Coming soon, to a world near you

From spending time in virtual reality worlds to sitting down for a meal made of bugs, our day-to-day life tomorrow could be very different to the one we know today.

Imagine if you travelled back 30 years and told your past self how the world would change over the three decades that were to follow.

From the overall impact of the internet – video calls, remote working, smartphones and that demand (or is it desire?) to be connected 24/7 – to the technology we have in our cars (cars that park themselves!) our world has changed significantly.

So, what could be on the horizon for the coming decade and beyond? We take a look at four innovations that could be coming soon to a world near you…

The Metaverse – welcome to a new reality

The term ‘Metaverse’ sprung into the public consciousness in October 2021 – according to Google Trends, there were barely any searches for the term before October and then, bang, it became one of Google’s most-searched terms1.

This, of course, coincided with Mr Zuckerberg rebranding Facebook, What’s App and Instagram under the ‘Meta’ banner2.

It begs the question, what is ‘the metaverse’? It’s being described by some as something more akin to a period of time rather than a technology, but it’s essentially a new, virtual world. A world in which you can – via a headset and touch-sensitive clothing – interact with people and surroundings. It could enable you, for example, to ‘virtually’ attend a concert in New York City, a sports event in London, or scale the Eiffel Tower.

That’s not all. Within the metaverse, there’ll be things to buy –and sell. From virtual ‘land’ to build on, to clothing and footwear. The likes of Gucci3 and Nike are embracing it strongly. Nike even bought a company that makes digital footwear at the end of last year4 –yes, really –and the company says almost seven million people have already visited its metaverse store5.

Esports –a whole new playing field

Just in the same way that many young people across the world have held ambitions of forging a career in sport while playing cricket, soccer, rugby, AFL and tennis in their childhoods, many of today’s youngsters are hoping to win apro contract playing video games.

Esports (short for electronic sports) involves competing online in video game competitions and is becoming bigger and bigger by the year, with various game manufacturers running tournaments and leagues for their own titles. So much so, in fact, that the 2021 League of Legends World Championship had a prize pool of US$2.18m6, while more than 173,000 people turned up to watch a 2017 esport event in Poland – a world record7.

As with traditional sports, esports is serious business. Players compete in local comps, hoping to get spotted by teams who’ll give them a go. Once on the roster, players will practise and train together. They’ll be coached much in the same way ‘traditional’ sports players are and potentially earn a fortune.

For youngsters today, the opportunity of making it big by playing computer games is very real. Here in Australia, a pre- pandemic esports event attracted more than 17,000 people to the Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne, where crowds watched players battle it out for the USD$100,000 prize pool8.

Food – sustainability at its core

Over the coming years what we eat, and how it’s produced, could change dramatically.

The farming sector is focused on sustainability9, and people are generally far more conscious about the sustainable choices they make in their day-to-day lives10, so ethically and sustainably produced meat, fruit, vegetables and dairy products will likely take centre stage.

So too, could, ‘complementary proteins’. These have been around for a while now with varying degrees of ‘taste satisfaction’, but over the coming years, we’ll see increasingly sophisticated ‘meat-free meat’ available. Plant-based meat alternatives commonly feature vegetable proteins from soy, pea, wheat or rice, and some even ‘bleed’ like real meat11.

The closer to the taste and texture fake meat gets, the bigger the decisions for the most committed meat eater.

And what about bugs? Yes, bugs. A report from the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization in 2013 highlighted eating insects as a way to solve world hunger12, and subsequently ants, insects and worms have featured on menus of some restaurants here in Australia13.

Of course, in many cultures, eating bugs is commonplace, and there are a host of protein bars on sale today in the western world made from cricket flour14 – so food containing insects could well become a staple of our diet in the not-so- distant future.

Drone delivery

Drone delivery has been successfully deployed overseas by the likes of Amazon, and here in Australia Coles is piloting a new air-bound delivery method in Canberra15, in partnership with on-demand drone delivery service Wing.

More than 250 products are available for Canberra customers to order and receive in a matter of minutes, and if the trial is successful it could provide the template for how we receive our groceries in the years to come. There’s a host of benefits, including taking a potentially significant amount of traffic – and the consequential emissions – out of the equation.

Not to mention it would be very handy on those occasions you begin to make that morning cup of coffee and realise you’ve run out of milk…

1 https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&q=metaverse

2 https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-10-29/why-facebook-changes-name-to-meta-meaning/100579882

3 https://vault.gucci.com/en-US/story/metaverse

4 https://www.theverge.com/22833369/nike-rtfkt-nft-sneaker-shoe-metaverse-company

5 https://www.thedrum.com/news/2022/03/22/nearly-7-million-people-have-visited-nike-s-metaverse-store

6 https://www.statista.com/statistics/807152/league-of-legends-championships-prize-money-for-winners/

7 https://www.eslgaming.com/press/intel-and-esl-welcome-173000-fans-world-s-biggest-esports-event-history

8 https://about.eslgaming.com/blog/2019/09/meo-2019-attracts-record-crowd

9 https://nff.org.au/policies/environment/sustainability-initiatives/

10 https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamesellsmoor/2019/07/23/77-of-people-want-to-learn-how-to-live-more-sustainably/?sh=1ccfc87b2b01

11 https://www.choice.com.au/food-and-drink/meat-fish-and-eggs/meat-substitutes/buying-guides/plant-based-meat

12 https://www.fao.org/3/i3253e/i3253e00.htm

13 https://www.hoppafoods.com/grubs-up-the-chefs-who-love-cooking-with-insects/

14 https://www.greenbelly.co/pages/best-cricket-bars

15 https://www.colesgroup.com.au/media-releases/?page=coles-the-first-major-australian-supermarket-to-take-to-the-skies-launching-grocery-drone-delivery-service-