World Futures Fall 2021

Mastering automation is a foundational skill required to safely operate any modern state-of-the-art aircraft. Under normal circumstances, automation reduces workload, creates efficiencies, and, to a fault, is highly dependable. On rare occasions, these highly reliable systems present pilots with an unexpected, obscure, or highly complex scenario that if mismanaged may quickly deteriorate and jeopardize the safety of flight. The article focuses on situations to where the human was unable to work with or override an autonomous system, resulting in lost of craft and life. This is a situation that will continue to rise in significance as we transition to more autonomy in our lives. We must understand the machines as we understand ourselves and others involved in our lives.

More on the impact of climate change and sea ports and the cascading effect on the economy. Nature of ports makes them more susceptible to environment changes as a result of climate change--increased intense events and rising sea levels. Author calls for change now .

"Several prominent professors at U.S. colleges have participated in China's talent acquisition program, according to leaked documents from a Chinese regional authority. The professors worked with the Thousand Talents Program (TTP), a controversial state-backed recruitment plan criticized by U.S. officials for its role in transferring Western research and technology to China."

"A baby girl born in Singapore weighing the same as an apple is believed to be the world's lightest baby to survive a premature birth and be discharged healthy. She finally headed home with her grateful parents after 13 months of fighting for her life in the hospital. Kwek Yu Xuan was born at 24 weeks and 6 days gestation on June 9, 2020, at Singapore's National University Hospital (NUH). At birth, she weighed just 212 grams (0.46 pounds), making her lighter than the smallest survivor on the Tiniest Babies Registry managed by the University of Iowa."

"Beijing is isolating itself on the world stage after taking an aggressive turn on the diplomatic front in recent years, according to the report, which was released earlier this week. That behavior has sparked rising blowback, even from countries traditionally on friendly terms with the regime. "China is its own biggest enemy when it comes to influence," the report"

"The wired occupancy sensors market was valued at USD 2.15 billion in 2020 and is expected to reach USD 6.57 billion by 2026, at a CAGR of 7% over the forecast period 2021 - 2026. The increase in demand for the stable and high-accuracy sensor will drive the wired occupancy sensors market in the forecast period."

"The wireless occupancy sensors market is expected to register a CAGR of 18.3% over the forecast period (2021 - 2026). Energy-saving has been crucial for growth in any economy, as a result, the government is also coming with several policies to save energy, which will drive the market in the forecast period."

"The smart homes market was valued at USD 79.13 billion in 2020, and it is expected to reach USD 313.95 billion by 2026 and register a CAGR of 25.3% over the forecast period (2021 - 2026). Across real estate companies and the architect ecosystem, the 'new normal' defined through the social distancing results in a requirement to go back to the redesign basics and reinvent the residential real estate product by factoring in new-age designing, efficiency, and innovation. As the redesign happens, the need for a totally new set of amenities has resurfaced and gained prominence. What the customer will need in the 'new normal' has undergone a revolution in the crisis triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic, and it is leading to a paradigm shift in residential spaces."

"The global energy management system market was valued at USD 8.2 billion in 2020 and expected to reach USD 19.91 billion by 2026 and grow at a CAGR of 16.2% over the forecast period (2021 - 2026). The increasing focus toward issues, such as managing energy consumption, optimizing the use for renewable energy sources, and reducing carbon footprint and greenhouse gas emissions, is creating a demand for EMS. Further, cloud services effectively minimize operational costs of software development and maintenance and direct the monetary costs, cost of time, and spent resources on maintaining the in-house IT professionals and infrastructure on gathering, storing, and analyzing energy data.​ Cloud services are an ongoing trend responsible for the growth of the market studied."

"The Building Automation Systems Market was valued at USD 60.31 billion in 2020 and expected to reach USD 112.93 billion by 2026 and grow at a CAGR of 11.02% over the forecast period (2021-2026). Building automation systems, otherwise known as building automation and control systems (BACS), are automated systems that integrate and connect different facility technologies, including HVAC, lighting, surveillance, and security, among others, through information flow to a monitoring point."

"The smart building market was valued at USD 82.55 billion in 2020 and is expected to reach USD 229.10 billion by 2026 at a CAGR of over 11.33% over the forecast period (2021 - 2026). Growing energy concerns, increasing government initiatives on smart infrastructure projects are driving the market's growth positively. Solutions, such as the Building Energy Management System, Infrastructure Management System, and Intelligent Security System, are being adopted for smart buildings. BEMS is integrated, computerized systems for monitoring and controlling energy-related building services plant and equipment, such as HVAC systems and lighting, among others"

"Last year, two reports were published that broadened our picture of the scale and method of this atrocity. "Bloody Harvest/ The Slaughter-An Update" by investigators David Matas, David Kilgour, and Ethan Gutmann was released on June 22 in Washington, D.C. This report shows detailed evidence of the massive number of organ transplants taking place in Chinese hospitals. It analyzed hospital revenue, bed counts and utilization rates, surgical personnel, and other data and reached the conclusion that China is performing 60,000 to 100,000 transplants per year, far exceeding the Chinese government's claim of 10,000 per year."

"According to Theresa Chu, a lawyer with the Taiwan Falun Gong Attorney Group, "Forced organ harvesting is not only used to carry out the … genocide of Falun Gong practitioners and ethnic minority groups, such as Uyghurs, but also implicated in massive economic profits from organ transplantation, transnational organ sale, transplant tourism, and organ brokerage.""

"Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg-who in the past openly pandered to Chinese officials, likely in an effort to ensure the social media giant's entry into the Chinese market-recently made a speech at Georgetown University in which he criticized the Chinese regime for its internet censorship, striking a remarkably different tone. "

"Facebook has agreed to pay a 500,000 pound ($644,000) fine for breaches of data protection law related to the harvesting of data by consultancy Cambridge Analytica, Britain's information rights regulator said on Oct. 30."

" recently filed lawsuit against Facebook reveals new details about the Cambridge Analytica data breach scandal, claiming among other allegations that company executives massively overpaid the Federal Trade Commission to shield CEO Mark Zuckerberg from personal liability."

"Banks said CalPERS' massive investments in China were estimated in 2018 to be $3.1 billion in at least 172 Chinese firms. He also noted that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo recently told a meeting of the nation's governors that included Newsom that CalPERS "is invested in companies that supply the People's Liberation Army (PLA) that put our soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines at risk.""