Fremtidens produkt: Biler bliver noget ganske andet

En eksempel til at illustrere pointerne i mit essay om fremtidens produkt: 

Fremtidens bil vil stadig have hjul og være beregnet til at køre fra A til B, men stort set alt andet vil være anderledes.

Biler er det klassiske industrielle produkt. Fords enorme fabrikker kunne tage stål og gummi ind i den ene ende, og spytte millioner af helt ens biler ud for enden af samlebåndet.

Fremtidens bil vil kunne konfigureres i detaljer. Mange biler tilbyder i dag online værktøjer, der gør det muligt for kunden at angive præcist, hvilken farve, motor og indtræk, bilen skal fremstilles med. Biler, der er elektroniske og styret af computere, vil kunne programmeres og opdateres med apps og nye styresystemer – hvad enten det er lyden, kabinelyset eller køreegenskaberne. Tesla har eksempelvis netop udsendt en ny version af software, der gør bilen i stand til at holde sig i vognbanen automatisk.

Omkostningerne ved udvikle og fremstille bilen vil i stigende grad være knyttet til elektronik og software. Navigation, overvågning, kontakt til andre biler og trafiksystemer, underholdning og information til passagererne… Det er ikke længere stål og gummi, der er den vigtigste udgift.

Den elektroniske del af bilens funktion er også der, hvor udviklingen går stærkt – hvis ikke ligefrem eksponentielt, i takt med stærkere computere, big data og kunstig intelligens.

Fremtidens bil vil være konstant opkoblet og i kontakt med den omgivende trafik. Den vil sende observationer om sin position og om trafikforhold, ligesom den løbende vil modtage data. I første omgang vil det gøre det lettere at styre trafikken, undgå trafikpropper og finde parkeringspladser, men efterhånden som bilen bliver selvkørende, vil den skulle koordineres tæt med bilerne omkring den.

De fleste biler er i dag personligt ejet, men stadig flere bruger dele-biler eller leaser bilen i en periode. Specielt med selvkørende biler, vil det for mange være en lettelse, at kunne bestille en bil, der henter og bringer en til sit destination og så kører videre med nye passagerer. Når bilen er en del af en pulje af biler, forandres forretningsmodellen markant. Det samme gør den tilknytning som mange ejere i dag har til deres bil.

Bilen bliver én af en række elementer, der tilsammen leverer en mobilitets-løsning. Hvilken kombination af bil, tog, cykel, delebil osv. der bedst og billigst løser en bestemt persons behov i en specifik situation sammensættes til lejligheden. Det er løsningen, ikke bilen, som brugeren betaler for.

Message for Tiger Mom: It's not all about being rational

Suketu Metha wrote a critique of "Tiger Mom" Amy Chua and her husband's recent book about the triple package of traits that supposedly determine one's success in life. The article was printed in Time Magazine back in february. 

Metha goes to the heart of what "success" and "achievement" means, reminding us that the disciplined and achievement focused approach to life is not always what we need. 

Here's a quote: 
"It's not conformity that makes this country great; it's an individual striking out against the expectations of his culture, Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg dropping out of Harvard, Miles Davis coming out of heroin addiction to produce 'Round About Midnight, the 14-year-old Billie Holiday turning the pain of her childhood into the bluest beauty, Sylvia Plath taking on death with pills and poetry, William S. Burroughs writing from the bowels of his addiction in Naked Lunch; it's Hemingway and Fitzgerald and Cheever and Carver drinking and writing, writing and drinking through their demons. Imagine what American culture would be if American artists had kept a tight check on their impulses.

When people dream of moving to America, it's not just so that they can be prudent, studious, restrained. "

Suketu Metha is the author of the splendid book about Mumbai, Maximum City.

The core of e-learning

E-learning, flipping the classroom, blended learning... it's been exploding recently.
Here are links to three podcast with some central actors in the field:

A presentation by Salman Khan at the London School of Economics

A presentation by Sebastian Thrun from Udacity for the Commonwealth club of California on april 17. 2013

And finally, some interesting critical observations from Nicholas Negroponte, ex-head of MIT Medialab, speaking for the Long Now Foundation. He argues that videoinstructions and online tests are disastrous for learning. He calls it instructionalism. Instead he reminds of the virtues of constructivism; learning by doing and making, and the combination and the combination of theory and practice.
His remarks are concentrated 44 minutes into the programme.

Socializing kids to see themselves as co-creators

Entrepreneurial spirit is not a Danish characteristic. Our culture tends toward the less risky, less offensive approach to life. Much has been said about the need to make our educational system instill a more entrepreneurial culture, and train kids to see starting a business as a real possibility. The discussion often includes the need for leadership.

In typical Danish fashion I would like to suggest another line of thinking: maybe we should go broader. Perhaps what we need is to educate kids to become participants and co-creators, to show initiative, to assume responsibility and contribute – as opposed to passively accepting what ever we are offered in a role as receivers, consumers, and clients.

Once we have that kind of culture among kids, I’m confident that entrepreneurs will emerge. Also, we would have the foundation of a democracy that is not just a matter of saying yes or no, but one in which we see eachothers as participants and co-creators.