The 6 Trends - Part 1

FuelMix is a very keen urban observant and looks for clues in apparently unrelated phenomena. Let’s also articulate the premise that fact may indeed be stranger than fiction.

Trend 1

First, is the huge number of people carrying things around. Backpacks are getting bigger, laptop carrying cases are larger, more people are using a hybrid carry-on luggage on wheels that doubles as a briefcase, shopping bags are bigger, people are using both a briefcase and a laptop case, leather satchels or ballistic nylon messenger bags are everywhere.

Trend 2

Second, is the deep social penetration of electronic devices, namely portable media players, mobile phones, personal digital assistants, Bluetooth ear pieces, music and radio headphones. Almost everyone you see, of all ages, is wearing or carrying something that ultimately plugs into their ears.

Every electronic device emits an electromagnetic frequency. The human brain and the human body continuously emits electromagnetic frequencies as well. There are already grumblings alleging that mobile phones are causing brain tumors. Yet they and every other device, are plugged into people’s ears – which incidentally are in close proximity to the brain.

What is the effect of these electromagnetic frequencies on the human body’s and the human brain’s natural electromagnetic frequencies?

Trend 3

Third, is the avowed urban intent to go Wi-Fi. Drag your laptop, your handheld anywhere – hey, it’s convenient. A plethora of Wi-Fi transmitters is everywhere – on rooftops, in the subway, on traffic lights, street signs, in school playgrounds, in parks, in offices. There are even activists who insist that internet access is now a basic human right.

Trend 4

Fourth, the increasing acceleration of media reports on cloning, specifically, the acceptance of animal cloning (“isn’t it a nice way to protect endangered species…?” and “wouldn’t it be nice to eat beef without fear of Mad Cow Disease?”) and the inevitability of human cloning.

What is even more interesting are the reports of cloning one animal with another to produce a hybrid. Those reports are becoming more frequent.

Trend 5

Fifth, hardly a week goes by without some genetic scientist claiming to have an insight into human DNA and proclaiming that in the not-too-distant-future, there will be a cure for this or that.

Trend 6

Sixth, the fetish to monitor human behaviour and characteristics justified on the grounds of national security, corporate security, or crime-prevention. Withess the number of urban security cameras, the insistence that travelers provide all 10 fingerprints, iris scans, the data-mining on a person’s travel history, the monitoring of corporate e-mails, the soon-to-be-launched computer programs to wirelessly monitor a person’s heart beat, blood pressure and facial expressions whilst at the office, the surgical implanting of RFID chips in prisoners and those working in high-level security installations.

What does this all mean? As FuelMix said at the beginning of this posting, let’s start with the premise that fact may indeed be stranger than fiction.

FuelMix will give his take on the 6 Trends in Part 2.

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