Category: Future

Reclaiming Craftsmanship: When “Better” Means More Than Cheap

In Future, Ideas, ThoughtsApril 13, 2024Leave a comment

For the past 50 years, the relentless pursuit of affordability has defined our collective notion of “better.” Cheaper prices became the paramount metric, overshadowing critical variables like quality, style, sustainability, and even health impacts. This myopic view has had stark repercussions, leading to a race to the bottom fueled by mass production, standardization, and planned obsolescence.

But now, a renaissance is stirring – one that recalibrates our understanding of “better” through a more holistic lens. We’re beginning to recognize that

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A Father’s Wake-Up Call: The Year 2040

In FutureAugust 12, 2023Leave a comment

Mehrad

Becoming a father changes you in ways that are both immediate and profound. For me, one of those pivotal moments arrived when I was setting up a custodial account for my daughter. I filled in her birth date, and the screen displayed a message saying she would turn 18 in the year 2040. That number struck me like an alarm bell. It was the same year mentioned in numerous IPCC and Net Zero reports that warn about reaching a critical

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Promethean Scale thinking for Humanity

In Future, Ideas, Innovation, UncategorizedFebruary 28, 2023

Mehrad

In our current era of exponential advances in AI, we are witnessing innovations on the cusp of a discovery that are Promethean in scale. These breakthroughs have the potential to transform our society’s fundamentals, including our economy, health, and material possibilities.

Just as Beethoven introduced a unique and distinctive musical scale called the “Prometheus scale” to push the boundaries of traditional musical structures, AI has the potential to unlock new ways to extract insights

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Living in the Future

In Future, ThoughtsTags covid19, pandemicApril 27, 2020Leave a comment

Mehrad

Here in Dubai, we are starting to come out of lockdown ahead of many other countries.

Dubai, under the Dubai Future Foundation initiative, has considered itself the testbed for the world. Inviting startups from around the world to prototype new technologies to help craft future regulations.

Now with Dubai’s enforced lockdown strategy coming to an end, it can serve as a testbed for the rest of the world and hopefully, set an example for how

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Interpreting Trends [COVID-19 Edition]

In Analysis, FutureApril 22, 2020Leave a comment

Mehrad

It’s important to follow trends and consider the implications, but are we always properly interpreting what the trends mean and the future implications of what we are observing today?

Let’s look at the trending Google term ‘online grocery shopping’, both globally and locally (within the UAE).

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Building the Future & the Future of Building

In Future, ThoughtsTags pandemicApril 21, 20202 Comments

Mehrad

Marc Andreessen recently wrote, IT’S TIME TO BUILD, an excerpt of what he wrote,

“Medical equipment and financial conduits involve no rocket science whatsoever. At least therapies and vaccines are hard! Making masks and transferring money are not hard. We could have these things but we chose not to — specifically we chose not to have the mechanisms, the factories, the systems to make these things. We chose not to *build*.

You don’t just see this smug complacency, this

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Innovation & Education

In Education, Future, InnovationMay 16, 2017Leave a comment

Mehrad

I recently had a chance to do some work sessions for the UAE Telecommunications and Regulation Authority (TRA) regarding technology trends and disruptive innovation that are likely to make us re think our entire education curriculum.

Some of the research presented was based off the extensive work previously done with my involvement with Honeybird while other was a summarized collection of the latest education trends I’ve been reviewing and been tracking for some time.

The TRA, in partnership with the Ministry of

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How Dubai can become the Self Driving Capital of the World

In Future, Innovation, TransportMarch 4, 2017Leave a comment

Mehrad

Following the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration report and investigation after a Tesla crash last year where the vehicles autopilot system was vindicated, the benefits of self-driving autonomous vehicles are becoming more and more apparent. The report highlighted the benefits of Automatic Emergency Braking (AEB) or Autopilot systems could drastically reduce rear-end crashes.

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Automation & Jobs

In Capitalism, FutureFebruary 7, 2017Leave a comment

Mehrad

A fascinating and also thought-provoking look to see such automotive manufacturing in action with so few people on the line.

The video is 12 minutes long, but you’ll get the point after 30 seconds as to what you are witnessing.

There is another element to this automation: the knowledge worker jobs behind the scenes that programmed and created the machinery seen. But even those are

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Hello Future!

In FutureSeptember 26, 2016Leave a comment

Mehrad

I’ve always constantly had ideas about technology & future; noting down many ideas on a day-to-day basis, so now I’ve decided to start organizing them and adding a bit more analytical thought to them…

I hope you enjoy the glimpse into some of my ideas on display in a public long form organized stream of thought. Hopefully it sparks some discussion and ideas of your

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