Food for thought….. A client of mine, Len Indianer, sent me these interesting predictions in an email, yesterday. It was an email sent to several people. I am passing it along. More about Len Indianer in a minute.
“INTERESTING PREDICTIONS…. In a recent interview, the Head of Daimler Benz (Mercedes Benz) said their competitors are no longer other car companies, but Tesla (obviously), and now, Google, Apple, Amazon ‘et al’ are……
Software will disrupt most traditional industries in the next 5-10 years. Uber is just a software tool, they don’t own any cars, and are now the biggest taxi company in the world. Airbnb is now the biggest hotel company in the world, although they don’t own any properties.
Artificial Intelligence: Computers become exponentially better in understanding the world. This year, a computer beat the best Goplayer in the world, 10 years earlier than expected.
In the U.S., young lawyers already can’t get jobs. Because of IBM Watson, you can get legal advice (so far for more or less basic stuff) within seconds, with 90% accuracy compared with 70% accuracy when done by humans. So, if you study law, stop immediately. There will be 90% less lawyers in the future, only specialists will remain.
Watson already helps nurses diagnosing cancer, 4 times more accurate than human nurses. Facebook now has a pattern recognition software that can recognize faces better than humans. In 2030, computers will become more intelligent than humans.
Autonomous cars: In 2018 the first self-driving cars will appear for the public. Around 2020, the complete industry will start to be disrupted. You don’t want to own a car anymore. You will call a car with your phone, it will show up at your location and drive you to your destination. You will not need to park it, you only pay for the driven distance and you can be productive while driving. Our kids will never get a driver’s license and will never own a car.
It will change the cities, because we will need 90-95% less cars for that. We can transform former parking spaces into parks.
1.2 million people die each year in car accidents worldwide. We now have one accident every 60,000 miles (100,000 km), with autonomous driving that will drop to one accident in 6 million miles (10 million km). That will save a million lives each year.
Most car companies will probably go bankrupt. Traditional car companies will try the traditional approach and try to build a better car, while tech companies (Tesla, Apple, Google) will take the revolutionary approach and build a computer on wheels. Many engineers from Volkswagen and Audi are completely terrified of Tesla….
Auto Insurance companies will have massive trouble because without accidents, car insurance will become much cheaper. Their car insurance business model will slowly disappear.
Real estate will change. Because if you can work while you commute, people will move further away to live in a more beautiful neighborhood.
Electric cars will become mainstream about 2020. Cities will be less noisy because all new cars will run on electricity. Electricity will become incredibly cheap and clean: Solar production has been on an exponential curve for 30 years, and now you can now see the burgeoning impact.
Last year, more solar energy was installed worldwide than fossil. Energy companies are desperately trying to limit access to the grid to prevent competition from home solar installations, but that can’t last. Technology will take care of that strategy.
Health innovations: The Tricorder-X price will be announced this year. There are companies who will build a medical device (called the”Tricorder” from Star Trek) that works with your phone, which takes your retina scan, your blood sample, and you can breathe into it. Are you ready for all this?”
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MORE about Len Indianer and his work…. Len Indianer is a retired optometric physician. He grew up in Miami Beach, Florida and attended the University of Alabama and Southern College of Optometry. He served as an Air Force Bio-Medical Services Officer for three years, before opening his practice in Daytona Beach, Florida. A long time lecturer on eye-related subjects, he has also lectured on International Terrorism over the years.
He has written two plays and several novels. He and I worked together to get one of his novels, A Bridge to Elne, before the film community. It is a novel of a French family’s struggle against the Nazi Occupation. I am pitching this book because I believe it is a film that needs to be made. More relevant today than ever. It has yet to be purchased.
Here is the book’s description as outlined by Indianer on the cover:
“A BRIDGE TO ELNE is based on a true story of a courageous family who endured the German occupation of France during WWII. Marcel Pointer is a successful dentist in Marseille until Nazi brutality leads him to join the Maquis, the militant branch of the French Resistance. He conducts several successful raids against the Vichy and the Germans, and is arrested by the Gestapo. After beating and interrogating him without obtaining evidence of his guilt, they finally release him. Aware of the increased danger, he decides to move his wife Angelina and their four children to Elne, a small village at the foot of the Pyrenees near the Mediterranean Sea. He returns to fight, leaving them with Paul and Elizabeth Courty, Angelina’s parents, and her sister Paulette.
In November 1942, the Germans move their troops into the southern, unoccupied zone of France. Captain Johann Weller is sent to Elne with his German engineering battalion to build fortifications along the Mediterranean coast. Each family in the village is ordered to house a German officer. Johann is assigned to the Courty home. At first, there is much tension, but with time, Johann earns a degree of respect from the Courty’s and Pontier’s. He is not the evil monster they has expected. That doesn’t alter the fact that by participating in the occupation, he is helping to further the Nazi cause with all its evil. Paulette comes to know him well, and over time, they develop a close relationship. Only the taboos created by the war and occupation keep her from responding to his overtures. Paulette works for the mayor of Elne, where the Germans now make their headquarters. Speaking fluent German, she makes good use of her office next to the commandant’s to access their conversations and plans, and is able to help the Resistance by funnelling this information to Marcel. This is complicated by Johann’s interest in her, and she is unsure how much he can be trusted. When the German commandant begins to suspect she’s a spy, the entire family faces the prospect of execution. What happens next is something no one would have anticipated.”
My best to Len. I hope I can get something good happening for him. I am continuing to try. I think the story is great!
Best, Jay
JAYSPEAK 