Damien Grant is an Auckland business owner and a regular opinion contributor for Stuff, writing from a libertarian perspective.
OPINION: Predictions are tricky. In 1943 the chairman of IBM speculated the world would have a demand for, maybe, five computers. Al Gore declared there would be no snow on Mt Kilimanjaro by 2016. Thomas Edison famously stated that the “…baby of the 21st century will be rocked in a steel cradle”. The inventor of the light bulb didn’t foresee the rise of plastics.
I have a fraction of the insight of these great minds and insufficient wisdom or humility to prevent me from joining them in making absurdly incorrect predictions. Buckle up.
Now, I know every columnist with their stipend is writing about last week’s budget. My first prediction is that you do not wish to read one more; so let’s take a wider lens and allow our minds wander to the possible, the improbable, and the magical.
War is hell but it does drive innovation. The brutal conflict in eastern Ukraine has accelerated the development of drones large and small and both will have a profound impact on our lives.
