The Weekender – 6PR Radio – Where is Australia headed between now and 2050?

1970 was 40 years ago.

Yeah I know that’s obvious, but for many it seems like only yesterday and 40 years from now we will be sitting in the year 2050 thinking back to 2010 and trying to convince ourselves that 2010 was the good old days we all yearn for.

We will believe that :
2010’s property prices were cheap.
2010’s family values were traditional and exemplary.
2010’s communication tools were rudimentary and simple.
2010’s education system was better equipped to upskill our children for what lies ahead.

What a load of nostalgic twaddle.

The next 40 years are going to both evolutionary and revolutionary.

The discussion this week on my 6PR radio segment with Brendon was about how the Australian Government sees the next 40 years.

In their recently released Intergenerational report, the Government tells us our population will increase to 35.9 million an increase of over 50% (as of today our population is 22,144,950), as high as this seems I’m betting we’re going to be closer to 39 million.

They rightly claim that at the moment (2010) we have 5 people working to support every Australian over 65 years of age and in 2050 we may have 2.7 people working to support every 1 person over 65 years of age.

Our ageing population means that we will have double the number of 65 – 84 year olds we have now and quadruple the number of people we have now that are older than 85.

Our population growth will slow down to annual rate of 1.2%, slightly less than the 1.4 we have had for the last 40 years.

We will have climate change issues and water issues to contend with that are vastly different from today’s

To this I add just a few basic assumptions:

Our technology will also have advanced, medical breakthroughs will have found work arounds and cures for many of today’s common ailments and killers, but we will have discovered a new range of illnesses related to our longevity and changing environmental issues.

Our work will be different with many of us in careers and jobs we can not fathom today, working very differently, using the entire globe as our backyard and remaining in work well into our 70’s.

The world over the next 40 years will in many ways be vastly different and incomparable to today, I still maintain that in the next decade will we progress 100 years and in the next 40 some 500 years in technology, but in many ways we will be the same, a humanity working to “better understand” our relevance and purpose and playing with a whole new set of toys to do it with.

Our challenge then for the next 40 years is how best can we use the small insight we have of what lies ahead to achieve our ambitions and create our own exquisite future.

Listen in as Brendon and I chat our way through this discussion and try and figure out what it all means, how it will actually effect us and who and how are we going to pay for it all. Recorded live 7th February 2010.

Radio ABC Australia – Today Show – Future Tech Segment – 5 February 2010

Make your own toilet paper starts this weeks segment as we discuss the Japanese manufacturers newest USD$100,000 toy, a machine that takes 40 sheets of ordinary office paper, some water and a half an hour to produce a roll of toilet paper.

Thankfully the discussions between Phil, Adelaine and Morris changes pace as we join Phil on Hong Kong Radio to discuss Australia’s Intergenerational Report 2050, the Hon. Wayne Swan this week release a blueprint of Australia’s changing demographic landscape, including a conservative figure that by 2050 we will have a population of 35.9 million – a figure that I think is conservative and is more likely to be closer to 40 million people – an ageing population, a changing workforce and the implications of all of these and more.

We also took up the question of whether the band AC DC should have to pay compensation for borrowing a melody from an Australian iconic tune and whether censorship is alive in Australia as we chatted about the South Australian Government’s recent law to make all political bloggers commenting on the upcoming state election clearly state their name and postcode on each blog they post. Although on the surface this may seem sensible, it is the enactment of a law that inhibits free speech in Australia.

This, lots of lively conversation, competitions and even Adelaine talking about oral sex – you just have to listen to see how this worked its way into the conversation, I was there and still can’t quite believe it – are all part of this week’s ABC Australia’s Radio FutureTech Segment. Recorded live 5 February 2010.

The Weekender – 6PR Radio – iPad & Australia’s top industries for 2010

The good, the bad, the possible and the impossible of the iPad starts our segment off this week, before Brendon (of Perths’ 6PR radio) and I move on to mull over the new global growth industry, the App industry.

We can expect to see lots of apps on our phones, smart devices, computers and even our televisions from here on in and for an industry that was worth USD$6.2 billion in 2009, expect it to rise over the next 3 years to an industry turning over USD$29.5 billion (although I think that figures on the low side given it was calculated prior to the iPad announcement).

Coming on the back of the recently released IBIS world report we also took a look at Australia’s top 10 growth industries for 2010, which included sugar manufacturing, health insurance, organic farming, alternative health therapies and the 5 industries that are most likely to decline in 2010 which include image processing, video hire outlets and travel agents.

A great segment, lots of laughs and conversation, take a listen for yourself. Recorded live 31st January 2010.

Radio ABC Australia – Today Show – Future Tech Segment – 31 January 2010

This week’s on air discussion has to be about the Apple iPad as we take a close beyond the hype look at what has been announced, what the iPad will and won’t do and who’s likely to buy it and why and importantly what does this mean for the future of computers and the way we engage with technology.

Phil Whelan of Hong Kong radio let’s us know that the hype didn’t hit Hong Kong in nearly as big a way as it did the States and Australia and that his radio station carried very little news of it. We also chatted to Phil about Twitter’s intent to get around Chinese censorship and about the counties most likely to sin according to yet another recently released survey.

The segment also features the word of the week competition, a full tech report, great conversation and lot’s of laughs – some of course about the name iPad. Segment date: 29 January 2010.

A new electronic alter has been erected – all hail the Apple iPad

One of geekdomes worst kept secrets, with more leaks than a sieve has finally been confirmed this morning, it garnered so much interest that the live feed and blogging of the event melted several websites that couldn’t cope with the peak demand

The Apple iPad is part app store, part book store (books priced between US$12.99 – $US14.99), part movie store, part gaming device, part communication tool and part coffee maker.

Apple has taken the emerging need of a single convergent easy to use device to playback, engage and interact on and have interestingly downplayed (in their initial launch video) the strict work related applications (although iWork – for iPad including pages, numbers, keynote was announced later).

This device with a 9.7 inch or 24.638 cm screen, is 13.4mm thick and weighs 0.68kg. and has optional keyboard dock, camera connections and mostly affordable price points – the 16GB, Wi-Fi-only version costs US$500, while the 32GB is US$600 and 64GB is US$700. Pricing increases by US$130 to add 3G. The Wi-Fi-only models ship in 60 days, while 3G models will ship in 90 – Australian prices and shipping are still to be announced but the 3G version, which is the optimal experience, will require yet another spend with the telco’s and could make 3 internet connections you have to fund – the phone, the laptop and the iPad (we could combine or cut back on our devices, but I don’t think this will happen in the short term).

It uses a 1GHz “A4” chip that can decode HD video for up to 10 hours on a single charge (technology they inherited when they bought P.A. Semiconductor) has a stunning resolution (1024 x 768), with incredible speed.

The downside is just like the IPhone, there is no multitasking, you can’t do two things at once (yes, for most men this has always been the case ha, ha). There is no built in camera or video (although the devices size may be a bit awkward for taking photos with anyway) and the keyboard is OK, but not great and of course there is no voice calling – teleconferencing on one of these would have been interesting and I’m sure will come at some later stage. Also SD cards to expand on board memory will be available, but in the form of an adaptor – an apple specific adaptor and still no Flash content allowed.

I have long spoken about convergent technology and Apple has been the best mainstream example of this over the past few years. This will be the new must have and it will be interesting to see whether Apple will loosen the reins on the OS and stop controlling so tightly the end products.

This will open up a new paradigm of social engagement and interaction. What will emerge from this is each person in the family, social group or workplace will have their own IPad, or an eventual competitors’ take on this, with each person receiving their own copy of the same streamed information, TV show or entertainment.

This IPad will certainly shake up the industry and more importantly catapult the consumers expectations of what technology should offer them and how they wish to interact with it.

There will certainly be some wringing of hands and consternation over it from doomsdayers and we have yet to see the marketplace acceptance of this, although it is safe to assume that it will be huge, but as always a new electronic device does not herald the end of the world as we know it, it merely gives us a new electronic alter at which to worship.

The Weekender – 6PR Radio – Cloudy Tablets

The imminent arrival of Apple’s new baby iTablet and its possible uses and applications started the conversation between Nic Hayley of Perth’s 6PR and Morris Miselowski this week, before moving on to talk about eReaders, expensive iPhone app’s and the growth of cloud computing services in 2010 led primarily by Apple’s real time music service soon to be launched through iTunes. Recorded live 24 January 2010.

Tech Stream – Radio Australia – What to expect in 2010

Consumers are increasingly becoming mature in their technology use and want easy to use functional technology that just happens to look good. This was just part of what Ryan Egan of Radio Australia’s Tech Stream and I talked about in his show this evening. We also discussed the shift over the next 10 years to an Australian workforce made up of 40% remote workers (workers not based at a fixed office) and an increased numbers of Generation X and Y in the boardrooms as the Baby Boomers retire in ever increasing numbers. In the time remaining we chatted about the rise and rise of augmented technologies. Recorded live 22 January 2010.

Radio ABC International – Today Show – Future Tech Segment

Busy busy show this week, starts off with new Intel core processor announcements and more rumours about Apple’s impending release of a tablet from Danny Gorog and then moves on to discuss the $999 apple Iphone app from BarBri that sets a new benchmark for app pricing and buyer acceptance; before joining Phil Whelan on Hong Kong radio to discuss vertical farmers, body part makers, memory augmentation surgeons and some of the other jobs of the future and as usual quizzes, laughs and great conversation with Phil Kafcaloudes and Adelaine Ng as Morris Miselowski joins them for his weekly FutureTech segment. Recorded live 22 January 2010. Listen live each Friday at 11.35 a.m (Aust EST).

The Weekender – 6PR Radio – Jobs of the Future

Body part maker, nano medic, transhumanist designer, vertical farmers, pharmers, memory augmentation surgeon, social networking worker are just some of the new careers that will emerge over the next 20 years. Add this to the imminent avalanche of baby boomer retirements, the Gen Y & X entry to the corporate boardrooms; a move to decentralised workplaces (by 2018 aprox.40% of workers will not work from a fixed office address); the global workplace tilt towards insourcing, outsourcing, crowdsourcing and crowd filtering and we have a new world of work rising on the horizon. These were just some of the issues that Brendon Weselman of Perth radio’s 6PR and Morris Miselowski chatted about in their on-air interview. Recorded live 17 January 2010.

Radio ABC International – Today Show – Future Tech Segment

Google vs China is the topic of the moment. Will Google pull out of China? Will they stay? Should they? Did China cyberhack Google? Why did Google post the Chinese Government banned photo of Tank man @Tiananmen Square? The commercial imperative is that Google ought to stay, but given that Google has a small market share in China, is not yet well established there and is butting heads so strongly with the Chinese government, perhaps they can morally afford to take the social imperative and opt out of China to protect their perceived independence to source and distribute world knowledge. Anyway it’s an interesting dilemma that kept Phil, Adelaine, Phil Whelan (live on Hong Kong radio), Ryan Egan and Morris Miselowski talking for quite a while. Listen to the live recording of the segment.