Hello, and welcome to the HORIZON weekly newsletter. Particularly warm greetings to our many new subscribers - please do forward this on to colleagues and connections in your network who would also enjoy the insights.

Below you will find some hand-picked fresh thought-leadership content, giving you an overview of recent developments, topical innovations, and what we're seeing and hearing out there towards the digital frontier.

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Recent articles

Become more confident in making those significant tough decisions. ​ "You can’t use an old map to explore a new world" - said Albert Einstein. ​ 2025 has already gotten off to a shaky start in many ways, and more volatility lies ahead. ​ How are you going to navigate what comes next - and beyond? ​ In a disruptive world where the unthinkable happens more frequently and the pace and direction of change continues to increase, Future Horizon presents a clear vision for enduring sustainable growth. ​ Maps aren't just valuable as a reference for planning a path or working out how to get to a desired destination. ​ Perhaps an unforeseen obstacle requires a reroute, or an unplanned event necessitates a dynamic change of journey objective. ​ They can be vital if we are - or believe we may be - lost along the way. ​ The first modern printed map was produced in 1475. ​ Much as maps are regularly and iteratively updated to reflect what's current, Leaders must keep learning in order to constantly evolve. ​ What got you here, won't get you to there. ​ Today, leading forward-thinking organisations globally work with Future Horizon to explore what the forthcoming years ahead might look like. ​ We deliver the top trends of tomorrow, today - acting as a bridge between today and what the future might bring over the horizon. ​ Understanding how to mitigate VUCA - Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity - enables informed response, rather than mere reaction. ​ The future doesn't just happen to us - the future is something we do. ​ Work with us to have strategic foresight on emerging technology delivered & explained in business terms, specifically tailored to your organisation. ​ Exploring futures and building anticipation is zero risk - shape what comes next over your preferred horizon, and have your next map(s) ready now.

"I believe that the abominable deterioration of ethical standards stems primarily from the mechanisation and depersonalisation of our lives - a disastrous byproduct of science and technology. Nostra culpa! [We are to blame!]" ​ Continuing with the Albert Einstein theme from above, this quote was from a letter to Otto Juliusburger on April 11, 1946. ​ Today we invest huge sums and amounts of time ensuring we get better at talking to machines (and vice-versa). ​ Human-to-human focus often seems to be something of an after-thought as our emerging technologies iteratively evolve. ​ Whilst businesses fall over themselves to offer customer service chatbots (under the auspices of convenience and efficiency), such channels add another barrier layer - lacking nuance, understanding, and empathy ​ Virtual meetings remain the norm - though often participants don't turn on video or engage, so the richness and spontaneity of face-to-face interaction is lost plus personal linkages risk becoming one-dimensional. ​ As we continue to innovate and integrate advanced emerging technologies into our lives, we must mindfully and consciously remember the value of human-to-human interactions when solving problems. ​ Balancing future efforts to enhance machine communication with a renewed focus on improving personal connections will ensure that we harness the full potential of technology without losing sight of our humanity. ​ As Albert pointed out, often the root-cause of issues which stem from innovation are not the fault of the underlying tech...but how we as humans end up using it.

What our planet may look like - 8 billion years into the future. ​ Sounds like Science Fiction, but astronomers have recently spotted this. ​ It was observed by boffins at the University of California, Berkeley​, using the Keck 10-metre telescope in Hawaii. ​ The existence of an Earth-resembling planet, twice the size of the rock we all call home, around a dead star offers hope for our own ultimate survival. ​ It's known as KMT-2020-BLG-0414. ​ Where? A mere 4,000 light-years from the Milky Way galaxy. ​ This is important as, according to a consensus of best estimates, humans et al will need to find a new place to live in about 1 billion years from now. ​ For most of their lives, stars like our local Sun burn by fusing hydrogen into helium. ​ Once they have exhausted their hydrogen fuel, they begin fusing helium, leading to a massive increase in energy output that causes them to swell to many times their original size. ​ In doing so they consume any nearby planets - eventually transforming into red giants. ​ Mercury, Venus, plus possibly even Earth and Mars could be consumed during this metamorphosis; if Earth is lucky, rather than being swallowed it will be ejected into an orbit much further away. ​ In due course, when the core of the red giant has exhausted all of its fuel and shed all the gas it can, the remaining dense stellar cinder is called a white dwarf. ​ Only a few gas-giant planets have been observed around white dwarfs. ​ You can read more detail of this discovery in journal "Nature Astronomy". ​ There are, of course, many possible futures for our planet (and everything living on it). ​ Whilst Earth may be gobbled-up by the expanding Sun or have its orbit shifted out, perhaps we'll come up with incredible innovative tech to solve these issues. ​ Optimistically, maybe we'll have safely migrated well away by that point. ​ In the same way, the future much closer to home is also yet to be defined - that's up to us via the decisions we make today in order to influence tomorrow and beyond.

Thank-you for reading and being part of our community - we trust you find these original pieces on emerging technology and digital innovation useful, valuable, and thought-provoking as we bridge the gap between today and what future tech might bring tomorrow in Plain English.

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