The future is future fitness. The advantage isn’t prediction. It’s how fast your team can notice change and respond. Pick one mindcandy prompt below. Discuss it. Decide your moves.
Do you want you a repeatable operating rhythm to sense signals early, decide priorities faster, and act with real strategic options? Click here.
Today’s prompt: The Polycene era demands a new kind of foresight
“Polycene” as a label for the complex world we live in. It’s a pretty good descriptor for an era defined by convergence: technologies, systems and societies colliding and combining at unprecedented speed.
https://www.forbes.com/councils/forbesbusinesscouncil/2026/01/20/the-polycene-era-demands-a-new-kind-of-foresight/
The other prompts
My latest book about books about AI: You are the upgrade
Data, acceleration, and the future of intelligence: Lessons from 25 core books (and links to 114 other books) about AI, technology abstraction, and consciousness.
https://www.ronimmink.com/product/a-book-about-books-about-ai/
The Polycene Era Demands A New Kind Of Foresight
“Polycene” as a label for the complex world we live in. It’s a pretty good descriptor for an era defined by convergence: technologies, systems and societies colliding and combining at unprecedented speed.
https://www.forbes.com/councils/forbesbusinesscouncil/2026/01/20/the-polycene-era-demands-a-new-kind-of-foresight/
Structures 3D printed inside living human cells that has one-fifth width of a human hair
Human cells are extremely small and tightly packed – at about 20 micrometers across, roughly one-fifth the width of a human hair, each cell contains a dense mix of proteins, organelles, and molecular machinery. Being able to place tiny structures inside this space could allow scientists to track cells over time, measure chemical changes, or study how cells respond to physical forces.
https://interestingengineering.com/science/structures-3d-printed-inside-living-human-cells
A new nanorobot designed to improve immune cell recognition could help treat colorectal cancer
Researchers recently developed a nanorobot that could recognize cancerous cells and making it easier for immune cells to target them.
https://phys.org/news/2026-01-nanorobot-immune-cell-recognition-colorectal.html
From Omnichannel to an Intelligent Commerce Grid: The Next Evolution of Retail Architecture
Why forward-thinking businesses are moving toward an intelligent commerce grid—a fully integrated system where channels disappear and customer experiences flow seamlessly across touchpoints.
https://www.netguru.com/blog/from-omnichannel-to-an-intelligent-commerce-grid
A Human You’ll Need in the Loop: The Agentic Engineer
The core enterprise bottleneck is becoming architecture, not adoption. As organizations move from chatbots to agentic systems, the limiting factor is less “getting people to use AI” and more “who can engineer reliable agents.
https://adtmag.com/articles/2026/01/20/the-agentic-engineer.aspx
3D-printed hydrogel cilia precisely mimic natural cilia
Cilia play a central role in the human body, for example in cleaning the airways, transporting fluids in the brain, or reproduction. Their complex three-dimensional beating motions at frequencies between five and 40 hertz have so far been difficult to replicate technically. The research team therefore used 3D printing via two-photon polymerization to fabricate micrometer-scale hydrogel structures with high geometric control.
https://www.3printr.com/3d-printed-hydrogel-cilia-precisely-mimic-natural-cilia-4186287/
Top Robots and Humanoids Trending Right Now
Humanoid robots used to feel like something you’d only see in lab demos or sci-fi movies. Now they’re walking factory floors, lifting boxes in warehouses, and showing up in places that matter. What’s changed isn’t just better hardware, but also smarter AI and serious investment behind it.
https://www.eweek.com/news/top-robots-and-humanoids-trending-right-now/
Bank of England urged to prepare for alien disclosure
For years, the idea that governments might one day confirm the existence of alien life was easy to laugh off. A subject for sci-fi fans, conspiracy theorists and Hollywood blockbusters – nothing more. But according to a former senior analyst at the Bank of England, that assumption may no longer be safe
https://euroweeklynews.com/2026/01/20/bank-of-england-urged-to-prepare-for-alien-disclosure/
