Author: James Woudhuysen
Brexit is not a threat to British science
Will Brexit cause irreparable damage to British science? Eminent scientists seem to think so
Read the full article...Massacre of the (future) innocents
Two key papers form the theory behind today’s anti-natalism. They are junk science.
Read the full article...Prince Harry’s climate pledge
Sky News discussion on Prince Harry’s climate pledge to only have two children with Clare Farrell from Extinction Rebellion
Read the full article...In defence of HS2
Planning and execution have been pure Theresa May, but the principle is right
Read the full article...July 2019 heat wave and climate change
Sky News debate with Angela Terry of One Home on the July 2019 heat wave in the UK and climate change
Read the full article...China and India set the pace in space
Fifty years on from the first Moon landings, the human conquest of space has changed
Read the full article...The political economy of informal events, 2030
Below, a summary of my book – available at the bottom of this page – on #LiveEntertainment #musicfestivals #livemusic #nightclubs and events in the #arts and #sport.
Read the full article...Net zero carbon emissions by 2050
Sky News debate with Amy Mount on the UK Government’s pledge to reach Net Zero in carbon emissions by 2050
Read the full article...Justin Trudeau’s ban on single-use plastics
Sky News discussion with Dr Sharon George around Canadian premier Justin Trudeau’s ban on single-use plastics, 11 June 2019
Read the full article...Trump’s trade war with Huawei
Sky News discussion on Trump’s trade war with Huawei
Read the full article...D-Day: beyond the myth of the Good War
Seventy-five years on, let’s reckon with what really happened
Read the full article...Rescuing British Steel
Sky News discussion on rescue plans for British Steel with Faiza Shaheen from Centre for Labour and Social Studies and James Woudhuysen
Read the full article...Speech to IPSOS Academy: Disruption, climate change – and plastics
In this 30-minute talk, James interrogates trendy categories in innovation, explores the domains of forecasting and risk, and puts forward solutions to the problem of plastics
Read the full article...Climate change report
Sky News discussion on the latest report by the government Committee on Climate Change with Amy Mount from Greener UK and James Woudhuysen
Read the full article...Climate protests
Sky News discussion on the climate change protests by Extinction Rebellion with George Monbiot and James Woudhuysen
Read the full article...Chimp using Social Media
Sky News discussion on a chimp supposedly demonstrating an ability to use Social Media
Read the full article...Climate change and the need for energy R&D
Sky News discussion on climate change and the need for energy R&D
Read the full article...The car-industry crisis has nothing to do with Brexit
China is racing ahead of Europe in producing electric cars
Read the full article...Mobilität als Dienstleistung
Für die mobile Zukunft brauchen wir mehr als Apps und selbstfahrende Autos. Vor lauter IT dürfen wir die reale Infrastruktur und die Produktivität nicht aus dem Auge verlieren.
Read the full article...Rail delays
Sky News on rail delays after 13 year low according to the Office of Rail and Road, which is symptomatic of a wider problem than just the railways
Read the full article...Christmas wrapping paper
Sky News discussion on the bah humbug attitude by environmentalists towards waste at Christmas
Read the full article...Sceptical employees and the office of the future
We need productivity and innovation in workplaces, not eulogies to the employee experience, wellness or the circular economy
Read the full article...EU militarism is nothing new
Macron’s plan for an EU army follows longstanding traditions
Read the full article...Banned Iceland advert
Debate with George Monbiot on Iceland Foods’ encountering censorship of its cartoon ad directed against palm oil
Read the full article...Some ABCs of forecasting: UX Brighton, November 2018
In this talk, James outlines some Dos and Don’ts to remember when imagining how people are likely to evolve in the years to 2030
Read the full article...After the war: India’s untold story
The Indian Army’s contribution to the Allied war effort has been downplayed for far too long
Read the full article...Consumption: six myths to discard
An article for the Fair Design conference, Warsaw, Poland, May 2018
Contact Centres 2030: The Shape of Automation to Come
Artificial Intelligence is spreading – above all, to help staff deal with customers better
Read the full article...BBC documentary on Ibiza and UK youth, 1999
BBC documentary on Ibiza & UK youth from Winter 1999
Read the full article...Keynote on Agility at a conference of Fujitsu Distinguished Engineers, October 2018
About software agility, business agility… and agile offices
Read the full article...A 4-day week in the UK?
The TUC hopes for a four-day week by the end of this century. It ignores Britain’s crisis of business investment
Read the full article...Artificial meat
The Adam Smith Institute claims that lab-grown meat could lower CO2, improve land use and re-wild the UK countryside. James would eat it, but says it’s no panacea, and a fair way off
Read the full article...BBC Breakfast interview on retailing
As Sport Direct’s Mike Ashley takes over House of Fraser, James urges High Street retailers to innovate and be imaginative
Read the full article...No, we are not addicted to smartphones
The idea that we’re at the mercy of Silicon Valley is an elitist myth
Mobile phone addiction
Reports of Ofcom figures on mobile use suggest we are addicted to them, but shouldn’t we question this coverage as misanthropic?
Read the full article...What makes Fiat the big draw
With the death of Sergio Marchionne, can Fiat-Chrysler’s new CEO, Jeep chief Mike Manley, continue the car giant’s renaissance?
Read the full article...HS2 and the buffers of Brexit
Between the old North-South divide and the more recent Referendum falls a tricky rail project
Read the full article...Predicting the future
Developments tomorrow and the day after are more certain than is often assumed
Read the full article...Cash: down, but not out
There’ll be lots of new kinds of money, but no real end to cash
Read the full article...Heathrow expansion
Ahead of the parliamentary vote on a third runway for Heathrow airport, Sky News asked James to outline the technological dimensions of the issue
Read the full article...Grenfell
On the anniversary of the disastrous Grenfell fire, we are right to question the state of the construction sector
Read the full article...Debate with the IPPR on the UK’s crisis in retailing
In the wake of the announcement of up to 6,000 job losses at House of Fraser, the High Street should combat Amazon with automation and new physical sensations
Read the full article...1968: North Vietnam strikes back
In January 1968, Vietnamese communists launched the world-changing Tet Offensive
Read the full article...Debate with Friends of the Earth on plastics in the oceans
You might think the EU would be more interested in genuine innovation than banning plastic straws, cutlery and cotton buds. James takes issue with FoE’s Julian Kirby on the EU’s plans
Read the full article...Dementia: we need action, not awareness
The response to Barbara Windsor’s diagnosis captured society’s low horizons
Read the full article...Dementia and the NHS
What’s required is a cure, not more ‘awareness’ as Barbara Windsor’s husband announces the actress has been diagnosed with alzheimer’s disease
Read the full article...The Fake Phenomenon
“Sincerity – if you can fake that, you’ve got it made.” US comedian George Burns
Read the full article...IT illusions: the case of transport
The future of the car is Mobility as a Service (MaaS)? That’s a chimera
Read the full article...Debate with Green Alliance on plastic bottles
Michael Gove’s proposal on a plastic bottles deposit return scheme was debated with Amy Mount from the Green Alliance and James. We need a technological fix, not yet another guilt trip about our ‘behaviour’.
Read the full article...Customer service: toward a new, very different agenda
Customer loyalty? The whole idea is past its sell-by date
Read the full article...Why they can’t fix the housing crisis
Both the Tories and Labour dread the radical shake-up we really need
Read the full article...The dogma of wellbeing
With the Office for National Statistics, the British Medical Association and the Duke of Cambridge all behind the concept, a critique is long overdue
Read the full article...Britain’s housing crisis
James and campaigner Kennedy Walker debate solutions to Britain’s housing crisis
Read the full article...‘The Post’: missing the big story
Back in 1971, when this docudrama is set, it must have been tough being a newspaper baroness.
Read the full article...What CIOs need to know about workplace biometrics
Biometrics, in which IT captures and checks a person’s unique biological and behavioral characteristics, is spreading through the world’s workplaces. It’s time to understand where the technology is headed
Read the full article...Where SMEs should start in automating IT
Why the uptake of automation has been slow so far, and where to start now.
Read the full article...The silent war against population growth in Africa
Once again, Westerners are foisting population control on Africa.
Read the full article...How the EU is holding Africa back
It’s long been known, but often hushed over, that the subsidies the EU pays its farmers under the Common Agricultural Policy, plus the bureaucratic rules and standards it wields against food imports, have discriminated against African farmers.
Read the full article...China’s supernova cities
By 2020, the Chinese government hopes to have a new and national Social Credit System (SCS) ready.
Read the full article...Gelingen würde
Bundesentwicklungsminister Müller will einen Marshall-Plan zur Entwicklung Afrikas. Stattdessen muss der Kontinent sein Schicksal selbst in die Hand nehmen und kann dabei gar nicht ambitioniert genug denken
Read the full article...What AI and Machine Learning mean for business
First things first. There’s no such thing as genuine Artificial Intelligence.
Read the full article...What we can expect to see in technology
As 2018 gets underway, it’s time to take a look at what the year ahead holds for us. There are many areas we could focus on but the one that seems to be on many peoples’ minds is technology.
Read the full article...Fascism: mobilisation of passions
This introduction was presented to the Leeds Salon as part of its Tetley Talks series in December 2017
Read the full article...Africa: what would real progress look like?
After the faltering of Angela Merkel and the fall of Robert Mugabe, here are some principles of economic development that could form an alternative to Germany’s policy and practice in Africa
Read the full article...The future of housing
The future of housing
In 2004, with the architect Ian Abley, I published a book titled Why is construction so backward?.
Read the full article...Is globalisation over? The future of world trade
Listen to the debate ‘Is globalisation over? The future of world trade‘ from Battle of Ideas 2017
Read the full article...We are all collaborative now
When suppliers and consumers use IT to ‘co-design’ new products and services, does that really represent democracy and empowerment?
Read the full article...China isn’t the only country censoring the web
Last weekend, that supreme and unimpeachable force for worldwide progress, Apple Computer, withdrew perhaps 60 Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) from its App Store in China.
Read the full article...India’s dialectic of progress
Two new books show how far post-independence India has come, and how far it has still to go
Read the full article...Electric car, Made in China
Few in the West have taken the full measure of China’s drive toward electric vehicles
Read the full article...Fascism in the colours of France
This book review, written more than 35 years ago, gives some historical clues as to why Marine Le Pen did relatively well in the French presidential elections of 2017
Read the full article...The future of sleep
Folks, I have seen the future of sleep. It is Chinese, and cheap. Man Wah Holdings, a £700m furniture company headquartered in Hong Kong, has brought its new SleepCheers mattresses to showrooms in North Carolina.
Read the full article...Innovation früher und heute
Politik und Medien begegnen technischen Innovationen heute nicht mehr mit Begeisterung, sondern mit Furcht. Dabei herrscht an ehrgeizigen Ideen kein Mangel – es bräuchte nur ein wenig Mut
Read the full article...Why we shouldn’t weep over WannaCry
The hacking of the NHS was bad, but not that bad
Read the full article...Wanted: a post-Brexit industrial strategy for electric cars
When Britain was fully signed up to the EU, the EU’s German-inspired bans on most state aids meant that Whitehall couldn’t really develop a genuine industrial strategy.
Read the full article...People are great: a conversation on the future of work
At a conference staged by the office furniture firm Kinnarps UK, James had a chat with Mark Eltringham of Workplace Insight
Read the full article...Don’t Shout at the Telly: The Future of Work
In this engaging on-the-sofa discussion, young volunteers for WORLDwrite, a charity, quiz James on IT and jobs
Read the full article...Warum die amerikanische Wirtschaft schwächelt
Der Verlust von Jobs im Produktionssektor kann nicht einfach China oder der Automatisierung zugeschrieben werden.
Read the full article...Origins and future of Industry 4.0
At the University of Missouri’s Center for Eldercare and Rehabilitation Technology, professors of engineering and nursing hook up sensors to perform clever feats in medicine.
Read the full article...The psychobabble behind the ‘AI is racist’ claim
Astonishing news is in. Apparently, artificial intelligence can be bigoted, too.
Read the full article...Stillstand im Verkehr überwinden
Zur Reduktion von Treibhausgasen soll auf das Reisen verzichtet werden. Wir brauchen aber nicht weniger Verkehr, sondern mehr echte Innovationen
Read the full article...Industrial strategy, UK: where to back labs, prototypes and designs
This document is part of an Institute of Ideas Economy Forum response to the British Government’s Green Paper on industrial strategy, a consultation launched by business minister Greg Clark.
Read the full article...Fake news, IT and the right kind of office for 2022
Reviewing US and UK debate on automation, James compares the impact of facilities on workplace output with the legitimacy crisis that management now faces
Read the full article...Let’s get real about Augmented and Virtual Reality
In the medium term the real deal looks like being AR, more than VR
Read the full article...The art of revolution
The RA’s Russian Revolution show captures the idealism of 1917 – and the gloom of what followed
Read the full article...Back in the USSR
As a centenary show at the Royal Academy of Art revives British interest in the design output of Russia after 1917, this review of SO Khan-Magomedov, Rodchenko: the complete work (Thames and Hudson, 1986) looks at one of the founding fathers of Soviet design
Read the full article...Myths & Realities of Industry 4.0
Speech to ‘Industry People Ideas 4.0’, Moscow, February 2017
Read the full article...Myths and Realities of the Future of Work
In this keynote address to 300 delegates at Oracle’s Modern Business Conference at ExCel, East London, James challenged the perceived wisdom about IT, so as to highlight where real opportunities may be found
Read the full article...The liberal West was protectionist before Trump
Obama and the EU pursued their own PC-flavoured trade wars before the Donald arrived
Read the full article...The future of retail banking
In retail banking, the elephant in the room is that there simply may not be any left in years to come. More and more people, and not just the young, do their banking online.
Read the full article...Innovation then – and the challenge now
In 1965 the debating society at my old school held a parents’ evening in which a debate took place on the motion: ‘The spirit of adventure has been lost’.
Read the full article...Fragile days of revolution
As a centenary show at the Royal Academy of Art revives British interest in the design output of Russia after 1917, this review of Nina Lobanov‑Rostovsky, Revolutionary ceramics: Soviet porcelain 1917‑1927 (Studio Vista, 1990) highlights the contribution made by potters
Read the full article...Trade, automation and US decline
Job losses in US manufacturing can’t simply be put down to China or IT
Read the full article...The robots aren’t taking over
The idea that IT is surpassing human beings sells us short
Read the full article...A postcapitalist pseuds’ corner
Two books prophesying the future show a distinct ignorance about present-day capitalism
Read the full article...No, your home won’t be hacked
The panic about every household gadget being hit by computer hackers is overdone
On Friday 21 October an unprecedented cyber-attack hit many important websites, including Twitter, eBay and the New York Times.
Read the full article...Samsung’s critics: recalling the future
Three dozen melted-down batteries among 2.5m new mobile phones is no reason to slow down innovation
Read the full article...Time for manufacturers to intensify their drive into services
Webinar with Matt O’Neill for software specialists Epicor
Read the full article...Innovation and Retailing, 2030
James looks at international disputes around trade, FDI and innovation – and at technology in shops. He also issues a call for higher wages
Read the full article...Heathrow’s third runway: delayed, delayed, delayed
After decades of dithering, we must demand action on airport expansion.
Read the full article...Automation anxiety and the future of work
Until fairly recently, most of the literature on the future of work was all too familiar: mobile working, working from home, hot-desking, teams, fun interiors to stimulate creativity, etc.
Read the full article...Drugs, devices and digital media
As the first line of the blues song might now have it, I went down to the Boots audiology specialist.
Read the full article...Hinkley, cybersecurity, China and the New Protectionism
To much controversy, Britain’s new prime minister, Theresa May, last month insisted on a fresh review of the building of two new nuclear reactors in the west of England.
Read the full article...Hinkley Point and the fear of nuclear
Delaying building a new power station is a brake on progress.
Read the full article...Das Internet der Befürchtungen
James Woudhuysen und Mark Birbeck
Das Internet der Dinge hat viel zu bieten. Unsere Ansprüche müssen wir jedoch höher ansetzen
Read the full article...Innovation in megaprojects
Mostly, experts in innovation think about it in terms of the products and processes of industry and services: a new Dyson, or the software in Google or Uber.
Read the full article...Internet of Things, Internet of Apprehension
The IoT has much to recommend it – but we need to set our sights higher: co-authored with Mark Birbeck
Read the full article...Toward a new customer experience, European rail, 2030
The opportunity to do better
In the past 20 years, neither energy suppliers nor telecommunications firms have truly completed their journey toward providing a good customer experience, whether off-line or online.
Read the full article...Financial services: is a robot stealing your job?
This keynote speech, delivered for the financial IT platform Intelliflo, looked at technology advances from both a consumer and business point of view
Read the full article...Another fracking melodrama
For the first time, American scientists have published a paper showing that wastewater from a shale-gas well and a coalbed methane site, disposed of by injecting it into a deep well, has reached a surface stream.
Read the full article...The Queen’s speech: all talk and no tech
Promises of driverless cars and space travel ring empty without funding for research.
Read the full article...Scots manufacturing: time to revive Enlightenment traditions
Why it’s time for Scottish manufacturing to revive Enlghtenment traditions
Read the full article...Where is Indian design going?
On 17 February 2016 in Mumbai, after a two-year gap, the India Design Forum (IDF) holds its third conference.
Read the full article...Automation anxiety and the future of IT
Every new day finds a fresh, still more breathless report about how robots, Artificial Intelligence and IT generally are poised to take up to half of all jobs in the West.
Read the full article...The spiral into neo-protectionism
Especially since the 1980s, design and architecture have been international in character.
Read the full article...Chinese consumer markets cannot be turned back
Can China develop a coherent, vibrant internal market and break its dependency on large state-owned industries?
Read the full article...No, Facebook isn’t the British Raj
The row about India’s access to the internet is a storm in a chai cup.
Read the full article...Navigating the new landscape in cybersecurity
Martin Sorrell, CEO of the giant marketing services firm WPP, usually has a handle on the global zeitgeist in business – as an advertising man, it’s his job.
Read the full article...Child migrants: Britain is far from full
David Cameron says he hates racism. He says he cares, deeply, about children – enough to cosset the charity Kids Company until well past its sell-by date.
Read the full article...Design and the future of disaster relief
I believe in man-made climate change. Yet with or without it, the world needs more growth, not less, if it’s to prevent extreme weather or man-made chaos bringing disaster. The same holds for design after a disaster has struck. We need an approach that’s practical, not preachy.
Read the full article...Mass wind and solar? They’re 25 years away
After COP21, the Paris conference on climate change, it’s time to puncture Green euphoria about renewable energy
Read the full article...China’s productivity
The use of labour has been China’s main economic strength. Can it move beyond that?
Read the full article...Manufacturing at Heart
This manufacturing.fm interview, entitled ‘Thinking about the future’ was produced as a Manufacturing at Heart podcast
Stuffitis, Affluenza and the Circular Economy
Lecture to design students at Central Saint Martin’s, University of the Arts, London, November 2015. The session was aimed at questioning the contemporary Green zeitgeist, which completely dominates the design scene, both in higher education and in practice.
Read the full article...‘Ethical’ design – or the ethic of progress?
Years ago, I saw the great US graphic design writer Stephen Heller address a big crowd of students in London.
Read the full article...Circular business models won’t revive urban manufacturing
In design, one needn’t always accept the problem as given. So why are we talking business models anyway?
Read the full article...Retail 2020: Of robots, shelves and packs
In all today’s euphoric-apocalyptic hysteria about how the robots are coming, one sector is woefully neglected (1).
Read the full article...New wars, new technology
James Woudhuysen joined a panel discussion entitled ‘New wars, new technology‘ at the Battle of Ideas in the Barbican, October 2015
Cosmonauts: a tribute to Russian grit
What is it about the Russians and space flight?
Read the full article...Design and the future of IT
I will tell you one thing about IT. In international design, the Powers That Be are infatuated with it.
Read the full article...VW: a panto of Green politics
Paul Seaman and James Woudhuysen
Last week, everyone learned that Volkswagen (VW) fitted special, duplicitous software to its diesel-powered cars.
Read the full article...The Future of Innovation – at Fujitsu
James Woudhuysen delivers the keynote address to Fujitsu UK & Ireland’s conference of Distinguished Engineers, held on 24 September 2015 at Warwick University
Read the full article...Invasion of the sexbots? Get a grip
In 1988, before the internet arrived in anybody’s house, I helped lead Britain’s first study of e-commerce – what was then known as ‘teleshopping’.
Read the full article...Report on Sheffield City Centre, September 2015
This report suggests how technology and a fresh, libertarian approach to the future of Britain’s cities could go one better than the samey, grey spatial determinism that passes for urban policy these days
Read the full article...What agility means for small business
With the new digital tools that are now available, organisations of every size can trade ideas and collaborate more easily than ever before.
Read the full article...The attractiveness of cars in a Green age
Britons want to do their bit for the environment. We are conscious of energy ratings when we buy or rent houses; we give money and time to green causes; we recycle more of our waste. Moreover Britain’s political parties continuously repeat how committed they are to fighting global warming.
Read the full article...Our hero: Gensets provide critical power where it’s needed
After April, when Nepal suffered its worst earthquake in 80 years, the technology made it to the front page of the New York Times.
Read the full article...Why Alice is still wonderful
In July 1865, the Reverend Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, a mathematics lecturer at Christ Church, Oxford, published the first edition of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, under the pseudonym Lewis Carroll.
Read the full article...Mobility trends and the professional use of IT in European rail, 2015-2025
Perhaps the growing attention given to major disasters at sea, on the roads, in the air and on the railways is just to do with the speed and video quality of news now available on the Web.
Read the full article...Mobility trends and the professional use of IT in European aviation, 2015-2025
In 2012, the Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development said that air passenger traffic could double in 15 years; airfreight could treble in 20 years.(1)
Read the full article...Humanitarian design = cultural imperialism
Developed economies have all done raw material-munching, pollution-belching industrial revolutions.
Read the full article...Futureproofing your business
I feel good about not booking my Amtrak train from Washington to New York City two days earlier than I did. In this manner I avoided the murderous crash that happened on that line.
Read the full article...The coming niches for UK design
Where could the UK economy go next? Manufacturing accounts for 70 per cent of UK R&D, and large foreign firms take 54 per cent of it.
Read the full article...Transport in the UK election, 2015
While Japan is building floating trains, British politicians are promising (slightly) lower fares.
Read the full article...New ideas that could give UK manufacturing a lift
Advocates often exaggerate the speed of development and the impact of new technologies. Yet by 2035, those that are now emerging will have matured – and in some of them the UK is already strong.
Read the full article...China’s leap forward on patents
How groundbreaking are China’s patents? How innovative really is China?
Read the full article...China’s leap forward on patents – in German
How groundbreaking are China’s patents? How innovative really is China?
What a difference seven months makes.
Read the full article...The greening of the ivory towers in education
A National Association of Scholars report interrogates the tyranny of sustainability in education.
Read the full article...The future of retailing
I confess. Like most men, I find shopping boring. Yet what retailers do next is more interesting than the travails of Tesco today, or the more general problem of too much retail floorspace in the UK
Read the full article...
"Whether under Corbynism’s pretend Old Labour leanings (run by London millionaires), Milibandism (ditto), or Starmerism (slightly more strategically gifted ditto), Labour today is a party of middle-class professionals and the upwardly mobile." Witty stuff from @LabBeyondCities
Very hilarious, recommended
Articles grouped by Tag
Bookmarks
Innovators I like
Robert Furchgott – discovered that nitric oxide transmits signals within the human body
Barry Marshall – showed that the bacterium Helicobacter pylori is the cause of most peptic ulcers, reversing decades of medical doctrine holding that ulcers were caused by stress, spicy foods, and too much acid
N Joseph Woodland – co-inventor of the barcode
Jocelyn Bell Burnell – she discovered the first radio pulsars
John Tyndall – the man who worked out why the sky was blue
Rosalind Franklin co-discovered the structure of DNA, with Crick and Watson
Rosalyn Sussman Yallow – development of radioimmunoassay (RIA), a method of quantifying minute amounts of biological substances in the body
Jonas Salk – discovery and development of the first successful polio vaccine
John Waterlow – discovered that lack of body potassium causes altitude sickness. First experiment: on himself
Werner Forssmann – the first man to insert a catheter into a human heart: his own
Bruce Bayer – scientist with Kodak whose invention of a colour filter array enabled digital imaging sensors to capture colour
Yuri Gagarin – first man in space. My piece of fandom: http://www.spiked-online.com/newsite/article/10421
Sir Godfrey Hounsfield – inventor, with Robert Ledley, of the CAT scanner
Martin Cooper – inventor of the mobile phone
George Devol – 'father of robotics’ who helped to revolutionise carmaking
Thomas Tuohy – Windscale manager who doused the flames of the 1957 fire
Eugene Polley – TV remote controls