What Do Apple Music, Robot-Fueled Unemployment, and Bioartificial Replacement Limbs Have In Common?

We live in a complex world--a world of risk, unpredictability, disruptive technological change, and socio-political brittleness. And while we cannot possibly drink the firehose of information that gushes every minute on our Twitter feeds, it's important to stay informed of current events and their ramifications for the future; it's a way we can be better able to mitigate risk in our lives, hope for the best, and plan for the worst.

Below are a series of news stories that hit the internet feeds today all of which are important to follow and consider the ramifications of. 

1. Building and Transplanting a Bioengineered Forelimb: As noted on Kurzweilai.net,

Cells injected into a decellurized rat limb, giving it shape and structure.

Image from KurzweilAI.net

 A team of Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) investigators has made the first steps towards developing bioartificial replacement limbs suitable for transplantation. In a Biomaterials journal report, the researchers describe using an experimental approach previously used to build bioartificial organs to engineer rat forelimbs with functioning vascular and muscle tissue. They also provided evidence that the same approach could be applied to the limbs of primates. 

The article noted that the complexity of human limbs makes it challenging to use bioengineering for human body parts; however, the results of these experiments are steps in the right direction. Imagine what creating bioartificial replacements will do; and of course those replacements could be bioengineered to be stronger, more adroit--not unlike the Million-Dollar Man of the tv series. 

2. Social Unrest to Escalate as Robots Fuel Unemployment: 

Johann Rupert. Image from Forbes

Billionaire and founder and chair of Richemont, Johann Rupert (whose made his money selling Cartier, Montblanc, and Chloe) claims that we are in for mass unemployment in the coming years as robots take over the majority of manufacturing jobs, according to Bloomberg. Such technological changes will destroy the middle class and lead to class envy and systemic conflict. We've covered this before in the autonomous tractor-trailors that Daimler has recently unveiled. Some people today criticize this notion of mass unemployment as being alarmist, but look at what cheap labour has done to places like Michigan. Is a robot any different? Such claims were also made by the National Post today in which Suncor has announced its new fleet of autonomous heavy haulers in areas north of Fort McMurray--the rationale being to cut costs and boost productivity in light of the year-long plunge of oil prices. 

3. The Future of Music is $10 a Month: 

Apple released today features of its new i0S9, one of which is Apple Music coming June 30th: a service in which you will be able to access Apple's massive music library, along with a couple of other features, such as a social networking app--like MySpace only for music--in which artists can share their stories, photos, videos, etc. They are also offering a family plan (up to 6 members) for only $15. It's coming to iTunes, Apple TV, and even Android and PC. Wired Magazine is calling it one of Apple's biggest moves yet. The big move here of course is that now you really don't own your music. By signing up, you're paying for a streaming service. Sure you get tons of music, but for the money, you don't own any of it. The control lies in Apple's hands. A fine trade-off for all that music? We'll see...

These may seem like unrelated stories, but the insights are in the conclusions you can draw by sewing them together and asking questions like, What would a world look like in which you didn't own anything, your job was replaced by robots, and there were bioartificial limbs for the ultra-wealthy? What kind of world would that be? And what kind of choices should I be making right now? Look into upgrading my skill set? Start a business? Buy a record player and some vinyl? That's how you start to get a bit of a picture of the world we're living in and what's unfolding...