My older son, a journalist, and I have spirited conversations over whether technology can solve our planet’s most vexing societal and business problems. After two decades of seeing miraculous changes in Silicon Valley, I advocate that technology can improve everything from reducing world hunger and poverty to boosting business productivity and performance. My son, however, says, “No, it’s people who can change things for the better by working more collaboratively.”
On reflection, we’re both right. Transformational value, whether across factory floors, city streets or remote deserts, is created when we connect diverse technologies and collaborative ecosystems of innovators. This new business paradigm I call the “co-economy” has transformed industries and societies worldwide and opened opportunities to shape our collective future for the better.
To understand its pervasiveness, I will examine, in a series of articles, the current and future impact of technology and people. First, it’s critical to spotlight how collaborations around five technologies — internet of things (IoT), fifth generation network (5G), artificial intelligence (AI), blockchain and fog computing — show unprecedented potential.
These technologies become transformational when interconnected to solve a specific problem. Collectively, they’re like the human body and brain. IoT and 5G act as the body, creating and transmitting data that is sometimes acted upon. AI is the brain, turning data into intelligence for smarter decisions. Blockchain is the antibody that keeps the system secure, while fog computing is like the vagus nerve, ensuring key functions run smoothly.
To start this series, let’s look at the agriculture industry, which confronts a massive challenge: As the global population is expected to soar 53% to 11.2 billion people by 2100 — and with it, a lot more mouths to feed — arable land continues to decrease, having already shrunk by 33% in the past four decades.
Soil erosion, deforestation, global droughts, water shortages, mass urbanization, farm labor shortages — this list of causes goes on. Fortunately, the agriculture community has recently made some of the most impressive digital advances. BI Intelligence predicts there will be 75 million agriculture IoT devices by 2020, growing 20% annually.
In the “Lettuce Valley,” just south of the Silicon Valley, I have visited numerous farms and processing and packaging facilities where technologies collect and analyze data on weather, soil, air quality, disease, pests and crop maturity. Along with an array of sensors, microcontrollers, transmitters, big data analytics software, mobile devices, the cloud, drones, robots and LED lights, farmers are improving food planning, production and delivery processes.
IoT: The Body
Farms worldwide are becoming more connected with the growing realization of IoT’s ability to minimize operational costs and improve crop yields, lower livestock losses and conserve water. Startup Cropx, for example, uses data and sensor devices to help farmers better understand water usage across their fields and the amount of fertilizer and pesticide needed by each patch at specific times.
By sensing, processing and communicating precise environmental data, IoT-based smart farming not only helps large conventional farms, but is increasingly leveraged by smaller operations, as well as emerging indoor vertical farms.
5G: The Body Double
5G and Low Earth orbiting satellites (LEOs) will deliver high-speed connectivity everywhere, from urban regions to remote, poverty-stricken areas. Pervasive broadband, coupled with IoT, will enable farmers to quickly process a greater flood of valuable data.
In one ingenious example called Me+Moo, dairy farmers in southwest England, placed 5G smart (IoT) collars on 50 cows, allowing them to monitor their health and control a robotic milking system.
Artificial Intelligence: The Brain
AI-based tools enhance decision making for farmers, who now use a sophisticated mix of IoT-generated data, analytics, hardware and software to select the best seeds, apply crop protection where it’s needed or immediately diagnose plant diseases threatening their crops.
Further, AI-assisted agricultural platforms continuously enhance the understanding of the whole agriculture process, enabling farmers to make ongoing improvements. The “Farm Tough Decision Platform,” incubated by an ecosystem of public and private partners in Australia, combines a low-power wireless network with AI and data analytics to monitor soil and weather conditions, which has improved crop yields, operational efficiency and profitability, while significantly decreasing production costs.
Blockchain: The Antibody
As a decentralized ledger shared and authenticated by partners, blockchain is a single source of truth about the state of the land, inventory, contracts and transactions. Instead of relying on combinations of software, spreadsheets and memory, blockchain can streamline record-keeping, saving time and energy in the agriculture value chain, as demonstrated by projects such as Agriledger, Provenance, OriginTrail, Ripe.io and Blockgrain.
One company leader I met at a recent THRIVE AgTech innovation summit told me his company sprays edible barcodes directly on fruits or vegetables when first processed, enabling them to quickly verify their source with blockchain. When combined with IoT, blockchain helps make multi-organizational systems more efficient and secure, while pinpointing where food spoilage occurred in the supply chain.
Fog Computing: The Vagus Nerve
Fog computing is another vital technology used to process and balance data loads throughout the network, from the edge to the cloud. Plenty, an indoor vertical farming company, deploys IoT, AI and fog computing to automatically measure and analyze temperature, humidity and C02 levels and then identify ways to improve growth rates and flavor in near real time.
Donning protective gear at one of Plenty’s labs in a South San Francisco warehouse, I saw many rows of vertical racks growing kale, arugula, chard, cilantro, mixed greens, mustard and other varieties, demonstrating how vertical farms near major metropolitan areas can help replenish our food supply.
In each of these scenarios, a diverse ecosystem of horizontal, vertical and regional specialists came together to co-design the solution. As co-economy ecosystems expand and mature, more opportunities to scale their innovations will emerge geographically, socially and industry-wide. I am firmly convinced that with the modular ability to connect technologies, combined with more tightly knit collaborations, we can cross-fertilize digital solutions across markets, driving transformative change for the betterment of us all. And I think my son would agree.
This article was originally published on Forbes.com.