#Mindcandy are scenario prompts to help companies become situationally aware and formulate appropriate responses to trends. Find out more here.
Scenario prompt 19 August 2025
The scenario prompts for today is assembly theory. LEGO in a washing machine. Second time LEGO is a theme. Technology abstraction will allow you to play LEGO with all technologies (AI, robotics, biology, etc.), which will accelerate innovation everywhere. That means that technology will not be the deciding factor for business survival, but people and culture. So how good is your culture. Are your people engaged?
The other prompts for today are quantum radar, empathy, Universal Basic Income, innovation, synthetic life, brain implants, tongue organoids, and you are the upgrade
If you want more details and the other prompts, you can subscribe to my substack.
A Radical New Theory Suggests the Universe ‘Assembled’ Life—But It Defies Evolution, and Scientists Are Pushing Back
https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/a65606334/assembly-theory-of-evolution/
Assembly Theory is a way to understand how the complexity of life emerged through a mechanism of “self-assembly.
This quantum radar could image buried objects
https://www.technologyreview.com/2025/08/11/1121314/this-quantum-radar-could-image-buried-objects/
Physicists have created a new type of radar that could help improve underground imaging, using a cloud of atoms in a glass cell to detect reflected radio waves.
Why Empathy Is The Operating System For Change
https://www.forbes.com/sites/mariaross/2025/08/15/why-empathy-is-the-operating-system-for-change/
Empathy isn’t coddling; it’s a strategic tool that keeps people whole, focused, and performance-focused while you rewire the plane mid-flight. And no, organizations cannot outsource that human capital work to AI.
What Musk, Altman and Others Say About AI-Funded ‘Universal Basic Income’
https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/universal-income-tech-executives-a16eb2d0
AI is making ever more jobs obsolete. The solution from Silicon Valley? A universal paycheck, no work required.
It’s time to ditch the ‘move fast and break things’ innovation playbook
https://trellis.net/article/its-time-to-ditch-the-move-fast-and-break-things-innovation-playbook/
Speed alone, detached from purpose and consequence, is unsustainable innovation.
Scientists Have Just Created The Most Synthetic Life Form Ever
https://www.sciencealert.com/scientists-have-just-created-the-most-synthetic-life-form-ever
Scientists have created a bacteria with a genetic code more streamlined – and more meddled with – than any other life on Earth.
New Brain Implant Decodes ‘Inner Monologue’ of People With Paralysis
Thoughts are translated into speech in real time—with a passcode to prevent broadcasting private musings.
Sensors That Taste: Using Organoids to Mimic the Tongue
https://www.azosensors.com/news.aspx?newsID=16580
Researchers have developed a living taste sensor using mouse-derived organoids. This sensor offers accurate, long-term detection of taste stimuli by mimicking human sensory responses through real-time electrical signals.
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.
