Welcome

 

Please see significant recent changes below and contact us for help in dealing with change.

Please see below what's likely to change in the coming years and contact us for help in dealing with change.

• 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 2026 2027 2028 
• 2029 2030 2031 2033 2034 2035 2036 2037 2038 
• 2039 2040 2045 2050 2051 2052 2060 2061 2063 
• 2064 2070 2075 2076 2082 2088 2090 2092 2095 
• 2099 2100 2116 2150 2500 

 

 

Each Sunday Halcyon brings you a short, sharp and stimulating read - 7 issues that have witnessed significant change over the past 7 days.

This week, 

 

ACTIVISM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ban China’s wild animal trade, urged Quartz, adding that if we want to thwart viral epidemics, we should be urging China to make its temporary ban permanent.

 

ATTENTION

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Technology and devices aren't inherently distracting, according to some behavioural design experts. Distraction comes from internal triggers of discomfort. So, the answer to avoiding distraction may not be a total digital detox, but instead developing healthy ways of identifying and coping with these internal triggers through three main strategies: reimagining the trigger as a sensation of curiosity, reimagining the task itself, and avoiding self-limiting beliefs regarding one's temperament.

 

AGEING

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

According to a study published by King’s College London, deciding to unretire is a societal phenomenon we are barely aware of and yet more and more of us are now doing it. The research showed that a quarter of people in the UK who retire now change their minds and resume work, mostly within five years of giving up their jobs. The results indicated that there are various factors behind such a decision.

 

DESIGN

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Companies that excel at design grow revenues and shareholder returns at nearly twice the rate of their industry peers. A McKinsey survey found that some 90% of companies weren’t reaching the full potential of design, even as, in the past five years, double the number of companies have added senior design roles to their organisation and the fact that research shows that bold, design-led, user-centric strategies correlate strongly with higher financial results. 

 

HOPE

 

Research suggests that during times of illness, hope has an impact on the nervous system that makes improvement and recovery more likely. This goes some way to explaining the “placebo effect” - a tangible physical improvement created by hope alone. Hope is not the same as optimism - it is active rather than passive. Hope motivates us into taking positive actions that can lead to positive results. Feeling hopeful allows us to approach problems and challenges with a strategy for success, increasing the chances of us actually achieving our goals. Author of The Anatomy of Hope, Jerome Groopman, states how though “false hope can lead to intemperate choices and flawed decision making. True hope takes into account the real threats that exist and seeks to navigate the best path around them.”

 

IDEAS

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Will China’s rise as a global economic power be accompanied by a global shift in ideologies? Are Western ideas the path to progress and growth, or a hangover from colonial dominance? Is the global community rightly sceptical about China’s ideological superiority, or will Daoism and Confucianism become increasingly influential around the world? Oxford professor of China Studies Vivienne Shue, political philosopher Jamie Whyte and author of How The World Thinks Julian Baggini joined China Dialogue's Isabel Hilton at the Insititute of Ideas to consider China’s influence on the future of thought.

 

ISOLATION

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Maria Popova comforts us that “The best things in life happen to you when you’re alone,” according to artist Agnes Martin reflecting in her final years. “Oh comforting solitude, how favourable thou art to original thought!” wrote the founding father of neuroscience in his advice to young scientists. The poet Elizabeth Bishop believed that everyone should experience at least one prolonged period of solitude in life. For in true solitude, as Wendell Berry so memorably observed, “one’s inner voices become audible [and] in consequence, one responds more clearly to other lives” — an intuitive understanding of what psychologists have since found: that “fertile solitude” is a basic unit of a full and contented life.

 

SPACE

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When it rains on at least one distant planet, it rains iron. That’s what astronomers have observed on Wasp-76b, whose days are hot enough to vaporise metals.

 

TECHNOLOGY

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

DNV GL’s Technology Outlook 2030 argued that “precision” will define many of the technology developments in the next decade: precision materials, precision healthcare, precision food design etc.