2015

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104 PAGES OF
IDEAS TO
FUTURE - PROOF
YOURSELF &
YOUR BUSINESS

NEED-TO-KNOW
TRENDS in
Technology / Business
Medicine / Lifestyle
Government / Media
Science & Environment

JAMES DYSON
ON THE YEAR
OF THE ROBOT

SAUL KLEIN
ON THE CREATIVE
ECONOMY

CARLO RAT TI
ON DRIVERLESS
FUTURE CITIES

PLUS 101 MORE IDEAS THAT WILL CHANGE THE WORLD

TEMPORAL
REORDERING

Our linear relationship with time affects everything from financial

transactions to scientific progress. In 2015, we will throw
out the old model and learn to look backwards to move forwards
By Jimena Canales

your whole body in motion, Cohen

Kadosh says. When we had our first
subject, I wanted to be present in the
room to make sure everything went
smoothly, but she felt uncomfortable
that someone was watching her trying
to solve numerical problems.
When the game finished, she came
back and said, I loved it. I want to take
it home. This is from someone who
hated maths. In 2015, Cohen Kadosh
will continue to examine maths training
inside and outside classrooms.
Combining cognitive training with
brain stimulation in the case of children
withatypicaldevelopment,saysCohen
Kadosh, thats my view of the future in
the field of education.
JooMedeirosisWIREDsscienceeditor

1,000X
-

The increase in computing speed

that is promised by replacing
silicon in processors with phasechange materials, following research
at the University of Cambridge.

NUCLEAR
BATTERIES
Researchers at
the University
of Missouri will
be real-world
testing a nuclear
battery based
on radiolysis
splitting water
with radiation to
produce energy.
The teams waterbased battery
incorporates
a nanosize
titanium dioxide
catalyst which
assists the
radiation in
breaking down
water molecules.
The result:
far greater
efficiency.

UR NOTIONS OF TIME IN PHYSICS,

philosophy and history are changing.
One of the most entrenched notions
about the world considers time as
linearandhomogeneousasacontainer
where events succeed one after the
other according to the laws of causality.
Albert Einstein famously defended
this conception of time.
Even as Einsteins theory of relativity
continued to succeed, numerous
thinkers baulked at the mere thought
of having to consider time in this way.
Einsteins imagination failed him,
explained Lee Smolin of the Perimeter
Institute for Theoretical Physics in
Ontario in his book, Time Reborn. It
does not seem to have occurred to him
to conceive of the universe as anything
but static and eternal.
As we refine our theories of time, we
will see that to act on the future, one
needs to start by changing the past.
Will the theories of tomorrow trump
thetheoriesoftoday?Theadvancement
of science, and the billions of pounds
poured into R&D, would come to a dead
halt if we didnt think it would. Our faith
in the power and benefits of science
depend on a particular notion of time
wherethepresentmomentisatthepeak

of our current knowledge of the world.

The ultimate narcissism of our scientific
culture is our belief that just by virtue
of being at the peak of time, we know
more than anyone who came before us.
In 2015 we will reconsider the
value of ancient wisdom and low-tech
solutions. Big data has shown us the
need to be aware of the danger and
opportunity of advancing science by
removing knowledge from the public
sphere. To succeed today, one must
knowwhatsomeoneelsedoesnotknow.
Agnotology, the study of culturally
induced ignorance, is now as relevant as
epistemology, the theory of knowledge.
In 2015, we will rethink time and the
relation of science to capitalism. Time is
frequentlycomparedto money:to make
money on the stock market, one does
not need to be smarter than the competition, just faster. To manage time and
its effect on money, we will need to find
new ways of gaining better control
of both. How? By upsetting current
hierarchies between the sciences and
the humanities, and by relearning to
appreciate the value of history.
Jimena Canales holds the Thomas M
Siebel Chair in the History of Science at
the University of Illinois. Her book, The
Physicist and The Philosopher: Einstein,
Bergson and the Debate That Changed
Our Understanding of Time, will be
published by Princeton Press in 2015