#Mindcandy are scenario prompts to help companies become situationally aware and formulate appropriate responses to trends. Find out more here.
Scenario prompt 22 August 2025
The scenario prompt for today is the VC perspective on climate change. I know the foot is off the peddle with climate. But this is not going away. Classic “when” not “if”. What it does it buying you time to approach this strategically. Climate change is the perfect frame for driving change, thinking about opportunity and innovation. If you wan to talk about this, drop me a line.
The other prompts for today are you are the upgrade, cyborg jellyfish, driving change, solar trees, caterpillar bots, solar air bubbles, breathing crystals, and soft wearable robot jackets.
If you want more details and the other prompts, you can subscribe to my substack.
You are the upgrade
https://www.ronimmink.com/product/a-book-about-books-about-ai/
Data, acceleration, and the future of intelligence: Lessons from 25 core books (and links to 114 other books) about AI, technology abstraction, and consciousness.
Microchipped cyborg jellyfish
https://interestingengineering.com/science/moon-jellyfish-cyborg-ocean-sensors
Moon jellyfish could become humanity’s eyes in the ocean’s most inaccessible depths
How to Successfully Drive Change When Everything Is Uncertain
https://hbr.org/2025/08/how-to-successfully-drive-change-when-everything-is-uncertain
Select the Right Opportunity and Reframe It
Solar trees provide opportunity to meet renewable energy targets without deforestation
https://techxplore.com/news/2025-08-solar-trees-opportunity-renewable-energy.html
Solar trees are designed with a natural tree morphology, incorporating solar panel arrays into branches and leaves in the upper canopy, while still allowing light to penetrate to the underlying vegetation.
Paper Electrodes Power Soft Robots That Crawl Like Caterpillars
https://scienceblog.com/paper-electrodes-power-soft-robots-that-crawl-like-caterpillars/
Soft robots are learning from caterpillars. Researchers have developed lightweight, paper-based soft robots that crawl forward using asymmetric bending motions powered by heat.
These Tiny Aircraft Are Powered Entirely by the Sun’s Heat
https://singularityhub.com/2025/08/21/these-tiny-aircraft-are-powered-entirely-by-the-suns-heat/
The featherlight devices are smaller than a dime and need no solar panels, propellers, or engines to move.
Scientists Discover A Crystal That Breathes Oxygen
https://scienceblog.com/scientists-discover-a-crystal-that-breathes-oxygen/
A crystal that inhales and exhales oxygen may change the future of energy
Soft wearable robot jacket responds to movements, supports upper-limb impairments
https://interestingengineering.com/innovation/us-engineers-robot-worn-like-jackets
Engineers have developed a soft, wearable robotic device for movement assistance. The robot combines machine learning and a physics-based model to learn each user’s unique movements
Are VCs abandoning the planet or rebranding it?
https://sifted.eu/articles/climate-tech-rebranding
Climate is the only rational long-term investment.“If you are doing something that is bad for the planet, I don’t think you can IPO that company in ten years,” he says. “For every year that passes, I think the stock exchange will be like: this could crash if there is a carbon tax.”
