NEWS FROM THE FUTURE: Cashing in on failed start-ups

Futureworld brings you Mindbullets: News from the Future, to spark strategic thinking about leadership, innovation and digital disruption. These fictitious scenarios aim to challenge conventional mindsets and promote understanding of the future context for business. 

Dateline: September 23 2036

For Eric Strum, seen by many as a business visionary, the future of biotech companies and projects is simple to predict — more than 90% will fail! If a tech start-up or digital project fails, generally the investors are the only losers. But biotech failures of the 2020s were different — they left devastated humans in their wake. From bionic limbs that couldn’t move to restored eyesight that was ultimately lost again; by the end of the 2020s, new human tragedies were a monthly feature on news platforms.

But where most saw failure, Strum saw opportunity. “Back then, it was a litigation circus — a cycle of clients suing bankrupt start-ups and governments, governments pointing the finger at the biotech companies, who in turn said their clients knew the risks. The courts were drowning in paperwork, and in any case, the companies were bankrupt. I managed to get everyone to the table and described my vision of a company servicing discontinued human augmentation tech. They all agreed to give BioHack the concessions we needed to operate.”

Strum wrangled all nonsupported tech and associated intellectual property (IP) from the bankrupt biotechs at no charge, convinced all the clients to stop litigating and instead help his team to get going, and — in a stroke of genius — negotiated tax-free status, not only for BioHack but for its employees as well. This brought former technicians, programmers, engineers and specialists out of retirement to work for a good cause, tinkering with obsolete tech while adding value to society.

With no research & development or sunk costs, BioHack operates at a 70% margin and provides better services to its clients at a fraction of previous prices. It’s a win-win where clients get new features and more support while living full lives again. Meanwhile, the Food and Drug Administration is contemplating revising the conditions for human trials, considering mandating that all tech and IP goes to BioHack free of charge if a project fails.

While BioHack has made Strum a billionaire, many question the ethics of turning huge profits from human suffering. Lately, some of the big venture capital firms and funds that lost billions when those start-ups collapsed have started looking for ways to claw back their losses from BioHack. They have forgotten how eager they were seven years ago to avoid the courts. Or as one CNN anchor cynically put it: “Human memory is as short as its greed is vast!”

• First published on Mindbullets on September 29 2022

Beware of abandonware

When your bionic enhancements lose their support network

Dateline: March 3 2028

Right now there’s a bit of a gold rush to get hooked up to the latest digitally enhanced upgrades — for your body and mind. From bionic eyes to replacement arms to wireless neural implants, there is an astonishing array of gadgets that can restore your sight, help you walk again or connect your brain directly to the cloud.

It’s the bionic age. Medical and computer scientists have joined forces to create chips and sensors that integrate with your body, and connect to your nerve endings and neural pathways. Originally inspired as a way to help paralysed patients walk, and people with visual disabilities to see better, bionic devices can also monitor your insulin and keep pain at bay.

And now Elon Musk’s Neuralink is showing promise as a way to talk to your computer, just by thinking about it. Quite soon, we can expect biohackers to level up to super intelligence by connecting their brains to deep learning networks and massive data banks!

There’s always a risk with cutting-edge hardware and evolving software; you have to be fairly confident that the innovators will be able to support you and provide the necessary updates. You want a lifetime support contract, and “bugs” that emerge need to be handled swiftly.

But what if the company itself fails, or the whizzkids that invented your bionic arm or leg or eye or brain pivot into a different field entirely? You could be stuck with a device that stops working, or causes serious problems in your life.

With wearables such as Google Glass it was easy enough to discard them when they became obsolete, but with implants it might be hazardous or even impossible. You could end up with “abandonware”.

• First published on Mindbullets March 3 2022

• Despite appearances to the contrary, Futureworld cannot and does not predict the future. The Mindbullets scenarios are fictitious and designed purely to explore possible futures, and challenge and stimulate strategic thinking.