afraid of looking back at where you were in order to learn more about where you could still be going in the future, but do it with these caveats:
- always remember that looking back will give you regret; looking forward will give you optimism
- that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be looking back; that’s the most powerful thing you can do to figure out your lessons learned – what you did wrong and what you did right – and what you do better going forward
- we always ask ourselves, ‘what if I had the chance to do it again?’ It can’t hurt to use that as a guidance goal for your future
- doing a goal reassessment can also be helpful – looking back can give you an appreciation for what was but what could yet be
- looking back can also help you understand the velocity of your future roadmap – it can give you a sense of the speed of change that is yet to come tomorrow by considering how much change you have already seen
The key thing is that you won’t find your way forward if you are constantly looking back! The only time you should be looking back is to see how far you’ve come and to understand your ‘lessons learned’ outlined above. That’s because your entire focus right now should be where you could be going if you put your mind to it and the effort you need to put in to get there. And that usually involves new skills, new attitudes, a new outlook, a new mindset, and continuous new efforts. Notice the emphasis on the word new. That’s what you need to consider right now.
That’s why, on stage, I always advise: don’t look back – look forward! Abandon legacy!
And one more thing – I always suggest you might take the time to pretend you are actually in the future – looking back at today. That will help you understand what you do right now to get to that moment in time tomorrow. Makes sense?
“Spend more time looking back from where you will be – rather than looking forward to where you might be!”
Keynote: AI and Risk Management – Zurich Insurance Global Risk Management Summit Lucerne, Switzerland
Several hundred corporate risk managers from the world’s largest organizations were taken on a tour of the vast number of new emerging AI risks that will challenge everything we know about risk management. AI provides for both promise and peril – and in this highly customized keynote, Jim Carroll guided them on this new and complex voyage.
Daily Inspiration: “Move fast – your creativity engine will thank you for it!”
“Move fast – your creativity engine will thank you for it!” – Futurist Jim Carroll
Momentum matters.
If you work, track, or are impacted by the world of tech or the tech industry, there are seismic changes underway, and they are happening at seismic speed. While Facebook, Amazon, and others terminate thousands of employees and the crypto industry goes through the entirely predictable wave of fraud exposure, TikTok is hiring thousands of people. A very real exodus from Twitter is underway, and new potential replacements are evolving at speed. These trends are indicative of the fact that the whole world of technology has accelerated to an unprecedented degree.
If you want to be a part of the future, your momentum matters – and getting involved early will fire up and rejuvenate your creativity engine!
Consider Silicon Valley – the implosion is real.
From the perspective of someone who watched the collapse of a vast portion of the tech sector in 2000-01, the parallels are eerily similar. What I do know from that time is that while one sector of the industry disappeared, we also saw the explosive growth of new startups, ideas, technologies, concepts, and companies. Something similar is happening right now, but it is happening much faster – hence, exploring it faster will help you understand it faster!
The speed at which trends are now evolving is simply staggering – even for me, someone who has long preached the mantra that ‘the future belongs to those who are fast!‘
Millions of people are busy abandoning Twitter, unwilling to put up with the mercurial antics of the current owner and the plan that will see the return of active, vile hate to the platform. There seem to be two key trends underway, with many going to the distributed Mastodon network, and many more going to the equity-financed closed system known as Post. News. I have now joined both, posting and pinning this to my Twitter timeline:
.One individual I follow in the tech world, Kris Nóva, had this to say in a lengthy post about her exploration of the new world of Mastodon:
The mass exodus of the tech community from Twitter is extremely real. In my opinion these numbers validate the hypothesis that Silicon Valley has lost faith in Musk’s ability to lead Twitter. I sense that we are approaching a social media and corporate renaissance.
The post she wrote has staggering numbers. Consider that the server that she is a part of – dedicated to tech topics – went from 720 users to 25,000 in just over two weeks. Other sites are reporting similar trends.
Overall, any technology today beyond these current headline grabbing activities are accelerating. Consider the rate of adoption of Stable Diffisuon, a text-to-image AI platform that I wrote about in my post “The nearest thing to magic can now emerge in moments.”
Daily Inspiration: “The nearest thing to magic can now emerge in moments!”
The point I raised in that post, prepared several months ago, now looks kind of quaint given what has happened with the uptake of the Stable Diffusion technology since then. While previous technologies took weeks or months or even years for widespread adoption – this particular technology took but days. Check the blue line highlighted by the red arrow.
Clearly, there are trends happening here at speed!
TikTok? As I wrote a month ago I joined TikTok. I wrote about that in my post “You’re never too old to learn new stuff!” It seems to be quickly becoming dominant as the search engine of choice for those 25 and under, rendering Google into the category of being ‘something from the olden days.’ Given that – and for other reasons described in the post I decided to join it and take part.
So what are the results of my exploration?
I told my sons – who advised me that I was too old to go onto TikTok – that I was clearly giving Taylor Swift a run for her money! After all, I now have 100 followers, which is an annual growth rate of 1200%, She’s been stuck at around 11 million users for a long time, so clearly there isn’t equivalent momentum there, with a growth rate of about 0%. I’ve got momentum on my side! (Insert LOL!)
Seriously, though, I will never be a presence online or have ‘influence,’ but I’m learning fast, and that is what is important to me. I’m finding the voyage into TikTok to be a creativity engine enhancer – I’ve been busy learning how to film short little clips of a minute or two in length, based on the current days Daily Inspiration post. Even doing something like this has helped me to understand this strange new world, as well as learn many new things about my process of video production and editing. Is it early shattering? No. Am I learning at speed? Yes!
Momentum matters!
@futuristjimcarroll Daily Inspiration: “Disruptive trends never wait for those who are structured for slow in a world of fast!” – #futurist #inspirationalvideo #fast
When the world is moving fast, there is an opportunity to move with it in order to learn quickly what is happening. Because here’s the thing – you never know where the future is going to go. And to be a part of it, you need to have an open and creative mindset. Fire up your creativity engines, so to speak!
All you know is where you’ve been and where you currently are. you’ve got to be ready for what comes next, whatever it might be!
Momentum matters!
The 7 Stages of Twitter Grief!
Shock: What? He’s offered to buy Twitter? That makes no sense! What’s up with that? Why would he need to do that?
Denial: I can’t believe he is going through with the deal. What is he thinking? Maybe he’ll do the right thing. Maybe it won’t be so bad.
Pain: Yikes! It hurts in here. I can’t believe what I’m seeing! The increasing level of vile hate is staggering! The trolls are loose! I really don’t like it here!
Anger and Bargaining: Maybe I’ll just say in here for a little while. It really can’t be happening. Maybe this will get better. I’ll just check my feed …. aiiieeeeee! Holy crap!
Depression: Wow, I really enjoyed my time in here, but this is just so sad to see it happening. He’s letting TFG back on? All the suspended accounts are coming back? This really sucks. I really don’t like what is happening. I’m really sad. Maybe I’ll tweet out my feelings … whoah, that was a bad idea. Now I feel worse!!!!
Reconstruction: Whoah, I’m hearing people talking about Mastodon. There seems to be a bit of a mass Twitter exodus happening. Maybe I’ll try and get in. I mean, it can’t hurt. I gotta have a plan. Maybe it’s time I start moving on.
Acceptance.: Whoah! I’m in! Mastodon here I come! I’m in the house!!!!!! People are posting dog and cat pictures to say hello! There’s a different vibe in here! Whoah, some of my friends! Hey, it seems nice in here!
Futurist Jim Carroll accelerated the 7 stages of Twitter Grief into one crazy week in which he built his own Mastodon server, and accelerated his use of TikTok despite being told by his kids not to use it,. His tagline, and a book that he wrote by the same name, is The Future Belongs To Those Who Are Fast.
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