Mind candy are prompts to help you to keep up to date, develop strategic responses to trends and train your change muscle, making you more resilient and agile for the future. If you need help with developing these prompts, you can book a free appointment here. If you want me to speak at your event, contact me at ron@ronimmink.com
How to use the prompts
Become a trend watcher yourself. Use these prompts to explore their relevance, assess opportunities and threats, and analyse timelines and impacts on your organisation. Consider multiple possible futures across varying time horizons—1, 3, 5, and 10 years.
Scenario prompts 12 March 2025
Todays prompts are the Fermi paradox (and AI), freedom cities, sea sponges (biomimicry), autonomous digital twins, counterfeits, smart clothing, America defence companies, gravity batteries, blockchain and the ultimate version of technology abstraction (speaking things into existence).
Speaking things into existence………
https://open.substack.com/pub/scenarioprompts/p/how-are-you-identifying-communicating
New Solution To The Fermi Paradox Suggests The Great Filter Is Nearly Upon Us
How the emergence of artificial intelligence (AI) could lead to the destruction of alien civilizations.
‘Startup Nation’ Groups Say They’re Meeting Trump Officials to Push for Deregulated ‘Freedom Cities’
https://www.wired.com/story/startup-nations-donald-trump-legislation/
The architects of projects like Próspera are drafting legislation to create US cities that would be free from federal regulations.
Sea sponge inspires super strong compressible material
https://www.rmit.edu.au/news/all-news/2025/feb/sea-sponge-lattice
Inspired by the humble deep-sea sponge, engineers have developed a new material with remarkable compressive strength and stiffness that could improve architectural and product designs.
Meet the autonomous digital twins that will run smart cities and pilot drones
https://interestingengineering.com/innovation/ai-powered-digital-twins
Now, the scientists behind the new study have developed a method that allows digital twins to act autonomously. In their paper, they introduced the concept of Intelligent Acting Digital Twins (IADT).
Bottling trust: researchers are using chemistry and blockchain to discourage wine fraud
Researchers have developed smart tags to guarantee the authenticity and traceability of wine from vineyard to table, helping to combat counterfeiting and boost consumer trust.
Smart clothing controls devices via finger movements – no touching required
https://newatlas.com/wearables/smart-textile-finger-movements/
In a current prototype version of the system, the user wears a ring with a 3 x 5-mm magnet upon it, on their index finger.
American dynamism 50
https://a16z.com/american-dynamism-50-2025/
Companies shaping the fight of the future
China makes batteries that run on gravity, could be an end run for lithium-ion
https://interestingengineering.com/energy/gravity-batteries-for-renewable-energy
This approach, now being trialed in various forms worldwide, promises to offer a cleaner, more durable, and geopolitically flexible alternative to lithium-ion batteries.
Why More Blockchain Regulations Are Actually Good for Innovation
https://builtin.com/articles/blockchain-regulations-and-innovation
Read https://www.ronimmink.com/will-blockchain-impact-your-business-model/
Speaking things into existence
https://www.oneusefulthing.org/p/speaking-things-into-existence
The hottest new programming language is English
