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| Formation | 2016 |
|---|---|
| Type | Public policy think tank |
Key people | Tony Seba James Arbib |
| Website | rethinkx |
RethinkX is a think tank founded by Tony Seba and James Arbib that focuses on identifying disruptive innovations that could soon impact society.
"Rethinking Transportation", published in 2017, builds on the ideas described in two of Seba's previously published books. The thesis of "Rethinking Transportation" is that, by 2030, a convergence of exponentially-improving factors will make it cheaper for urban and suburban dwellers to subscribe to Transportation as a Service (TaaS), using self-driving electric cars, than to own their own car. [1] The converging factors cited in the book include: [2] [3] [4] [5]
RethinkX's predictions regarding TaaS have led to debate. [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] Critics generally agreed that the transition to TaaS would happen, but that it would take longer and/or be less complete than RethinkX predicted, for reasons that were:
"Rethinking Transportation 2020–2030" and its precursors (Solar Trillions [21] and Clean Energy Disruption [22] ) made specific predictions for the future prices of solar energy, lithium-ion batteries, electric vehicles, and other items, for each year between their respective dates of publication and 2035.
This report can be seen as an addendum to 2017's Rethinking Transportation 2020–2030 and 2020's Rethinking Energy 2020-2030. It claims to have identified a flaw in the energy industry's method of calculating the Levelized Cost Of Energy (LCOE) for traditional generation modes such as coal, nuclear and gas, in that their analysis assumes that the capacity factor is constant, and claims that this flaw has caused systematic overinvestment in the world's conventional energy sources while causing systematic underinvestment in alternative energy sources such as solar+battery. This report was cited in news stories from around the world. [23] [24] [25] [26] [27]
The thesis of Rethinking Food and Agriculture is that, by 2030, a convergence of exponentially-improving factors will make manufactured protein "five times cheaper by 2030 and 10 times cheaper by 2035 than existing animal proteins, before ultimately approaching the cost of sugar. [28] They will also be superior in every key attribute—more nutritious, healthier, better tasting, and more convenient, with almost unimaginable variety. This means that, by 2030, modern food products will be higher quality and cost less than half as much to produce as the animal-derived products they replace." [28] : 6
These factors driving this result are listed as:
RethinkX's predictions for the disruption of protein by precision fermentation include: [29] [30] [31] [32] [33] [34] [35] [36] [37]
As with RethinkX's previous report on energy and transportation, critics' primary objection was that the disruption would take longer, and be less complete, than RethinkX had predicted. [38] [39] [40] [41]
Other critics argued that RethinkX's motivations were tainted by greed. North Dakota State University livestock economist Tim Petry noted in the Australian beef industry magazine Beef Central that RethinkX's report "was written by Silicon Valley hi-tech people who want to lure billionaire investors to invest in their companies. That's the case with anything. When you have something very dramatic, it's easier to get it in the papers than a report that says meat production is going to increase 1pc a year". [42] [33] [43] A spokesman for the US's National Milk Producers Federation [44] told FoodNavigator [38] that "This report would have you believe that in 11 short years we will be living in The Jetsons, with consumers massively adopting industrially-developed, untested food-like products on their way to vegan fantasyland." Philosophy professor Martin Cohen and food science professor Frédéric Leroy noted "We should recall Marx's warnings against allowing the interests of corporations and private profit to decide what we should eat". [45]
The thesis of Rethinking Humanity is that, first, the Seba Technology Disruption Framework could be extended to explain disruptions of society as a whole because "the same processes and dynamics that drive S-curve adoption of new products at a sector level repeat at the level of civilizations," [46] and that, second, human civilization was now "on the cusp of the fastest, deepest, most consequential transformation of human civilization in history, a transformation every bit as significant as the move from foraging to cities and agriculture 10,000 years ago." [46] : 5
Rethinking Humanity asserts [46] : 5 that each of the five "foundational sectors" that underpin the global economy—information, energy, food, transportation, and materials—"will be disrupted in the period 2020–2033, costs will fall by 10x or more, while production processes an order of magnitude (10x) more efficient will use 90% fewer natural resources with 10x-100x less waste." It further asserts [46] : 5 that these technological disruptions have the potential to disrupt human civilization, for good or ill, and that humanity must develop a new social, political, and economic "Organizing System" to ensure that the outcome of this disruption is "A New Age of Freedom."
The publication of Rethinking Humanity in June 2020 prompted less global press coverage than its previous reports. [47] [48] [49] [50] [51] [52] [53] [54]
The criticisms of Rethinking Humanity were similar to those leveled at RethinkX's previous reports. [54] [55]
Beef is the culinary name for meat from cattle. Beef can be prepared in various ways; cuts are often used for steak, which can be cooked to varying degrees of doneness, while trimmings are often ground or minced, as found in most hamburgers. Beef contains protein, iron, and vitamin B12. Along with other kinds of red meat, high consumption is associated with an increased risk of colorectal cancer and coronary heart disease, especially when processed. Beef has a high environmental impact, being a primary driver of deforestation with the highest greenhouse gas emissions of any agricultural product.
A dairy is a place where milk is stored and where butter, cheese and other dairy products are made, or a place where those products are sold. It may be a room, a building or a larger establishment. In the United States, the word may also describe a dairy farm or the part of a mixed farm dedicated to milk for human consumption, whether from cows, buffaloes, goats, yaks, sheep, horses or camels.
An electric vehicle (EV) is a vehicle whose propulsion is powered fully or mostly by electricity. EVs include road and rail vehicles, electric boats and underwater vessels, electric aircraft and electric spacecraft.
Weaning is the process of gradually introducing an infant human or other mammal to what will be its adult diet while withdrawing the supply of its mother's milk. In the UK, weaning primarily refers to the introduction of solid foods at 6 months; in the US, it primarily refers to stopping breastfeeding.
Dairy farming is a class of agriculture for the long-term production of milk, which is processed for the eventual sale of a dairy product. Dairy farming has a history that goes back to the early Neolithic era, around the seventh millennium BC, in many regions of Europe and Africa. Before the 20th century, milking was done by hand on small farms. Beginning in the early 20th century, milking was done in large scale dairy farms with innovations including rotary parlors, the milking pipeline, and automatic milking systems that were commercially developed in the early 1990s.
Dairy cattle are cattle bred with the ability to produce large quantities of milk, from which dairy products are made. Dairy cattle generally are of the species Bos taurus.
There are different systems of feeding cattle in animal husbandry. For pastured animals, grass is usually the forage that composes the majority of their diet. In turn, this grass-fed approach is known for producing meat with distinct flavor profiles. Cattle reared in feedlots are fed hay supplemented with grain, soy and other ingredients to increase the energy density of the feed. The debate is whether cattle should be raised on fodder primarily composed of grass or a concentrate. The issue is complicated by the political interests and confusion between labels such as "free range", "organic", or "natural". Cattle raised on a primarily foraged diet are termed grass-fed or pasture-raised; for example meat or milk may be called grass-fed beef or pasture-raised dairy. The term "pasture-raised" can lead to confusion with the term "free range", which does not describe exactly what the animals eat.
Fossil fuel phase-out is the gradual reduction of the use and production of fossil fuels to zero, to reduce deaths and illness from air pollution, limit climate change, and strengthen energy independence. It is part of the ongoing renewable energy transition, but is being hindered by fossil fuel subsidies.
An electric car or electric vehicle (EV) is a passenger automobile that is propelled by an electric traction motor, using electrical energy as the primary source of propulsion. The term normally refers to a plug-in electric vehicle, typically a battery electric vehicle (BEV), which only uses energy stored in on-board battery packs, but broadly may also include plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV), range-extended electric vehicle (REEV) and fuel cell electric vehicle (FCEV), which can convert electric power from other fuels via a generator or a fuel cell.
Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), commonly known as mad cow disease, is an incurable and invariably fatal neurodegenerative disease of cattle. Symptoms include abnormal behavior, trouble walking, and weight loss. Later in the course of the disease, the cow becomes unable to function normally. There is conflicting information about the time between infection and onset of symptoms. In 2002, the World Health Organization suggested it to be approximately four to five years. Time from onset of symptoms to death is generally weeks to months. Spread to humans is believed to result in variant Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease (vCJD). As of 2018, a total of 231 cases of vCJD had been reported globally.
Cattle are large, domesticated, bovid ungulates widely kept as livestock. They are prominent modern members of the subfamily Bovinae and the most widespread species of the genus Bos. Mature female cattle are called cows and mature male cattle are bulls. Young female cattle are called heifers, young male cattle are oxen or bullocks, and castrated male cattle are known as steers.
Dairy farming is one of the largest agricultural sectors in Canada. Dairy has a significant presence in all of the provinces and is one of the top two agricultural commodities in seven out of ten provinces.
Shaking beef or bo luc lac is a Vietnamese dish that consists of beef sauteed with cucumber, lettuce, tomatoes, red onion, pepper, and soy sauce. The beef is cut into small cubes the size of playing dice before being sauteed. Beef used to be a luxury ingredient; the dish was therefore mostly served at formal events, such as wedding banquets and anniversaries, although now it has become a common food. Before French colonization, cows were only used for manual labour and were working animals.
The electric vehicle industry in India is slowly growing. The central and state governments have implemented schemes and incentives to promote electric mobility, and have introduced regulations and standards.
Agriculture in Wales has in the past been a major part of the economy of Wales, a largely rural country which is part of the United Kingdom. Wales is mountainous and has a mild, wet climate. This results in only a small proportion of the land area being suitable for arable cropping, but grass for the grazing of livestock is present in abundance. As a proportion of the national economy, agriculture is now much less important; a high proportion of the population now live in the towns and cities in the south of the country and tourism has become an important form of income in the countryside and on the coast. Arable cropping is limited to the flatter parts and elsewhere dairying and livestock farming predominate.
Cellular agriculture focuses on the production of agricultural products from cell cultures using a combination of biotechnology, tissue engineering, molecular biology, and synthetic biology to create and design new methods of producing proteins, fats, and tissues that would otherwise come from traditional agriculture. Most of the industry is focused on animal products such as meat, milk, and eggs, produced in cell culture rather than raising and slaughtering farmed livestock which is associated with substantial global problems of detrimental environmental impacts, animal welfare, food security and human health. Cellular agriculture is a field of the biobased economy. The most well known cellular agriculture concept is cultured meat.
A phase-out of fossil fuel vehicles are proposed bans or discouragement on the sale of new fossil-fuel powered vehicles or use of existing fossil-fuel powered vehicles, as well the encouragement of using other forms of transportation. Vehicles that are powered by fossil fuels, such as gasoline (petrol), diesel, kerosene, and fuel oil are set to be phased out by a number of countries. It is one of the three most important parts of the general fossil fuel phase-out process, the others being the phase-out of fossil fuel power plants for electricity generation and decarbonisation of industry.
Aleph Farms is a cellular agriculture company active in the food technology space. It was co-founded in 2017 by the Israeli food-tech incubator "The Kitchen Hub" of Strauss Group Ltd., and Prof. Shulamit Levenberg of the Faculty of Biomedical Engineering at Technion – Israel Institute of Technology and is headquartered in Rehovot, Israel.
The Climate Change Commission is an independent Crown entity that advises the New Zealand Government on climate change policy and monitors the government's progress towards New Zealand's emission reduction goals within the framework of the Climate Change Response Amendment Act. The Commission was established as the successor to the Interim Climate Change Committee following the passage of the Zero Carbon Act in November 2019.
The adoption of plug-in electric vehicles in Iceland is the second highest in the world after Norway, and fully supported by the government. As of 2022, the market share of electric vehicles in Iceland is around 60%, the second-highest in the world behind Norway. Around 14% of the country's passenger car fleet is electrified as of 2022.
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