Yes, the award goes to Physarum polycephalum, a yellow mould known affectionately as Spongebob Squarepants, in recognition of its role as the global standard for super-efficient urban design.
How? Just let nature do her thing! Create a miniature 3D map of any city or area for which you want to find out the most efficient transport routing, put down food - and Spongebob unerringly tracks the most efficient routes by creating protein "super-highways".
The award recognises the "5th Industrial Revolution" - the emergence of biomimicry - the science of following nature's patterns in everything we build and do, rather than fighting it.
Previously, the award was known as the Time "Person" of the Year, when Time was a paper-based magazine. That all changed in 2023 when Google's DeepMind Artificial Intelligence was recognised for devising cures for a host of dread diseases, including cancer, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.
This year's award to Spongebob confirms Forbes magazine was spot-on back in 2014 when it identified biomimicry as the number one driver of future business success.
Now, nature's recipes have become the global standard for all functional materials. Nanotechnology and 3D printing, using only life-friendly chemistry at ambient temperature, have recreated manufacturing and construction. Instead of steel, we use bone recipe. Instead of ceramics, we follow how nature builds seashells. Instead of titanium: modified spider silk.
We've eliminated the concept of waste, with massive impacts on eradicating poverty. All previous 'waste' is upcycled into energy and nutrients, and used to produce foodstuffs and to recycle water. The impact on local and global economies has been uplifting.
Biomimicry has impacted politics too. Voting is now a rapid feedback loop system based on the fact that the entire global population - just like nature - is connected. Anything that needs to be voted on instantaneously targets the populations most affected for their opinions. Society is becoming a self-organising system.
We look back in horror at the filthy, polluting era of the old industrial age of just 15 years ago. We are indeed moving into a New World.
Yes, you read the date above correctly! It is dated 2029. And everything we describe is being researched and tested today in 2016.
That's what we do at FutureWorld International. We explore the waves of change that are rewriting the rules of our world. Perhaps algae can, today, already replace some of your people or an entire department!
How will your business thrive in this radical future? Simply, is your business future-proof? If you want to find out more, click here or visit www.FutureWorld.org.
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