A future of microbial computing
FUTURIST Richard Hickson has a comforting projection: New Zealand will continue to do good science no matter what happens. Hickson wrote one of 13 articles in a recent special issue of the Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand looking at the country’s science 15 years into the future.
His article looked at the outcomes of four scenarios, based on different levels of funding and how technology development was prioritised.
In one, the country’s tertiary educators are amalgamated into a single University of Aotearoa, after student numbers plummeted. High numbers of researchers take their redundancy packages, plus the flood of cheap equipment from university labs, and create their own start-ups. Turning bacteria into microscopic computers sees a Palmerston North group catch the interest of Google.
‘‘It’s building on our expertise in growing microbes for the diary sector.’’
Other ideas for 2030 included Weta branching out into medical imaging and a World of Wearable Tech competition developing ‘‘e-couture’’.
‘‘I didn’t want to be too serious. These journals can come off as quite dry and academic.’’
Hickson was positive that good science would still be done no matter the surrounding circumstances.
‘‘There’s always grumbles that they need more money but there’s still great, motivated scientists involved in doing things.
‘‘That’s just part of why people get into science.’’
As an analyst for the Department of Internal Affairs, Hickson was used to predicting what the future might hold, though the journal article was his personal take on things, he said.
‘‘Rather than predict what’s going to happen, it was about some issues or trends I’ve picked up in New Zealand and international science. And how we can weave that into a more interesting way of talking about the future,’’ he said.
‘‘It was really about how we can stimulate better innovation in New Zealand by New Zealand firms, and how we compete internationally when there’s a lot more money going there.’’
One lesson from one of the scenarios was taking a broader view than at present of what was needed to create innovation, rather than ‘‘just pouring money in at the start and then something wonderful comes out at the end’’.
Hickson used his fictional Lincoln Ventures, a consultancy and technology development firm, and its successes in developing vertical farms in Christchurch and Auckland and cybernetic farms in Canterbury to get this idea across in one scenario.
‘‘I didn’t want to pick one which was going to be the preferred or more likely.
‘‘It would be nice to see bits from all of them appear,’’ Hickson said.
It was really about how we can stimulate better innovation in New Zealand by New Zealand firms, and how we compete internationally when there’s a lot more money going there.
Richard Hickson