I was kept up all night by the mind blasting talk from Pablos Holman at this years Singularity University Global Summit. Pablos is a hacker and an inventor. He sees things a bit different than the rest of us…
The first talk I saw of him was for a TEDTalk, and this prompted me to search a bit further. I found him on twitter and found the link to his talk at Singularity University Global Summit. Much like myself, Pablos does not accept things the way they are. He, like most hackers and programmers, are problem solvers. It is in their DNA. But what could a hacker possibly offer the agricultural community? Or to be more precise – what can a hacker offer the global wine industry?
One of the projects him and his team are working on is to eradicate, or at least contain, the mosquitoes that transfer Malaria. They didn’t need David Attenborough to crack the code for them, they needed a different approach. So they came up with this brilliant idea to zap them with lasers… yes that’s right – lasers.
This made me think. What if we could install these lasers around our vineyards, program them to zap mealy bugs and leafhoppers, thus eradicating Grapevine Leafroll Virus and Aster Yellows vectors? This is not only a possibility, but I believe inevitable. My mind is in overdrive. What else can we do to farm better, more eco-friendly and still be cost effective? Everything on this planet has a unique frequency, so why can’t we zap Glyphosate resistant rye grass? And what about Downy and Powdery Mildew? Can we render them useless against our plants by attacking their protocol in a completely unique way never thought about before?
Can we farm all the crops in the world without resorting to using GMO techniques, by making use of minds that think different?
I think it is time that we really start thinking out of the box. I think we need to ask the questions different from the way we were used to. I believe that with people like Pablos out there, the future will blow your mind.
For the talk I am referring to, visit this link
*feature photo ref: https://i.ytimg.com/vi/N8coGxkUuiE/maxresdefault.jpg
