ASHRAE Journal - March 2023 - 8

INDUSTRY NEWS
Inexorable Technologies and Trends
BY JOHN G. FALCIONI, EDITOR
Peter Leyden's keynote address at ASHRAE's Winter Conference last month laid the
groundwork to examine dozens of new technologies and massive trends that are
coming and will be almost impossible to slow down, let alone stop, in the next 25
years. These include those impacting high performance buildings, decarbonization
and artificial intelligence in the HVAC&R industry.
Leyden is founder and CEO of Reinvent, an
organization of top innovators focused on ways to
reinvent the world. Previously, he was managing editor
of WIRED magazine.
The trends he discussed encompass three
fundamental technological transitions of worldhistorical
import:
First, the next stage of
infotech, which will
bring the spread of
ubiquitous artificial
intelligence and
an unexpected
acceleration of
innovation. Second,
biotech, which will
revolutionize human
health through genetic
understanding but also bring biological engineering
that will fundamentally rework our built world. Third,
energy tech, which will fully scale up clean energy
and electric transportation that will reshape cities in
profound ways. Leyden calls these, The Inexorables.
In front of a crowded ballroom at the conference's
keynote event-where ASHRAE President Farooq
Mehboob and ASHRAE's Executive Vice President Jeff
Littleton also announced the Society's Honors and
Awards recipients-Leyden, a leading expert on new
technologies and future trends, gave the big picture
story of our times and the next 30 years focusing on a
dozen new technologies and massive trends that will
inexorably occur under almost any future scenarios.
The three tech booms will help drive an overarching
economic boom throughout the world, he said. But
there also are demographic trends that will inexorably
roll out and impact culture and politics, as well as a
global version of The Inexorables that will shape the
8
ASHRAE JOURNAL ashrae.o rg M A R CH 2023
" The time has come for a
positive reframe of what's
really going on in America
and the world right now,
and what's actually going to
happen in the near future. "
future in profound and potentially positive ways.
" The time has come for a positive reframe of what's
really going on in America and the world right now,
and what's actually going to happen in the near future, "
Leyden said. " For far too long we've been looking at our
current situation and the coming decades through the
lens of the past. "
He added, " Most
Peter Leyden, keynote address at
ASHRAE's 2023 Winter Conference
people are stuck in
the familiar default
frame that sees
many of our old
systems breaking
down in the face of
myriad challenges
like climate change,
polarized politics,
economic and social
inequities, the paralysis of liberal democracies and
the rise of authoritarian states. That's as far as they
can see. "
In the next 25 years, the world arguably will deal
with climate change and transition the bulk of our core
energy sources from carbon to clean, Leyden added.
" We will transition our transportation systems from
the internal-combustion engine to electric mobility
as part of an even larger process of reinventing cities.
We will scale up brand new industries and build a
much more environmentally and socially sustainable
society. We very likely will reform capitalism around
new economic priorities that counter the current
imbalances and inequities. And we can be expected
to revitalize our democracies and push back on
authoritarianism around the world. People in 50, 100
or even 500 years from now may well look back on our
era and marvel at the transformation that we're about
to go through. "
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ASHRAE Journal - March 2023

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