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To anyone taking a stock check of our planet’s resources, the future doesn’t look bright. Coal, gas and oil supplies are shrinking. Indium, nickel and tantalum – just some of the metals that go into our smartphones – are being used faster than we can dig them up. Food supplies and drinkable water are becoming strained as our planet’s population swells and the climate changes. It’s easy to imagine that the next century could be characterised by scarcity. And that’s without considering the ethical and ecological consequences of acquiring these precious resources. However, there is another way to look at this problem. On p36 Matt Ridley makes his case for a different future, one that’s brighter than you might think.

Just one more thing… I’m a big crime fan. Columbo’s more my flavour than The Killing; I love a great whodunnit. But the crime genre might be in trouble, as breakthroughs in the likes of genetics and AI are about to make solving crime a lot simpler. For instance, some cities are already working on systems that will help them predict crimes before they happen, much like earthquakes. And if someone does commit a crime, in the near future the police will probably be able to establish what the suspect looks like and what they’ve been up to from a few samples of blood and hair. There’ll be no savant-like detectives either, as all the real work will be done by an artificial intelligence that’s studied every criminal case from the last decade. Even then, unless they teach it to gather all its suspects into a room before delivering a lengthy monologue revealing the culprit, I suspect crime writers are going to have to shake up the genre. I jest, but the point stands that the way we fight crime is going through a revolution right now, turn to p48 for more.