Sustainability as a concept is great but when it comes to practice, we feel that sustainability on this planet is perhaps not just possible to achieve. There is so much chaos and unevenness. We will always stay on a turbulent or unsustainable journey. Let us accept this bitter truth.
To address this challenge, we came up with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) but we are not sure how could we sync our interests on quality of life with our limited and threatened natural resources. We worry.
My professor friend told me that the answer is innovation in the form of disruptive technology. According to him, these technologies will radically transform our patterns of production and consumption. According to a report by the Business and Sustainable Development Commission, sustainable business has the potential to unlock $12 trillion in new market value.
What happens if we go disruptive? For instance, the organizations will apply machine learning to support intelligent analytics, processes and user experiences. As people, places, processes and “things” become increasingly digitalized, they’ll be represented by digital twins for simulation. This will provide rich opportunities for new event-driven business processes and digitally enabled business models and ecosystems. Here the concepts of sustainability could be easily embedded.
Advances in AI, the IoT, user experience and application architectures will characterize 2018. Attention will shift from security tools to business risk and trust management. Clearly, the physical and digital worlds are expected to merge to support sustainability. So, sustainability will be the driver to such innovations. Professor cited me Garners 2018 report on top 10 strategic technology trends.
But not all disruptive technologies have to be digital. So, when Professor asked me to join for a breakfast with a representative of Hyperloop, I was rather delighted. Hyperloop brings airplane speeds to ground level, safely. Passengers and cargo capsules will hover through a network of low-pressure tubes between cities and transforming travel time from hours to minutes. Founded in 2013 in Los Angeles, Hyperloop is a global team comprised of more than 800 engineers, creatives and technologists in 52 multidisciplinary teams, with 40 corporate and university partners. Amongst its several advantages, high-speed travel by Hyperloop will relieve over-crowded cities by decreasing the need for urbanization. People will live where they are and reach cities in minutes if they want to. Hyperloop is already getting piloted in China.
When I listened to the presentation, I felt sorry that our PM thought of the “outdated” bullet train project between Mumbai and Ahmadabad. Instead, he should have considered the Hyperloop. Imagine a Hyperloop placed between the four metros of India. This will cut down so much of travel by road, rail and airplanes; reduce the fossil fuel consumption and cut down GHG emissions may be by 10-fold and besides save so much time that people wont know what to do! By deploying this disruptive technology, India’s productivity as well as its sustainability scorecard will drastically improve!
When the man from Hyperloop left, I asked the Professor about his assessment.
“Well Dr Modak, I am thinking differently – something out of the box” Professor said this and lighted his cigar.
“Do you remember the movie Star Trek? It featured a “transporter” – a fictional teleportation machine that “converted” a person or object into an energy pattern (a process called dematerialization), then “beam” it to a target, where it is reconverted into matter (rematerialization)”
“Yes, Professor” I answered. I recalled that Transporter in the Star Trek first appeared in the original pilot episode “The Cage”. The transporter used special effects, using computer animation, and by turning a slow-motion camera upside down and photographing some backlit shiny grains of aluminum powder that were dropped between the camera and a black background. The entire transportation episode looked so mystic!
In August 2008, physicist Michio Kaku predicted in Discovery Channel Magazine that a teleportation device similar to those in Star Trek would be invented within 100 years. But many thought that his speculation was too optimistic. Physics students at University of Leicester calculated that to “beam up” just the genetic information a single human cell would take 4,850 trillion years. A study by Eric Davis for the US Air Force Research Laboratory of speculative teleportation technologies showed that to dematerialize a human body required heating it up to a million times the temperature of the core of the sun. Only then the quarks lose their binding energy and become massless and can be beamed at the speed of light. In the closest physics equivalent to the Star Trek teleportation scenario would require the equivalent of 330 megatons of energy. Further, the information storage and transmission requirements would require current computing capabilities to continue improve by a factor of 10 to 100 times per decade for the next 200 to 300 years. (Taken from Wikipedia on Star Trek)
I was uncomfortable with this information but the Professor continued.
“Imagine Dr Modak, what if we really achieve this kind of transporter technology romanced in the Star Trek. There will then be no vehicles, no trains, no planes – no more consumption of resources like steel, aluminum, plastic and petroleum. No more generation of wastes and emissions, no accidents and no sabotages, no more waste of time. People travel by simply by dematerialization and rematerialization whenever they wish! To me this is the disruptive technology we all should be chasing for – something much more than the Hyperloop!!
I thought the Professor was right. With this technology in place, the world will indeed wheel towards sustainability. But the impact could be so disruptive. I thought of commissioning a study on Environmental, Social and Business Impact Assessment.
“So, what’s your plan Professor?” I asked
Well, I have SMSed Narada Muni (Sage) seeking his consultation.
Some of you may know that in Hindu Mythology, Narada Muni has been described as a global traveller. He travels all over the universe on the sound of his veena ( a string instrument) similar to the transportation technology of Star Trek. The yogis and sages of former times like Narada had what we today call the supernatural powers. When you know the right sounds and chant the appropriate mantras, you can easily create (rematerialize) or dissolve (dematerialize) the matter. The Shruti portion of the Vedas contain mantras for this purpose. For instance, the Bhagavat Purana documents an event, where the brahmanas or the sages killed king Vena by uttering sounds. Mantras are also there to create strong winds and rain or fire. Kardama Muni created an entire mansion in the sky by sound vibrations. That happened in Satya-yuga, several million years ago when the science of uttering mantras were known to the Vedic sages. Obviously, all this only works when the mantra or the sound is pronounced exactly right. That’s why you need to learn this from a living teacher.
I thought getting Sage Narada on board was a good strategy to move towards sustainability. No wonder the Gods and the heavens were never challenged by the sustainability related issues as they used this disruptive technology.
I asked Professor if I could join meeting with Sage Narada.
I thought that by learning this technique, I will solve my problem of getting into the crowded trains of Mumbai every day! Oh, what a great relief it would be! I could just carry a veena and transport myself to office in a whiff!
And this mattered to me much more than Planets sustainability!
Professor was however not so happy with my narrow minded thinking.
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