After reading Map of the Future 1 If the sharing of book lovers is a passive behavior, then there must be some targeted achievements as oppression, so as not to lose this sense of ceremony; Just reading is an active behavior, because reading has gained, experienced or confused, and then shared, exchanged and dispelled doubts. This is the function of reading club itself.
The theme of this reading is "future and trend", which is a very macro topic, and it is not easy to grasp the key points. I want to know more about science and technology, so I chose this book, Future Map: Technological Innovation Trends and Commercialization Paths of Global Smart Companies. The author is an organization called MIT Technology Review, and the English name is MIT Technology Review. The Chinese version was jointly produced by Deep Tech and Huachuang Research Institute, and published by People's Posts and Telecommunications Publishing House. Some publications similar to Internet companies are also very consistent with the content described in this book.
This book consists of ten chapters, including four prefaces. The reason why there are so many prefaces is also determined by their contents. Since 20xx, MIT Science and Technology Review has selected 50 smart companies as representatives of scientific and technological innovation on a global scale according to the two necessary conditions of the company's scientific and technological leading ability and commercial sensitivity. Initially, 20xx years ago, it was called "Top 50 Global Innovation Companies"; In 20xx, it was called "Top 50 Global Subversive Companies"; Since 20xx, it has been called "the 50 smartest companies in the world". Based on the list from 20xx to 20xx, this book selects cases in biomedicine, energy materials, computer and communication, internet and digital media, transportation and other fields, and is written with time and industry as the basic idea. So this book can be said to be a chronicle of industry development briefing, which records the development process of various industries. The first sentence at the beginning of each chapter can be said to be a high summary of an industry. From the time point of view, the development of science and technology from 20xx to the present nearly ten years can basically represent the most advanced and innovative achievements, and it is reasonable to analyze the future and trend of science and technology from these contents.
If it is a popular book, this book has both advantages and disadvantages. I don't recommend it, because the specific content in the book contains a lot of professional knowledge. The book describes almost every cutting-edge technology in the industry in detail, and even mentions the development process of every small progress. Therefore, it is difficult for laymen to understand deeply when they look at it. They can only understand the rough surface and feel ignorant. It is worth recommending because this book covers a wide range. Ten chapters cover all aspects of current and future technological innovation, such as Siri of artificial intelligence, chip technology, gene editing technology, Internet, new energy, content presentation and so on. However, whenever one of these technologies is mentioned, we will come into contact with it more or less in our daily life. After reading it, we feel that so many high-tech technologies are around, and the future conceptual life is only based on these foundations. As a person in a certain industry, you can use this book as a tool to inspire and find out the problems and shortcomings of your industry from the perspective of interdisciplinary and technological innovation.
In addition, it is worth mentioning that the writing of this book is in line with the thinking of science and engineering, that is, the total score is a simple routine. The beginning of each chapter is an introduction and a brief summary, with several specific cases in the middle and the prospect at last. Although the title of each chapter is written in prose, the beginning of each chapter will try to start with some more literary sentences. For example, at the beginning of chapter 8, about robots, clouds and the Internet, Asimov's "this sentence is used." However, I always feel a little out of touch with the content behind. When I read it, I feel like I'm reading a research report. It feels straight, straightforward and slightly masculine.
As far as the gains from reading this book are concerned, I have a little experience mainly from two aspects, one is the new energy part related to my own industry, and the other is artificial intelligence. Before reading this book, I have been focusing on the research of water conservancy and hydropower itself, and my understanding of new energy and even the whole energy market is not clear enough. After reading this part of "New Energy", I felt suddenly enlightened, and suddenly found that I should improve my height, broaden my horizons and focus on more possibilities in the future. The book emphasizes the development of solar energy, wind energy and natural gas, and how to reduce costs to promote development. But in our own hydropower industry, there is no mention of it, which makes people think about whether it is transformation or career change. Another point is that the environmental protection industry is not mentioned too much in the book. It can be seen that either the development of environmental protection industry has not yet entered the ranks of the world's smart companies, or the environmental protection industry still needs the support of various basic modules in the future science and technology, just like Internet technology, new energy field, biotechnology and so on. What is mentioned in the book is all support for the environmental protection industry.
The second point is artificial intelligence. Through data accumulation and machine learning, more preferences and habits of human beings are remembered, and machine learning makes human life more convenient. The summary and refinement of most practical experiences in the past is the basis for guiding human development. But in the future, artificial intelligence will increasingly replace human beings in basic work, and this practical experience will be transformed into the process of machine learning, and human beings will participate more in the decision-making of machine learning results, which further improves the requirements for human beings. Artificial intelligence is more based on data, and data is money. Mastering more data and analyzing data are the main means to gain more benefits in the future. With the great development of artificial intelligence in the future, how to find its own position and exert greater value is something that everyone should think about.
Generally speaking, this book is worth reading, and you should be able to find some inspirations and breakthroughs in your own industry every month.
After reading Map of the Future 2, I have long heard of the book Map of the Future: Technological Innovation Trend and Commercialization Path of Global Intelligent Companies, but I have been lazy and have never taken the time to read it carefully. When I saw Mr. Zhong recommend this book in the reading and learning activities of "Scholarly Energy", I couldn't restrain my inner excitement and finally couldn't find any excuse to "alienate" it.
After work, I read carefully and felt a lot. This book mainly combs the technological innovation and business ups and downs of the "50 smartest companies in the world" selected by MIT Science and Technology Review in recent years, so that readers can understand that it is a difficult and subtle process from a breakthrough technology to truly enjoying, absorbing, applying and re-innovating technology. As for the definition of "smart", the editors of MIT Science and Technology Review are even more unconventional. They don't count the patents owned by the company or the doctors employed by the company, nor do they examine the size and reputation of the company. Instead, they will ask whether the company has made any major innovations in the past year and will redefine its field. Generally speaking, the demand for computing technology, energy materials and biomedicine has always existed, but the specific technical prosperity will fluctuate. Bioenergy and many battery technologies have suffered setbacks because they cannot be well marketed, while artificial intelligence has exploded rapidly because it has found a good application scenario.
Combining my four months' work experience and specific examples in reference books, this paper expounds my feelings from three aspects: individual, company and country:
First, stick to your dreams and walk with AI.
As we all know, General Electric is a world-famous manufacturing enterprise. Facing the wave of artificial intelligence, GE embraces change. The company hopes to inject artificial intelligence into its machines and industrial processes. The change of company strategy brings opportunities and challenges to employees. Zhan Jason Nichols, Ph.D. in organic chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley, was transferred to the company's machine learning laboratory after four years of manufacturing and material research and development at GE. However, due to insufficient knowledge reserves, some employees were not competent.
Reminiscent of my past (nine years' experience in oil development at home and abroad and two years' experience in oil drilling site), I now switch to artificial intelligence, feeling that I can no longer use my previous professional knowledge, so I have never continued to learn oil knowledge since I joined the company, but the example of General Electric has sounded the alarm for myself. While embracing change, we should also stick to our dreams, maintain our existing knowledge system and think about how to create more value for the company with compound professional knowledge.
Second, science is supreme and the industry is leading.
Intel has been a leader in the computer chip market for a long time, leading the industry to change by being ahead of customers' needs, but recently it has missed one opportunity after another. In the field of mobile chips, Intel has been left far behind by Qualcomm due to decision mistakes. At the same time, in the field of developing artificial intelligence chips for deep learning, Intel is also very slow. I was not optimistic about the development of this field in the early stage. Recently, in hindsight, it found some gaps through acquisitions and increased investment, but it has also been left behind by NVIDIA. Time and again, the decision-making mistakes made the former giants miss two market segments one after another.
I am proud that Sinochem has always been at the forefront of central enterprises in respect of technology and innovation. Recently, some enterprises have begun to pay attention to new technologies. For example, Huayang, chairman of CNOOC, put forward in an internal letter that "digital technology and artificial intelligence may become a bright light in the field of oil and gas exploitation", and Dr. Song Bode, vice president of R&D strategy and data of Total Group, also pointed out the importance of artificial intelligence in the oil and gas industry. Mr. Ning has pointed out in a long article with the theme of "science first" that "the world around us has changed beyond recognition, and it is time for Sinochem Group to deeply reflect on its strategy and development concept. In the future, Sinochem will be built into a technology-driven innovation platform company. " This strategic idea will inevitably lead the company to complete the transformation and achieve the goal of leading the industry and being respected as a world-class enterprise.
Third, policy orientation, benefiting the people and the people.
In this list, China enterprises appear more and more times, involving a wide range of industries. However, in some industries, such as biology and medicine, the list has always been occupied by developed countries, while in aerospace, AI, drones, driverless and other seemingly high-tech fields, we can do it. As an ordinary citizen, if we choose between drugs that can cure more diseases, better driving experience, drone technology and so on, we will undoubtedly choose drugs. As described in the recent movie Dying, the high cost of imported medicine makes many people who can't afford it starve to death.
The progress and innovation of science and technology cannot be separated from the encouragement and support of the government and the joint efforts of the whole society. The rapid development of drones, AI and new retail industries is the result of policy orientation and the pursuit of financial capital. First, the state attaches importance to this field, and second, it can recover the cost relatively quickly and get a lot of income. However, due to some reasons, biopharmaceuticals not only have a large investment and a long payback period, but also are easy to give up all previous efforts and lose everything, so few companies are willing to invest deeply in these fields. I hope that the state will introduce policies to make high technology more beneficial to the people. In the future, China enterprises will not only appear more, but also cover a wider range of industries.
Although understanding the past history will be of great help to the trend of technological innovation, it may not be a good way to predict the future. Many companies that have received huge financing in books are not in the past (especially in the field of new energy). As abraham lincoln, the 6th president of the United States, said, "The best way to predict the future is to create it." Recently, the trade war between China and the United States has been fierce, and domestic public opinion has been in an uproar. How to win this victory, I think, is essentially a contest of scientific and technological strength.
In the global trend of scientific and technological innovation, China has become a strong participant and competitor. I believe that in the near future, China will lead the scientific and technological civilization and return to the peak of the world. I sincerely hope that energy science and technology companies can create the future of petrochemical industry, Sinochem Group can create the future of China enterprises, and China can create the future of the world!