January
2018, Issue 201











Welcome to the Club of Amsterdam Journal.

A mobile version of the Club of Amsterdam Journal can be downloaded here portable & printable version

The Future Now Show:
Causalities and A.I. with Hardy Schloer hosted by Simon Jones


Big data and artificial intelligence (AI) are terms you’ll have been hearing a lot. They are often misused and poorly understood. So it’s nice to see a concrete example of what can be done with them. The key here is to use not only standard metadata (data describing data) but also metadata describing the causal relationships between the data. The result is insights that were you to ask humans to attempt would be unreliable, hugely variable and subject to prejudicial influences. A nice example of a case where we humans should step back and let the A.I. do the work.. - Paul Holister

Felix F Bopp, Founder & Chairman

Content



Biodiversity

From India with Love with Mandar Apte

The Future Now Show:
Causalities and A.I. with Hardy Schloer hosted by Simon Jones


New Website For Women Pioneers in Architecture

News about the Future:
Foresight Africa: Top priorities for the continent in 2017 / The IEEE 5G and Beyond Technology Roadmap


The Global Sanitation Crisis Is A Huge Problem. The WASH Initiative Can Solve It

Recommended Book:
The Race to Remake Civilization in Earth's Newest Age by David Biello


The Pinocchio Fable Revisited by Dario Poli

Futurist Portrait: Anil Gupta


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.yBiodiversity


Maps of the world's most important wilderness areas are now freely available online.



These new maps show shrinking wilderness being ignored at our peril.
Credit: James Allan UQ

Maps of the world's most important wilderness areas are now freely available online following a University of Queensland and Wildlife Conservation Society-led study.

James Allan said these wilderness areas were strongholds for endangered biodiversity and critical in the fight to mitigate climate change.

"These ecosystems play a key role in regulating local climates, sequestering and storing large amounts of carbon and supporting many of the world's most culturally diverse -- but politically and economically marginalized communities," Allan said.

The maps show that the majority of remaining wilderness areas are in the deserts of Central Australia, the Amazon rainforest in South America, the Tibetan plateau in central Asia, and the boreal (snow) forests of Canada and Russia.

"Despite their importance, wilderness areas are being destroyed at an alarming rate and need urgent protection with almost 10 per cent being lost since the early 1990s. Their conservation is a global priority," Allan said.

Source: Wildlife Conservation Society / WCS
WCS's goal is to conserve the world's largest wild places in 16 priority regions, home to more than 50% of the world's biodiversity.



Biological Extinction | Mathis Wackernagel

On our 4.54 billion year old planet, life is perhaps as much as 3.7 billion years old, photosynthesis and multi-cellularity dozens of times independently around 3.0 billion years old, and the emergence of plants, animals, and fungi onto land, by at least the Ordovician period, perhaps 480 million years ago, forests appearing around 370 million years ago, and the origin of modern groups such as mammals, birds, reptiles, and land plants subsequently. The geological record shows that there have been five major extinction-events in the past, the first of them about 542 million years ago, and suggests that 99% of the species that ever lived (5 billion of them?) have become extinct. The last major extinction event occurred about 66 million years ago, at the end of the Cretaceous Period, and, in general, the number of species on earth and the complexity of their communities has increased steadily until near the present.



Global Footprint Network
carefully measures our consumption of all aspects of the world’s sustainable productivity, and has calculated that in about 1970 we were using about 70% of the Earth’s sustainable capacity, and now that we are using about 156%. Nevertheless there are 800 million people chronically malnourished and 100 million on the verge of starvation at any one time. How have such imbalances, both among contemporaries and between the present and future generations come about, and how are they sustained? The problems wouldn’t go away if we had another 56% of the earth to take care of our needs, but we could at least stop eating into the productive capacity of the Earth progressively as the years go by. With a number of nations markedly better off than the others, and the wealthy of the earth best off everywhere, draining productivity from poor nations in the form of energy, wood, and fuel, there is no possibility of improving our situation without the widespread adoption of social justice, both as a matter of morality and as a matter of survival. In recent years the Pontifical Academies have held several colloquia on the subject of social justice, global inequality, and deep poverty in the contemporary world. But we haven’t addressed the question whether the Earth system is able to support the demands that humanity has been making on it, nor how global inequality and poverty relate to that. The survival of the natural world, and ultimately our survival, depends on our adoption of principles of social justice and sustainability. And sustainability requires care for the biodiversity that supplies the services that enable humanity to live and prosper. As PAS President Werner Arber stated recently, the question is now not so much how our children and grandchildren will fare, but whether the world will be able to function sustainably during the remainder of our own lives.




.yFrom India with Love




From India with Love is a documentary film about six Americans from diverse backgrounds who embarked on an epic 10-day journey to India in March 2016. The common denominator that binds them in this story is their unique exposure to violence and their desire to reinvigorate the conversation about nonviolence in America. All are strong personalities, who have done a lot of internal work and have chosen to be part of the solution by sharing their knowledge and activism in their respective communities.

The group included: a single mother whose son was brutally murdered in a tragic school shooting (Sandy Hook, Connecticut) and her best friend, a former gang member (Los Angeles, California), an educator (Newark, New Jersey), a social entrepreneur and a music scholar (both Black Lives Matter activists from Oakland, California).

The film shows how this trip to India renews their spirit and reaffirms their desire to open up a conversation about nonviolence: How nonviolence is an effective tool in curbing the destructive actions that destroys families, communities and debilitates nations. That violence cannot be answered with more violence and that it starts with conversation.





.The Future Now Show




Every month we roam through current events, discoveries, and challenges - sparking discussion about the connection between today and the futures we're making - and what we need, from strategy to vision - to make the best ones.

Shape the future now, where near-future impact counts and visions and strategies for preferred futures start.

Do we rise above global challenges? Or do we succumb to them? The Future Now Show explores how we can shape our future now - where near-future impact counts. We showcase strategies and solutions that create futures that work.

Every month we roam through current events, discoveries, and challenges - sparking discussion about the connection between today and the futures we're making - and what we need, from strategy to vision - to make the best ones.

The Future Now Show
January 2018

Causalities and A.I.

with
Hardy Schloer
hosted by
Simon Jones

Big data and artificial intelligence (AI) are terms you’ll have been hearing a lot. They are often misused and poorly understood. So it’s nice to see a concrete example of what can be done with them. The key here is to use not only standard metadata (data describing data) but also metadata describing the causal relationships between the data. The result is insights that were you to ask humans to attempt would be unreliable, hugely variable and subject to prejudicial influences. A nice example of a case where we humans should step back and let the A.I. do the work. - Paul Holister



www.clubofamsterdam.com/press.asp?contentid=986


The
Future Now Show
features






Credits

Hardy F Schloer
Owner, Schloer Consulting Group
www.schloerconsulting.com
CEO, Prisma Analytics GmbH
prisma-analytics.com

Simon Jones, Pro-Vice-Chancellor, Cranfield University, UK

www.simon-jones.com

Paul Holister, Editor, Summary Text

The Future Now Show
www.clubofamsterdam.com/TheFutureNowShow.htm

and join the dialogue in our
LinkedIn Group: The Future Now Show



yNew Website For Women Pioneers in Architecture


The Beverly Willis Architecture Foundation launched a new website called “Pioneering Women of American Architecture.”

Pioneering Women of American Architecture is a collection of profiles of fifty women who have made important contributions to American architecture. All of these women were born before 1940, at a time when women struggled both to be allowed entry into the architectural profession and to be recognized for their work. As such, the names of many of these women are not well known, even among architectural historians. However, as these profiles show, each of these women has made significant individual and collective contributions to the history of American architecture and the built environment. While their work is stylistically varied and ranges in its scope from urban plans and institutional buildings to domestic interiors and furniture, many of these women were important innovators, designing utopian communities, humane tenement houses, “rational” kitchens, built-in storage units and fold-out beds, and even early solar houses. They also broke many barriers, both sexual and racial, challenging the institutions of architecture itself as well as many of the social conventions and gender stereotypes of their time.

Documenting the lives and works of these women was an enormous task, requiring hundreds of interviews and countless hours digging through archives, as well as endless fact-checking and photographic documentation. The scholars who worked on these profiles represent one of the largest groups ever to focus exclusively on women’s contributions to the U.S. built environment and to place the work of women squarely at the center of architectural history. The fifty women profiled here are just a beginning of an effort that we hope will continue to expand as more women’s lives and careers are added to the historical record. Going forward, we hope this project can move architecture created by women to the center of architectural history and invite more young women to study and practice of architecture.

Mary McLeod and Victoria Rosner
Co-Director



.News about the Future

Foresight Africa: Top priorities for the continent in 2017

In this year’s Foresight Africa, the Brookings Africa Growth Initiative scholars and outside experts explore six overarching themes that provide opportunities for Africa to overcome its obstacles to spur fruitful and inclusive growth. These six interconnected, cross-cutting themes demonstrate the prospects for Africa’s success for its policymakers, businessmen and women, and all its citizens. By examining such closely intertwined issues, we hope to bring a holistic view of the continent, emphasizing that with each challenge there is a solution, though it might be found where we least expect it.

The IEEE 5G and Beyond Technology Roadmap

The IEEE 5G and Beyond Technology Roadmap White Paper outlines the current telecommunications value chain that will need to adapt to changes and opportunities that the introduction of 5G and beyond technologies will bring. It describes key technology trends that will impact design drivers and challenges for technologies to simultaneously provide wireless communication, massive connectivity, the tactile internet, quality of service and network slicing. Future applications are listed that drive 5G and beyond requirements to provide societal benefits for education, manufacturing, healthcare, smart grid, entertainment, autonomous cars, and smart cities. And the white paper highlights technology enablers that need to be explored in the creation of the roadmap.



.The Global Sanitation Crisis Is A Huge Problem.
.The WASH Initiative Can Solve It


The WASH Initiative


Billions of people are affected by a massive sanitation crisis.

As global crisis that affects over two billion people, water sanitation has turned into the first and primary concern of many of the world's leading organizations. In fact, the CDC considers water sanitation an essential problem that needs to be solved by the end of this century.

Today, there are about 2.4 billion people without the right kind of sanitation in their regional infrastructure. Clean water, basic toilets, black water disposal, and many things other countries take for granted for survival simply aren't available in many countries.

Then add the 663 million, and counting, that simply have no access to any water source.

When you stand back and look at the entire problem you get a feel for how massive it is. Something needs to be done in order to solve this problem.

Here's what you need to know.

The Facts Behind The Crisis



Let's look at some statistics to better understand this problem.

  • According to WHO (the World Health Organization) and UNICEF, the region with the highest amount of poor water sanitation is Sub-Saharan Africa, followed closely by Southern and Eastern Asia.

  • Girls are most likely to suffer not only the debilitating ravages of diseases, but the societal consequences of having poor sanitation in their rural settings. Compared to their male counterparts, one in five girls do not attend school, primarily because they are most likely responsible for collecting water for their family. In Sub Saharan Africa, 72% of the water collected is done by women.

Plus, the arcane and hazardous toilet and latrine installations in schools often prevent girls from further advancing their education, in particular during menstruation.

  • Over eight hundred thousand children under the age of 5 die from diarrhea and related causes each year. In 2012, a study showed that 2,200 children die every single day as a result of diarrheal diseases.

  • Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDS for short) are a direct result of water and hygiene related issues. Bacteria, parasites and viruses run amok in rural regions. Mosquitos, carrying Zika, malaria, and other diseases swarm around sitting water.

    Guinea Worm Disease (an extremely painful parasitical infection), buruli ulcer, schistosomiasis and hundreds more diseases affect the poor countries at an alarming rate. Less water and sanitation also means less sewage flow, leading to stagnant water and pools, particularly in tropical and subtropical climates. These pools then become breeding grounds for viruses and parasites foreign to that area.

  • Basic sanitation and clean affordable water can end up saving over 17 thousand people a week.

  • By the year 2025, due to overpopulation, 2/3 of the world will face water shortages. To make matters even worse, the other 1/3 will have to deal will a growing strain on their sanitation installations. Drinkable water will become a scarce commodity.

  • Women and girls are more likely to experience violent sexual assaults while either getting water or venturing outside to use the communal defecation pit.

  • Only 3% of the world's water is drinkable, despite the fact that 75% of the planet is covered by it. Out of that tiny percent, only 1% is actually accessible to humans. The majority of the world's safe drinkable water tucked away in remote regions.


Solutions To The Global Sanitation Problem



Global water sanitation is a staggering and serious problem that has become a pivotal concern for many world organizations, and it's not going away anytime soon. It's estimated that it will take generations to actually solve the problem. Nonetheless, there are numerous actions and strategies being taken in order to mitigate its advance.

Some governments are taking highly specific approaches that work within their unique circumstances.

As says Tim Brewer notes:

Ethiopia has made a concerted effort to reduce open defecation rates over the past five years," Wateraid's policy analyst on monitoring and accountability. "The government came up with a plan of action to get everyone in the country to stop practicing open defecation, and made sure that donors contributing to the sanitation sector also followed the same plan. This hasn't been the case in Eritrea, where there has been conflict.

Unfortunately, in many cases, one of the most endemic problems is the lack of governmental and regional acknowledgment of the problem. Local governments often turn a blind eye to the dilemma (in many countries, 90% of the investment for any sort of solution comes from the private sector and charity). Unfortunately, there are inherent problems built into the financial and political pillars of most rural countries that fail to prioritize water sanitation in national budgets.

Most governments fail on multiple aspects of the crisis:

  • Water tariffs from formal providers are set so low that they do not cover the operational cost, let alone maintenance and expansion.

  • Long term investment in the sector is non-existent in many regions.

  • There is a chronic lack of human skill and know-how affecting the sector.

In other words, the heavy lifting in most parts is being conducted by private organizations and charities, which is important but not the long term solution. It's estimated that in order to have a large scale impact on the problem, a great deal of financial aid should be directed to a systemic global reeducation campaign. Knowledge is a key part of solving this crisis.

Another key aspect most organizations and individuals agree on is that the water crisis is in itself an opportunity. It should be viewed not as an insurmountable dilemma but as a chance to help rural and poor communities to grow. Financial investment, manmade infrastructures, and pioneering innovations are critical to tackling the problem.

The United Nations has made it their goal to reach a ambitious and unambiguous target by the year 2030: Every man, woman and child, should have access to a safe water supply and able to go to the toilet in a clean space.

Their main concern is that by the year 2030, there will be an additional 1.5 billion people in the world, and over 60% will be in developing and rural countries. In order to reach their lofty goal, the United Nations and affiliated organizations will have to create a yearly $47 billion financial package.

The UN predicts that in order to actually meet their deadline, the next 5 years will be pivotal. They will have to generate national and international leadership, shining a light on the problem and building the necessary alliances between the private and public sector. It is their belief that the solution lies not only in developing a practical financial mechanism, but also in bridging the educational gap that most politicians seem to have.


What Is WASH?

Millions of children in the developing world go to schools which have no drinking water or clean latrines - basic things that many of us take for granted. Every child has the right to be in a school that offers safe water, healthy sanitation and hygiene education. - Sigrid Kaag, UNICEF Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa at the launch of the WASH program.

WASH is a collective term used for the three core issues at stake in many rural communities worldwide: Water, Sanitation and Hygiene. These three fundamental issues have to be improved in order to conquer the global sanitation crisis.

With UNICEF's leadership, and in many cases example, many organizations are meeting head on the colossal problem affecting the poor. The WASH initiative values the idea of dedicated target strikes on different areas while promoting sustainable goals for a region.

How does WASH play out specifically?

WATER:

The first leg of UNICEF's initiative deals with providing access to protected wells and piping - of gifting communities with safe underground water sources.

SANITATION:

It is fundamental to have facilities that separate human waste from human contact. In many cases, communal latrines or open defecation is the norm, with ineffective separation of fecal matters and lack of a waste disposal units contaminating the ecosystem and general health of the village.

HYGIENE:

In many parts of the world, there is little thought given to common hygiene practices. A lack of soap, safe water or adequate washing facilities cause diseases to spread quickly. UNICEF's wants to help change this mindset in many communities, with educational awareness being key to fighting pandemics.

UNICEF's Results:

So far, the results from WASH have been positive:

  • More than 7.6 million people have received improved access to drinking water.
  • 3.1 million have benefited from improved agricultural water management.
  • Hundreds of sanitation stations have been implemented in rural countries.
  • Thanks to the USAID's assistance, WASH has managed to collect over 499 million dollars for their endeavors.


Conclusion


Though the global sanitation crisis isn't going anywhere anytime soon, positive steps are being taken to address it. As more communities are educated on the importance of proper sanitation, we should expect to see continued improvements. Additionally, as infrastructure is built in these communities, some of the long term problems should slowly disappear.

Manoj Bhargava said:

People with water-borne diseases occupy more than 50% of hospital beds across the world. Does the answer lie in building more hospitals? Really, what is needed is to give them clean water.

We wholeheartedly agree.


This article originally appeared
here and has been republished with permission from https://businessconnectworld.com



.Recommended Book


The Race to Remake Civilization in Earth's Newest Age
by David Biello

A brilliant young environmental journalist argues that we must innovate and adapt to save planet Earth in this enlightening “trip around the world to meet people working out new ways for humanity to live as well as survive” (The New York Times Book Review).

With the historical perspective of The Song of the Dodo and the urgency of Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth, The Unnatural World chronicles a disparate band of unlikely heroes: an effervescent mad scientist who would fertilize the seas; a pigeon obsessive bent on bringing back the extinct; a low-level government functionary in China doing his best to clean up his city, and more. These scientists, billionaires, and ordinary people are all working toward saving the best home humanity is ever likely to have.

What is the threat? It is us. In a time when a species dies out every ten minutes, when summers are getting hotter, winters colder, and oceans higher, some people still deny mankind’s effect on the Earth. But all of our impacts on the planet have ushered in what qualifies as a new geologic epoch, thanks to global warming, mass extinction, and such technologies as nuclear weapons or plastics.

“A futurist ray of hope amid the usual denial and despair” (Esquire), The Unnatural World examines the world we have created and analyzes the glimmers of light emerging from the efforts of incredible individuals seeking to change our future. Instead of a world without us, this history of the future shows how to become good gardeners, helping people thrive along with an abundance of plants, animals, all the exuberant profusion of life on Earth - a better world with us. The current era of humans need not be the end of the world - and “Biello describes both what we have done to alter our planet and what we should do in the future to ensure its habitability” (Scientific American).



.AThe Pinocchio Fable Revisited

By Dario Poli, artist, illustrator, writer, published author, music composer

“To see what is in front of your nose needs a constant struggle.” George Orwell

As young child raised in the tough industrial centre of Scotland, amidst a culture that prided itself on its home grown achievements, past traditions of clan unity, honour, truthful expression, rebelliousness, heroism both socially and on the many glorified battlefields of wars, was not an easy experience to say the least.

The first hearing of the name Pinocchio by an Italian author and Freemason Carlo Lorenzini (known by his pen name Carlo Collodi, (1826-1890) being mentioned in local schools, was quite a shock to me, as I am of Italian origins, not the best national badge to carry around, after more than five years of war involving Italians fighting against British imperial power that included the brave Scots.

Walt Disney film

Pinocchio was a Walt Disney film first launched in 1940 during World War Two, which I saw many years later as a 5 year old impressionable boy and it was quite an experience for me. Amazed to see how a carved wooden doll could come alive, be lifelike and to learn that if he the doll, did not tell the absolute truth, his nose size would increase dramatically within seconds. I was fascinated by this idea, with its funny scenes and shocked by what I saw in the film, which also contained darker uncomfortable moments.

Because of my natural curiosity, I became fascinated by nose sizes thereafter and would watch if any of my school pals told an untruth, to see if there was any increase in size of this important facial feature, or in its colour, such as a blush pink colour.

It was to no avail, as lies came and went, without any visible changes much to my disappointment, especially as I recalled that I had often been cautioned by my parents, not to be nosy and not to put my nose into others people’s affairs.

To see Pinocchio’s many strange adventures and to learn that even then in the 1800’s that very young children were being lured by gifts, then abducted by ruthless criminals and sold as chattels to persons unknown…I found this part of the story rather scary, I do recall.

Nevertheless despite the dark side of the Pinocchio fable, its nose growing seed was planted in my young, susceptible, subconscious mind and I remained interested in this fascinating idea from Collodi’s imaginative pen.

Outstretched noses

Quite recently, due to all the conundrum, media hysteria and non-stop declarations of fake news and the huge outbreak of lies and exposure of this and that scandal, involving famous individuals, along with their vehement denials of various allegations before resigning their offices, as well as the numerous past historical lies at present being exposed, by the new internet media forums that abound today, Pinocchio was reawakened from his slumbers.

I began to visualize a world, where this nose job increase due to lying, would become a reality of our times, led by ambitious people determined to nose ahead ….

I first looked to our past history and to our political leaders, working in our time-honoured, dignified, parliamentary institutions, making their weekly speeches to the people and to the truthful media personages, who conscientiously write, each and every word the politicians declared. The lies of this political world seemed ocean like in scale...Lies eternal.

Surely there could only be persons with short stubby truthful noses, in those hallowed halls of legal authority and power?

If Pinocchio were true? Then our politicians, their political controllers and their immediate servants, would have noses so long, that they would have to acquire paid attendants walking in front of them, holding up their extended noses above their heads, to allow them to move freely and keep the stench of their snotty sickness away from human sensitivities.

I imagined rows and rows of serious looking, hugely long nosed men and women, attending international conferences, in prestigious capital cities like Washington, London, Rome, Paris and the Hague, espousing their important views on this and that subject, including some blatant propagandistic untruths and promises they know cannot be delivered.

The best liars, needing motorised handlers, as their outstretched noses can be supported and moved around more easily, as they receive the applause of the shorter length noses of the cheering populations, who accept and generally believe in them and their governance, being led by the collective nose.

Nositus Extendum

Governments and the press would first create then establish, a deception of the people by the use of misinformation, alleging, with the support of all the international medical associations that the increase of nose growing, was entirely due to a new vicious virus from the East named as Nositus Extendum.

Avoiding the fact, that this nose outbreak of Nositus Extendum, had simply to do with lying and was easily curable by intense doses of the truth, by those afflicted by this false virus narrative.

International truth whistle-blowers with their short stubby noses, dumping huge amounts of truthful data via the internet, would be hunted down, arrested and put on public trial, accused of lying and deceiving the people.

The Police with their generally shorter noses, could now easily capture criminals, simply by asking the right questions, as if they lied, it would be visible immediately, saving so much time, effort, cost and manpower.

The established churches and various religious creeds and denominations, would also have some embarrassing problems, containing and hiding their nose extensions, as their scrupulous, undeviating versions of historical facts, are being placed in dispute as to their authenticity by learned scientific scholars, who I discovered, have shorter noses. I wonder why?

I was taught that God created us in his likeness and was the illumination of Truth. So I concluded he must have a small nose. But his arch rival, Lucifer the fallen angel, due to his myriad of lies and deceptions, must have a gigantic nose, wider and longer than any motorway known to man and big enough to cruise along to eternity. Some religious souls actually accusing Lucifer of creating the Nositus Extendum virus, to once again deceive the world by pushing his unwelcome nose into the affairs of mankind.

Hospitals and clinics

Medical establishments, would have serious problems with their doctors and nurses if they fail tell their patient’s, unpalatable truth about their conditions, as their noses would increase rapidly and due to Nositus Extendum, hospitals would be overwhelmed by people demanding operations to try and reduce nose sizes permanently.

Hospitals and clinics with facial health practitioners, would boom financially from desperate people demanding nose jobs, to reduce their size to something manageable and permanent, whilst the pharmaceutical companies, are busily engaged inventing new types of medical applications and pills, to combat Nositus Extendum the nose phenomena.

International financial institutions such as banks and stock exchanges, would ….performing their commercial transactions and money operations, on the computer screens as the false numbers being sent and received, would cause almighty anger and confusion, as the extended noses would be inadvertently hitting the wrong digits, causing mayhem in the markets.

The military’s of the world would be unable to operate efficiently, as with such long noses how could the tank crews, manage their killing machines with long noses and the infantry would need their noses strapped to their rifles so they can be fired. The snipers would be clearly ineffective. Perhaps only by the use of drones could they perform their national duties and earn their pay.

One could watch, enjoy and laugh at slick TV interviews, where both interviewer and interviewed, rest their differing nose sizes, on specially designed desks, that can be adjusted to the individual's size and shape...

Baron de Nosebury

I recently watched the fascinating interview, with the charming Baron de Nosebury, who clearly considered himself a nose above everyone else.

I had quite a chuckle, watching him having difficulty sipping from his glass of water as his extensive nose, got in the way and could not stop sneezing, as he tried to deliver his exaggerations and falsehoods, to his TV audience.

Lovers, proclaiming their love to their amours, would have to be completely sincere with their partners, as any variation and expanding movements of the nose, could lead to an emotionally negative response and possibly a breakup of the relationship, especially after being asked “how was it for you darling?’ and told “Ooooh yes it was wonderful.” OUCH!

However, some more intrepid lovers could go to any lengths, to turn this increased nose size, into a functional attraction and sexual addition to their loving repertoire.

It would become a world devoid of any racial, cultural conflict, but only resentments and jealousies as regards nose sizes, as in this case, bigger would not be better.

I suddenly shook my head vigorously and came out of my fanciful reverie. I touched my nose to check its size …Thank god it was only a dream, as my nose was normal, but strangely a bit warmer than normal and a little itchy I felt...I need a mirror… better check?

Will our present world, nose dive into oblivion? Can the truth in its purity, save us from this fate? Is a world of falsehoods, deceptions, downright lies and a plethora of fake news, permanently survivable?

Do we as a species, need to reflect once again on the Pinocchio Fable?


Copywrite: Dario Poli December 2017



.Futurist Portrait: Anil Gupta


Dr. Anil K. Gupta
is the Michael D. Dingman Chair in Strategy, Globalization and Entrepreneurship and Distinguished Scholar-Teacher at the Smith School of Business, The University of Maryland at College Park. Anil also serves as chairman, The China India Institute, a Washington DC-based research and consulting organization. He is a Distinguished Visiting Professor at Tsinghua University,
China and Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay and has earlier served as a Chaired Professor in Strategy at INSEAD and a visiting professor at Stanford University and Dartmouth College. He received a doctorate from the Harvard Business School, an M.B.A. from the Indian Institute of Management at Ahmedabad, and a B.Tech. from the Indian Institute of Technology at Kanpur.

He is also a regular participant at the World Economic Forum summits including the annual meeting in Davos and the regional meetings in China, India, and the Middle East. He is also a member of the Forum’s
Global Agenda Council on Emerging Multinationals.
Anil’s newest book -
Global Strategies for Emerging Asia - and an earlier
book -
Getting China and India Right

 




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