Future World Research Articles

The potential of autonomous delivery services to increase fast food consumption

Abstract Objective: Technological innovations in the online food delivery sector include the use of autonomous delivery vehicles. The aim of the present study was to investigate consumers’ intentions to use these services once they are widely available and their motivations for using them to access unhealthy food. Design: Online survey including a vignette describing a future world where autonomous food deliveries are in common use in both metropolitan and non-metropolitan areas. Setting: Australia Participants: 1078 Australians aged 18 years and older, nationally representative by sex, age, and location (metropolitan versus non-metropolitan residence). Results: Around half of the sample reported intending to use an autonomous food delivery service at least once per week for fast food (53%) and/or healthy pre-prepared food (50%). Almost two-thirds (60%) intended using autonomous vehicle deliveries to receive groceries. Around one in five (17%) anticipated an increase in their fast food intake as a result of access to autonomous delivery services compared to one in two (46%) expecting others’ total fast food intake to increase. The most common reason provided for using autonomous food deliveries was increased convenience. More frequent current fast food ordering, higher socioeconomic status, younger age, and regional location were significantly associated with an anticipated increase in fast food consumption. Conclusions: The emergence of autonomous food delivery systems may bring both benefits and adverse consequences that in combination are likely to constitute a substantial regulatory challenge. Proactive efforts will be required to avoid negative public health nutrition outcomes of this transport evolution.

The Frontier Exploration and Application Prospect of Data Science

Abstract. In the era of information explosion, data floods in like a relentless tide, shaping peoples world every minute and second. Data science, the most prominent discipline of our time, wields unprecedented power to propel the development of industries across the board, serving as a bridge that connects the past with the future, granting insights into the present, and predicting trends. This article delves into the allure of data science, unveiling how it has become the key to unlocking the future world. Furthermore, this review explores in detail the core concepts, key technologies, and broad applications of data science. Through in-depth research on data acquisition, processing, analysis, and visualization, it reveals the innovative applications and significant impacts of data science in multiple fields such as business intelligence, healthcare, and financial technology. At the same time, the future trends and challenges of data science are prospectively analyzed, which provides a valuable reference for further promoting the research and practice in this field.

Nourishing sustainability: clinical nutrition’s impact on climate change

IntroductionPreserving our planet's delicate balance is not merely a choice but a responsibility we owe to future generations, ensuring equitable, and sustainable world. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted by all United Nations (UN) member states in 2015, offers a collective vision for global peace and prosperity. Central to this agenda are the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which call for unified action from all nations, irrespective of their developmental status, under a global partnership. MethodThis paper examines the SDGs' framework and its applicability to clinical nutrition (CN). We provide a comprehensive narrative review relating to the integration of SDGs in CN practices. Whilst recognising the importance of the SDG framework we elected to focus specifically upon the environmental aspects of CN care. ResultsThe analysis revealed that the SDGs provide a robust framework for promoting sustainability in clinical nutrition. Key findings highlight the interconnection between health improvement and other SDGs, such as poverty reduction and climate action. Effective CN practices contribute to broader sustainable development by ensuring better health outcomes, which in turn support economic growth and reduce inequalities. Additionally, strategies in CN that focus on reducing waste and improving resource efficiency align with environmental sustainability goals. Conclusion: The 17 SDGs offer a comprehensive guide for advancing sustainability across various fields, including clinical nutrition. By adopting these goals, healthcare providers can implement holistic strategies that not only improve health outcomes but also support broader efforts to achieve global sustainability.

Bio-Based and Biodegradable Polymeric Materials for a Circular Economy

Nowadays, plastic contamination worldwide is a concerning reality that can be addressed with appropriate society education as well as looking for innovative polymeric alternatives based on the reuse of waste and recycling with a circular economy point of view, thus taking into consideration that a future world without plastic is quite impossible to conceive. In this regard, in this review, we focus on sustainable polymeric materials, biodegradable and bio-based polymers, additives, and micro/nanoparticles to be used to obtain new environmentally friendly polymeric-based materials. Although biodegradable polymers possess poorer overall properties than traditional ones, they have gained a huge interest in many industrial sectors due to their inherent biodegradability in natural environments. Therefore, several strategies have been proposed to improve their properties and extend their industrial applications. Blending strategies, as well as the development of composites and nanocomposites, have shown promising perspectives for improving their performances, emphasizing biopolymeric blend formulations and bio-based micro and nanoparticles to produce fully sustainable polymeric-based materials. The Review also summarizes recent developments in polymeric blends, composites, and nanocomposite plasticization, with a particular focus on naturally derived plasticizers and their chemical modifications to increase their compatibility with the polymeric matrices. The current state of the art of the most important bio-based and biodegradable polymers is also reviewed, mainly focusing on their synthesis and processing methods scalable to the industrial sector, such as melt and solution blending approaches like melt-extrusion, injection molding, film forming as well as solution electrospinning, among others, without neglecting their degradation processes.

Health beyond borders: the future of health promotion.

This article situates the field of health promotion in its current cutting-edge agendas around health and wellbeing; social and other determinants of health; complexity and its associated sciences; planetary health; and inclusion and diversity. However, it is also proposed that there are emergent dimensions that should be placed more deliberately on the agendas of health promotion research and practice. The piece offers three dimensions for noting health promotion futures: a cognitive, spatial and temporal one. The first is a non-anthropocentric appreciation of the complex interactions between geosphere, biosphere and anthroposphere that can be framed through a lens of governance and cosmology; the second one is established by humankind's journeys beyond the atmosphere into outer space; and the third one argues we - that is, the global health (promotion) community - need to account for temporal determinants of health, more consciously and conscientiously. The gazes seem beyond current agendas of health - but the article demonstrates how they are to become mission-critical aspects of contemporary and future worlds.

It’s a Woman’s World: Exploring the Role of Female Qualities in the Evolving 21st Century Workplace

As the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR/Industry 4.0) continues to be realised through technological advances and social shifts, it has become evident that the future job market remains unpredictable and will continuously evolve. To accommodate the inevitable changes future generations will experience, teaching and learning environments are adapting their approaches. Instead of purely focusing on hard skills, the importance of conveying soft skills is increasingly recognised. Pedagogical experts have pulled the 4 C’s into focus as important 21st-century skills: critical thinking, creativity, communication, and collaboration. The connection between these soft skills, lateral, right-brain thinking, and female qualities is often drawn. This study's methodology explored and synthesised literature across various fields to map key concepts, establish new connections, and explore whether women may inherently possess skills aligned with future workplace demands shaped by the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Digital native characteristics are examined through Generational Theory, highlighting the benefits that soft skills will have for future generations. Additionally, literature on 21st-century skills is examined, and the differences between left and right brain characteristics are analysed to assess the importance of right-brain thinking in future workplaces. Lastly, gender-related qualities are evaluated to determine whether women may have an advantage in the evolving job market. By connecting these perspectives, the study aims to evaluate whether or not women may have the upper hand in the future working world. The study finds no concrete evidence that women inherently possess superior traits for future workplace demands, though the 4IR's emphasis on soft skills and inclusivity could enhance female participation. However, challenges like the lack of role models and digital echo chambers may still impede progress.

Defining AI companions: a research agenda—from artificial companions for learning to general artificial companions for Global Harwell

This paper examines and outlines the future exploration of AI companions, focusing on three main areas. Firstly, it defines AI companions as sophisticated AI entities designed for supporting and enhancing human experiences in daily activities, such as learning, working, and others. They encompass emotional, social, and practical aspects of daily life while fostering interactions and relationships with humans. Secondly, the paper provides a historical review of AI companions for learning (i.e., AI learning companions), offering an overview of their conceptualization, development, and utilization in educational contexts and insights into their potential future trajectory. Lastly, a research agenda is presented, which includes AI learning companions—outlining key questions, challenges, and goals for integrating AI companions into learning environments—and the pursuit of Global ‘Harwell’ (a portmanteau of ‘harmony’ and ‘wellbeing’). This suggests that, in addition to transforming education, AI companions can contribute to individual wellbeing as well as broader humanitarian objectives. Beyond contributing to economic growth and efficiency, it is fundamentally important to address the most pressing global challenges or human crises of our time, foster understanding and cooperation among researchers and practitioners in different fields, and hence pave the way toward a future world marked by Global Harwell. To further advocate and demonstrate the pivotal role of AI companions in achieving these genuine objectives, we propose the General Artificial Companion Hypothesis. All these endeavors, however, begin with AI companions for learning. As Mandela said, “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”

Photoelectrochemical response of tin iodide phosphide (SnIP) composites with MoSe2, MoS2, and h‐BN

For a future world fuelled by green energy it is invaluable to develop, test and maximise the catalytic efficiency of new effective water‐splitting materials. In this paper, we further explore the catalytic activity of double‐helical tin iodide phosphide (SnIP), as it features bandgaps in the ideal region for this process. We found that its photoelectrochemical response can be multiplied by forming composites of SnIP with selected 2D materials, focusing on hexagonal boron nitride and the transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) MoSe2 and MoS2. These nanocomposites were analysed with Powder‐X‐ray diffraction (P‐XRD), Raman, and UV/VIS bandgap determination. Their photo activity was assessed under simulated solar light through chrono amperometry and linear sweep voltammetry (CA, LSV). The high anisotropy of the involved materials enables efficient charge separation at the 1D/2D interfaces, increasing photoelectrochemical response four‐fold.

Folklore on Kayori: An Oral Tradition about Natural Disasters in Central Sulawesi

The characteristics of Indonesian society are firmly attached to the image of expressing language orally, which has been done since long ago and has survived until now. Folk beliefs and imagination are the main essences of cultured human life when creating stories. Although the current situation signifies a modern life, the researcher argued that folklore is an oral tradition still relevant to life’s context substantially and functionally, as on kayori from Central Sulawesi. This research aimed to revitalise kayori as folklore in Central Sulawesi, an oral tradition about natural disasters. The researcher generated knowledge in this research qualitatively as a method that included a literature review study. The researcher collected and used reference sources related to the variables of this study. The research showed that kayoriis a folklore that affirms oral tradition as an art to express the function of learning and remembering the messages in poems and sounds. The messages of kayori have implications for practical actions for the community regarding natural disaster mitigation related to disaster policy, ethics, religiosity, and ecological values. In the end, the verbal art of kayoriremained a part of the futuristic world because it provided knowledge on humanitarian and environmental aspects related to natural disasters in the contemporary era.

Increased Sensitivity and Accelerated Response of Vegetation to Water Variability in China from 1982 to 2022

Understanding how plants adapt to shifting water availability is imperative for predicting ecosystem vulnerability to drought. However, the spatial–temporal dynamics of the plant–water relationship remain uncertain. In this study, we employed the latest Global Inventory Modeling and Mapping Studies (GIMMS) Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI4g), an updated version succeeding GIMMS NDVI3g spanning from 1982 to 2022. We integrated this dataset with the multiple scale Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI 1 to 24) to investigate the spatial–temporal variability of sensitivity and lag in vegetation growth in response to water variability across China. Our findings indicate that over 83% of China’s vegetation demonstrates positive sensitivity to water availability, with approximately 66% exhibiting a shorter response lag (lag < 1 month). This relationship varies across aridity gradients and diverges among plant functional types. Over 66% of China’s vegetation displays increased sensitivity to water variability and 63% manifests a short response lag to water changes over the past 41 years. These outcomes significantly contribute to understanding vegetation dynamics in response to changing water conditions, implying a heightened susceptibility of vegetation to drought in a future warming world.

Study on Cyberpunk Style in Movies

Cyberpunk is a fusion of cybernetics and punk, also known as digital punk. It originates from science fiction and primarily explores the future development of humanity in relation to artificial intelligence. The purpose of this thesis is to study the influence of cyberpunk style on film-making's theme, graphics, and post-effects. The movies theme mainly centers around anti-Utopian ideas, exploring the future fate of mankind and artificial intelligence with a pessimistic prediction. It explores the potential threat that artificial intelligence poses to the future society under the civilization of high mechanical development so as to criticize the contemporary society and cause self-reflection of human beings. Cinematography mainly utilizes colorful sci-fi elements such as skyscrapers and neon lights to create a futuristic world. In terms of color matching, dark scenes use low saturated dark colors to create a gloomy rainy day feeling while bright scenes employ reds, purples, and other highly saturated hues for a magical atmosphere that increases contrast between light and dark colors for visual impact. The post-film picture effects and background sound effects are very important for cyberpunk movies. Picture effects adjust the hue, saturation and lightness of the bright parts and enhance 3D buildings and cars to create a futuristic intoxicating atmosphere. Meanwhile, the music combines industrial, rock and other music styles to collide with special effects and sound effects, creating a virtual future space. Analyzing the western movie The Matrix and the Chinese movie Heaven Sent confirms our viewpoints and put forward expectations for human society. Ultimately, it comes to the conclusion that cyberpunk is not only a style, but also a way to convey new ideas.

Motivation from Joseph Ratzinger’s Eschatological Realism for Protecting Humanity’s Future

Abstract This article outlines one way in which Joseph Ratzinger’s eschatology could contribute to reducing the risk humanity now creates to its own survival. Studies of ‘Existential Risk’ warn that hazards arising from Artificial Intelligence, Nuclear Weapons, Climate Change, and Engineered Pathogens require mitigation to safeguard the future of the human race from a calamitous end. Preventative measures, however, entail sacrifice, and there is no shortage of resistance to regulation of behaviours and technological development. Ethics of empathy, utility, and duties reach breaking point when stretched to overcome the temporal and moral gap between present agency and future well-being. This article proposes that Ratzinger’s theology of history and commitment to eschatological realism offers an intertwined double benefit: his warning about the danger of conflating hope in God’s Kingdom with hope in a future world humanity could perfect for itself opens up the uniquely rich ground of a trans-historical hope in Jesus Christ, in which an impactful relationship of love for humanity’s future can put down roots today.

Groundwater sustainability in India through nonrice-dominated cropping pattern.

Over-exploitation of groundwater for irrigation caused rapid groundwater depletion in north India, leading to food and water security challenges. However, the crucial role of changing cropping patterns on groundwater savings under the observed and projected warming climate remains unexplored. Here, we show that altering the existing rice-dominated cropping systems in India can be a potential solution for groundwater sustainability under the current and future climate. Satellite and model-based estimates show that north India lost ∼336 and 297 km3 of groundwater, respectively during 2002-2022. We developed optimized crop switching scenarios for groundwater savings considering nutritional requirements, farmers' profit, and crop production. Crop switching considering all the three targets (crop switch one: CSI) and allowing rice replacement with alternate crops (crop switch two: CSII) could save 45 and 91 km3 groundwater, respectively in north India during the observed climate (2002-2022) compared with the current cropping pattern. Altering the current cropping pattern can lead to substantial groundwater savings under the projected future climate without comprising nutritional targets and farmers' profit at the state level. Replacing 37% area of rice with other crops (CSII) can recover 61 to 108 km3 groundwater compared with -13 to 43 km3 with current cropping pattern under the 1.5-3 °C global warming levels. Similarly, under the CSI scenario, 36 to 86 km3 groundwater can be recovered in the future warming world. Moreover, the benefits of crop switching in groundwater saving are higher during the prolonged dry periods compared with the baseline under the warming climate. Therefore, crop switching offers substantial benefits for groundwater sustainability under the current and projected future climate in India.

Amalgamation and Regeneration

Abstract This article discusses Israel Zangwill's play The Melting Pot (1908) and Horace M. Kallen's essay ‘Democracy versus the Melting Pot’ (1915) as two different visions of future Jewish inclusion. Zangwill's play and Kallen's response reflect social changes at the time, and both visions consider Jewish history exemplary for the world-to-come. Both show how conceptions of Jewishness were turned into universalist teleologies, but of different kinds. Zangwill's play opened in Washington at the height of immigration, urbanisation and social change, and it swiftly exemplified a vision of the American nation in the making, emphasising concepts of amalgamation more than old historical identities. In opposition, Kallen's response in 1915 emphasised historical identities and rejected the metal melting metaphors, replacing them with a Darwin-inspired spontaneous ‘symphony’. Zangwill and Kallen both imagined the future world as profoundly shaped by Jewishness, albeit with different consequences.

Probing the pathway of H2-THF and H2-DIOX sII hydrates formation: Implication on hydrate-based H2 storage

Hydrogen (H2) is recognized as a promising energy carrier for the future world, owing to its high energy density and zero carbon emissions. H2 storage in the form of solidified hydrates represents an emerging economic-viable and eco-friendly technology for large-scale application. Thermodynamic hydrate promoters (THPs) enhanced H2 hydrate formation at mild pressure conditions by forming sII or sH hydrates. However, the formation pathway and promotion mechanism of H2-THP sII hydrates are yet to be elucidated. In this study, the composition of H2-THF/H2-DIOX sII hydrates was analyzed in both 5.56 mol% THF and DIOX systems by high-pressure μ-DSC. The well-designed kinetic experiments coupled with morphology observation were conducted to reveal the key stage for H2-THF/H2-DIOX hydrates formation at pressures from 8.3 MPa to 18.3 MPa. Moreover, Raman spectroscopy was employed to validate the proposed formation pathway and the cage occupancy ratio of H2 and THP molecules. Both pure THP hydrates and H2-THP hydrates were identified by high-pressure μ-DSC. Formation of H2-THP sII hydrates requires a specific condition that both H2 and THP molecules simultaneously occupy the small and large cages of sII hydrates for 5.56 mol% THP. Based on the Raman spectroscopy, the ratio of H2 molecules in the 512 small cages to THP molecules in the 51264 large cages increased with pressure. The experimental results contribute to a fundamental understanding of the role of THP in promoting H2-THP hydrate formation. The findings guide the adoption of effective THPs with optimal concentrations and contact patterns for hydrate-based H2 storage technology.

Transformative Learning & Self-Efficacy in a world shaped by AI: Empowering students through Future Skills

Generative AI faces educational institutions in particular with an immense challenge and requires them to prepare students for unknown contexts in order not to fall behind in the race against technological progress. Teaching Future Skills as such competencies that prepare students for complex, emergent situations is a key to achieving this. This paper shows a pedagogical teaching-learning concept to promote Future Skills in higher education. With various learning materials students are supported in their personal skills development and are also prepared for the demands of the future working world through evidence-based self- and external assessments and situational and self-reflective learning. In addition to the pedagogical concept, quantitative evaluation results of the workshop on which the concept is based are presented. The Workshop was trialed with 1143 students and evaluated via questionnaire. The aim of the research design was to find out the acceptance, the reaction and learning effectiveness of the Future Skills Learning design as well as the self-efficacy of the students.

Envisioning ecopolitical futures: Reading climate fiction as political theory

Scholarship on how speculative knowledges can contribute to envisioning sustainable futures is thriving. There is less attention to the specific ways in which political theory as speculative knowledge is relevant to these scholarly discussions. This article fosters this link by suggesting reading climate fiction as political theory. The article follows a four-step analysis. First, it clarifies the importance of pluralising and decolonising the knowledges through which climate change is engaged politically. Second, it introduces the concept of ecopolitical imaginary to capture collective visions for sustainable futures, showing the relevance of the theorising endeavour. Third, it elucidates the idea that placing political theory and climate fiction in dialogue can help envisage alternative ecopolitical imaginaries for future world ordering. Finally, it reads Robinson’s Ministry for the Future as an experiment in political thinking: an ecopolitical imaginary that helps to think through the challenges involved in countering the colonial logic of global climate governance and the Eurocentric universalism underpinning it. The overarching argument is that reading climate fiction as political theory offers insight into envisioning just sustainable futures.

Геополитика и туризм (на примере России)

In recent years, geopolitics has had a significant impact on absolutely all countries of the world and spheres of activity. The article indicates that emerging geopolitical conflicts both near borders and within states have an impact not only on politics and economics, but also on tourism (international tourist flows, hospitality). In Russia, these processes are most acute in connection with the conduct of a Special Military Operation. Within the framework of this study, the authors examined the interaction and mutual influence of geopolitics and tourism as a manifestation of “soft” and “hard” forces. The article focuses on the need for research in the field of tourism and geopolitics related to instability in the world, uncertainty of future world processes and increasing competition for world domination. The authors of the article note that many destabilizing factors simultaneously demonstrate the positive influence of geopolitics on the ongoing tourism processes, are an impulse to solve urgent problems, new challenges and positive changes.

The structure of the future world order: controversial issues

The structure of the future world order: controversial issues

Prefigurative Peace in Philippians

Paul refers to peace twice in Phil. 4:7 and 4:9. This paper argues that the peace of God is a prefiguration of the eschatological peace to come in God’s world. It is be proposed that as Philippians is dealing with a social order (i.e., that of life in Christ) that is distinct from the dominant social order of the Roman empire or that of the colony of Philippi, political implications are at the very least a corollary of what Paul is writing to the Christ devotees in this city. The main points that will be argued are that peace is best understood as a key dimension for God’s upcoming new world that is already present “in Christ”. The Philippian community is called upon to stand firm in Christ (Phil. 4:1), which is, due to devotional and ethical practices, to result in the experience of God’s peace or the God of peace. This must be understood as both a present and a future reality. Accordingly, the Philippian community can be seen as prefiguring God’s future world by inhabiting this world now already in their communal life.