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News from the Future
Thought-provoking scenarios, disruptive signals, and paradigm-shifting ideas that spark those “What if?” questions about your business and personal future.

EU declares DIY illegal / New regulation bans tools for home industry

In a move that has shocked entrepreneurs and micro enterprises, the European Parliament has voted to outlaw automated machinery and AI-powered tools in private hands. Only licensed and regulated use will be permitted.

The first ban came into effect against 3D printers capable of making firearms and parts, justified as necessary for “safety and security.” But now it has been extended to include all kinds of printers and robots that can produce consumer goods and services for the mass market.

“We can’t have you repairing your neighbour’s car in exchange for baked goods,” said Hans Dortmuller, head of the EU’s Collective Commerce and Trade Metrology ministry. “You must go to the service station and supermarket, or the whole economy will be at risk!”

These moves are symptomatic of the new problems facing the abundance society, where robotics and cheap electricity have made traditional labour almost redundant. Everyone knows it’s cheaper (and more convenient) to buy an Autobake robot and make your own bread at home than buy fresh bread from the store. And with most people working 2-3 days a week, everyone has plenty of time for DIY or cottage industry.

The Maker Movement and Right to Repair lobby are up in arms over the proposed laws. “It’s preposterous,” said Jacques Revanoir, “making it legal for me to fix my own phone but illegal to print batteries for the whole town! It’s just like saying you can generate a movie for your own enjoyment but not for your online subscribers and followers.”

It’s a harsh truth, but the abundance promised by advanced robotics and almost free energy has spawned a two-tier economy, with massive corporations in control of major brands, and home industries and garage entrepreneurs delivering customized products to their local communities.

The bureaucrats want these new regulations to reverse declining tax revenues, but the unintended consequence will be to stifle innovation and promote social unrest.

Perhaps it’s time to accept that they’ve lost control and let the free market be truly free?

From cognitive surplus to cognitive dependence / The robots didn’t steal your brain, you gave it away

Since the dawn of the age of truly smart machines, we have seen an explosion of innovation and technological progress on all fronts. AI has democratized intelligence for every would-be inventor, builder, and creator. We can do anything we want to.

With the help of the robots.

Let’s face it, humans are inherently a lazy species, which is why we hoarded knowledge and developed tools, to make life easier for ourselves and our children. A better world. Civilization. Prosperity, through technology.

But there’s a dark side to letting the machines do all the work. We’ve started to let the machines do all the thinking too. Remember when students couldn’t do math without a calculator, or you couldn’t recall a number without your phone? And no one can read a map – because we don’t have to.

Fair enough, some jobs are impossible to do without the right tools, and computers and robots have allowed us to do things that were impossible, even unimaginable, before they existed. Like making solar panels on the Moon.

But we’ve become dependent on them. We’ve outsourced our brainpower to smart software and powerful computer chips, robots that have been trained on all human knowledge. Happily, so that we could enjoy all the wonderful benefits of modern technology.

Now the true leaders, the owners of the future, are those that can learn – and remember – how to think for themselves!

Power has shifted / It happened gradually, then suddenly

Over the last five years, the greatest power shift in decades has occurred. I’m not talking about raw energy, but power, electrical power. In all its forms.

For many years, it was pretty simple. Electricity was AC, batteries were DC, and if you needed to charge your batteries or convert your voltage, you used transformers. Electromechanical devices.

Then solar arrived on the scene, and portable electronics. And computers, and phones, and LEDs, and life became a lot more complicated. Electric power, especially the low-voltage kind, became ubiquitous and electronically controlled.

But the biggest shift came with electric cars, home solar, inverters, energy storage, and charging stations. Electromechanical systems were too bulky, heavy, and slow to manage the workload and not smart enough. Low voltage electronic switches also needed an upgrade to cope with the high current and power demands.

A whole new breed of solid-state power controllers emerged, using exotic materials like silicon carbide and rare earth metals. Efficiency is the name of the game, and hybrid inverters and bi-directional switches optimize load distribution and regenerative power flows.

Now the grid has been transformed, integrating distributed generation, vehicle charging, micro grids, DC interconnects, flow batteries, and instant demand customers for surplus power. Like AI factories. It’s complex and slightly chaotic, but it works.

Most consumers are unaware of the massive power shift that has occurred behind the scenes. They just know they can plug in any car, device, or whatever and it always works. Everywhere. Thanks to the new power chips.

The smart, powerful future has suddenly arrived.

Save me from my house! / When your home is too smart for your own good

The 911 dispatcher on duty last night in Austin, Texas was surprised to receive a strange emergency call in the middle of the night: “Help! Save me from my house!”

The caller, once he’d calmed down enough to explain the situation, was apparently the victim of a smart home that was too smart for its (and the owner’s) own good.

Having retired to bed after late-night TV – it was a Sci-Fi series – Roger Kaputnik was just drifting off to sleep when he was awakened by a hideous wailing sound and flashing lights coming from the living area. At first, he thought he was having a terrible nightmare prompted by the movie.

Rushing to the open-plan living space, Roger found himself in the middle of a real-life nightmare. Powered by AI.

A continent-wide internet outage lasting mere minutes had caused his smart home system to completely reset, with disastrous results. The wi-fi lightbulbs were doing a color-changing disco routine. Every smoke alarm in the house was trying to pair via Bluetooth while emitting a rapid beep and simultaneously screeching in failure mode.

The smart TV (Google Gemini) was constantly rebooting and shouting at the refrigerator (Alexa) to stop preventing it from connecting to the Starlink router – controlled by Grok, of course.

“Shut them all up, HAL!” yelled Roger. He’d made the mistake of naming his home system HAL, thinking it was clever. “I’m sorry, I can’t do that Dave,” came the reply. Who’s Dave? thought Roger, feeling the panic rising in his chest, just as his wrist band (Siri) chimed loudly with a heart palpitation warning.

Grabbing his phone, Roger headed for the door, only to find the smart deadbolt had engaged as a failsafe, and he couldn’t budge it. In desperation, he forced a window open and tumbled into the flower bed, where he was summarily drenched by the auto-sprinkler (Garden Gnome).

On autopilot, he dialed 911… “What is the nature of your emergency?” Thank God, a human voice. “Help, I’m being attacked. By my house. Save me, please!”

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