Image:Emotiv Epoc Neuroheadset. Image from http://emotiv.com

Brain computer interface (BCI) is something that will become more than reality in next 50 years. Actually the first neuroheadset will be lauched soon (late 2008) by Emotiv Systems.

In the future it might be possible that small nanorobots will scan our brains to see our dreams and feelings. Other possibility is small holes drilled to our skull for special BCI devise. This devise could for example record our dreams, and next day we could look at them in our therapy session. Freud would be so exicted about this if he was alive! (check here the whole story)

This vision about capturing dreams was provided by Michael Anissinov from a blog Accelerating Future. Check that blog- it is great!

As a futurist I follow very much blogs to find out new things and emerging issues in life. I do not follow blogs that are mainly focused on personal experiences of life (diary type of blogs), but I do follow blogs that are focused on new gadgets, trends in technology, environment, society etc. Also, there are some blogs that I  follow because the writers of them are just so brilliant, and it is kind of necessity to read them. One of my favourite blogs is www.pinktentacle.com that collects interesting news about Japan- practically in all areas of life. Here is one of my favourite stories:

New Japanese mobile phone game combines virtual gaming and reality. The game — called “Ippon Zuri” (which means “pole-and-line fishing”) — was created by FIT, a Fukuoka-based system development company. The idea of the game is simple: just virtually catch a fish with your mobile phone and if you manage to get one, a real fish is delivered behind your door.  Read more here.

In Helsingin Sanomat, last friday there was an interesting article about new trends of death. As an example one woman was showing her own coffin that was waiting for her passing away in her lobby at her home. She also had a dress ready for her burial.

Shall we have designed coffins in the future? There certainly are new trends for death. For example Ecopod is making designed coffins made of recycled paper, Swedish company Promessa is advertising new way of ecological burial. There are virtual cemetaries for people and for pets in the Internet.  Or what about a coffin with a design of Nokia mobile phone?

While walking in the forest I spotted another kind of epitaph. That you can see in the picture below. The graffiti was made for some young man who died in the age of 28 (according to the dates in the graffiti).  That young man surely had great friends!

Australian Cascade brewery located in Tasmania has started to produce green beer called Cascade Green. Do not worry: the colour of the beer in still normal, but the beer is environmentally friendly, 100% carbon offset (weak signal number one). The company announces in their internet pages:“All remaining greenhouse gas emissions from Cascade Green are offset. That means, from the moment we source the hops from the lush Tasmanian wilderness, through to when you place your empty bottles in the recycling bin, every single carbon emission has been accounted for.”

Just visit the pages of the beer http://www.cascadegreen.com.au/ and see how gree beer can go (A notice: you have to be over 18 years old to get acces to the pages (2. weak signal!))

Is there an ethical mobile phone? some person was asking in a column in Helsingin Sanomat today. “No there is not”, answered Päivi Pöyhönen from Finnwatch , an organization that is interested in how ethically organizations operate. Ms. Pöyhenen axplained that there is no use to try to compare different mobile phone brands, because the components are usually coming from same factories.

The most worrying issue is that circumstances have not got better during last years in these factories.

The story outlines that mobile phones today are far from being ethical, but the things could go better in the following years. Because of activists in theis area companies have also started to have a closer look at ethical issues. The article spurs us to wait for the first fair traid mobile phone.

(article in Helsingin Sanomat, 19 March, 2008, page D2, kysy vain: Onko eettistä kännykkää?)

I was reading a very local news paper called Avaalehti. It is focused on telling small events about my home town and some of the cities nearby here in Southern Finland. I was very surprised to notice an ad about Hollywood Tailor shop in the news paper. The issue here was that this tailor shop locates in Thailand Hua Hin, which is located about 8000 kilometers from Finland. That is a long way to get a suit for you!  The ad was written in perfect Finnish and it promised that the customers are picked for free from the hotel to the tailor shop.

Well, this is tru case of globalization: get your business cards from China and suits from Thailand.