🔵 TREND RADAR #4 :: TECH DRIVERS
Chaos Overload & Inter-Generational Resentment
After this edition of Trend Radar, we’ll have completed the first cycle of scanning the entire framework: all 13 macrotrends across the 4 drivers spaces (Human, Social, Nature, and Technology). I’m curious what you think of this format, if you’d be willing to fill out a short survey to let me know. Any thoughts, suggestions or constructive feedback would be helpful. Thanks in advance!
Today’s recap will share a few of the 102 recent database signals from the past several weeks that are influenced by the Technology drivers space, which includes three macrotrends: Functional Optimization, Synthetic Expression, Creative Codebreaking.
Functional Optimization
This free trend report explores the future of office spaces, as covered by Dezeen. Although it addresses various angles relating to other drivers spaces (Nature, Social), the overall objective is driving productivity and performance at work.
Lots of optimization in food & beverage! The Wall Street Journal featured the startup GABA Labs, which has created Alcarelle, a proprietary molecule with the potential to provide a hangover-free buzz: “By enhancing the brain’s GABA function, the molecule is meant to deliver a version of alcohol’s pleasant, relaxing high without the downsides.” Chris Danton brought another likeminded startup to my attention, ALTR, which claims to use a system called ‘Vevlet Blade’ for “precision ethanol removal at a molecular level” while simultaneously “preserving the full sensory experience: flavor, structure, and mouthfeel.” Chris also surfaced this deep dive, by Grace Cook, tracking the rise of carb gels, like Maurten, and the broader sports fuel market for enhancing endurance.
There’s been a revival of activity around wearables lately. Business of Fashion ran two articles in the past month, about how the fashion industry seems to finally be on board with ‘smart glasses’ after a decade of tech-led flops, and about what the actual market potential looks like. And I learned via Ochuko Akpovbovbo that Amazon acquired Bee, a bracelet that records everything you say and “then uses artificial intelligence to turn that giant word soup into a searchable history, offering up key events and even to-do lists based on your chatter.” Personally, I’m aligned with this individual in the WSJ comment section:
Longevity Quest
More on wearable surveillance, but moving into the health & longevity space, The Cut examined RFK Jr.’s claim that he wants the entire population wearing health-tracking devices, which raised privacy concerns. In more optimistic news — LSN Global surfaced new developments by researchers at UT Austin who created a non-invasive hydration-tracking device. Beyond being a helpful healthcare invention, I think this is also interesting in a consumer context since hydration seems like a fairly innocuous health metric (in terms of privacy concerns) that is also the subject of a pervasive cultural obsession (see: new trending water bottles every year).
A fascinating feature by Dazed considers the concept of DNA as a status symbol, as more people start signaling aspirational wellbeing by sharing their metrics from wearable health trackers, results from increasingly popular genetic testing, and visits to expensive biohacking experiences. In the article, J'Nae Phillips conceptualizes how this could evolve moving forward: “Future developments may include live biomarker streaming, AI-curated health feeds, and hyper-personalised wellness dashboards shared like Spotify Wrapped. Health will become gamified – leaderboards for HRV, fasting hours, or cellular age could emerge in social fitness platforms.”
Kim K launched shapewear for your face, obviously. South Korea’s cosmetic tourism boom has been receiving a lot of coverage, and always-honest Charlotte Palermino recapped her recent experiences. Last time I went to Seoul was for a work trip, and I got Botox (for the first time) alongside my former boss (literally, in the same room). I’m heading back in a few weeks, if anyone has recent reccs (besides beauty, I’ve got enough on that front).
A new men’s skincare brand, Dividends, launched last month, describing its focus as “that mission of longevity and long-term gains,” positioned “not as a vanity product, but as a longevity product.”
Dan Frommer’s Consumer Trends Mid-Year Report indicates that “a ~third of Americans say they’d like to live forever,” and “~half of consumers consider themselves someone ‘actively trying to live longer,’ which brings me to…
[EMERGING] Inter-Generational Resentment
While longevity has been getting a lot of attention recently, it’s not a new trend. Recently though, as the concept is becoming more mainstream, I’ve been starting to think about the implications of extended lifespans. When combined with declining birth rates, there’s the obvious issue of lopsidedly aging populations and lack of adequate resources to care for less-able older individuals. But if we take the optimistic stance that these longer lives will will also be healthier lives, with people staying active in old age, that leads to different issues. I was fascinated by this video that Grace Gordon shared a while ago, which explains how Japan’s older generations have held onto their corporate leadership positions for so long that entire intermediary generations have been stuck in extended periods of middle-management, missing out on career growth trajectories and garnering growing resentment. In the U.S., it feels like we’re most clearly seeing the consequences in our government. Meanwhile, most of the wellness-oriented longevity hype conveniently ignores the potential societal bottlenecks and inter-generational resentment that may come with lengthening lifespans.