Journal articles on the topic 'Energy storage – Ontario'

This analysis quantifies projected carbon (C) storage in harvested wood products (HWP) from Ontario’s Crown forests. The large-scale forest C budget model, FORCARB-ON, was applied to estimate HWP C stock changes using the production approach defined by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Harvested wood volume was converted to C mass and allocated to four HWP end-use categories: in use, landfill, energy, and emission. The redistribution of C over time among HWP end-use categories was calculated using a product age-based C-distribution matrix. Carbon emissions for harvest, transport, and manufacturing, as well as emission reductions from the use of wood in place of other construction materials and fossil fuels were not accounted for. Considering the wood harvested from Ontario Crown forests from 1951 to 2000 and the projected harvest from 2001 to 2100, C storage in HWP in use and in landfills is projected to increase by 3.6 Mt·year–1 during 2001–2100, with an additional 1.2 Mt·year–1 burned for energy. Annual additions of C projected for HWP far outweighs the annual increase of C storage in Ontario’s Crown forests managed for harvest, which is projected to increase by 0.1 Mt·year–1 during the same period. These projections indicate that regulated harvest in Ontario results in a steadily increasing C sink in HWP and forests. Uncertainties in HWP C estimation are also discussed.

A new operation method for an energy storage system (ESS) was proposed to reduce the electricity charges of a customer paying the wholesale price and participating in the industrial conservation initiative (ICI) in the Ontario electricity market of Canada. Electricity charges were overviewed and classified into four components: fixed cost, electricity usage cost, peak demand cost, and Ontario peak contribution cost (OPCC). Additionally, the online market data provided by the independent electricity system operator (IESO), which operates the Ontario electricity market, were reviewed. From the reviews, it was identified that (1) the portion of the OPCC in the electricity charges increased continuously, and (2) large errors can sometimes exist in the forecasted data given by the IESO. In order to reflect these, a new schedule-based operation method for the ESS was proposed in this paper. In the proposed method, the operation schedule for the ESS is determined by solving an optimization problem to minimize the electricity charges, where the OPCC is considered and the online market data provided by the IESO is used. The active power reference for the ESS is then calculated from the scheduled output for the current time interval. To reflect the most recent market data, the operation schedule and the active power reference for the ESS are iteratively determined for every five minutes. In addition, in order to cope with the prediction errors, methods to correct the forecasted data for the current time interval and secure the energy reserve are presented. The results obtained from the case study and actual operation at the Penetanguishene microgrid test bed in Ontario are presented to validate the proposed method.

In the competitive electricity market, electricity price reflects the relationship between power supply and demand and plays an important role in the strategic behavior of market players. With the development of energy storage systems after watt-hour meter, accurate price prediction becomes more and more crucial in the energy management and control of energy storage systems. Due to the great uncertainty of electricity price, the performance of the general electricity price forecasting models is not satisfactory to be adopted in practice. Therefore, in this paper, we propose a novel electricity price forecasting strategy applied in optimization for the scheduling of battery energy storage systems. At first, multiple nonstationary decompositions are presented to extract the most significant components in price series, which express remarkably discriminative features in price fluctuation for regression prediction. In addition, all extracted components are delivered to a devised deep convolution neural network with multiscale dilated kernels for multistep price forecasting. At last, more advanced price fluctuation detection serves the optimized operation of the battery energy storage system within Ontario grid-connected microgrids. Sufficient ablation studies showed that our proposed price forecasting strategy provides predominant performances compared with the state-of-the-art methods and implies a promising prospect in economic benefits of battery energy storage systems.

Biomass heat storage is examined for a mixed forest in the summer of 1985 at the Petawawa National Forestry Institute, Chalk River, Ontario. The importance of including this term in the hourly energy balance is noted. Although biomass storage is small at night and around midday, it is a substantial contributor to the total canopy storage at times when net radiation is small. The measurement techniques involved in producing accurate estimates of biomass storage are also examined. Biomass estimates are best derived using individual species equations and summing the mass of every tree. Simplified methods using equations derived for all species and grouping trees into manageable diameter groups also produces reasonable results. Biomass temperature change is characterized by its lag in time of response in comparison to that of the air; using air temperature as a surrogate for biomass temperature is not recommended.

Recently, the interest in utilizing energy storage systems (ESSs), particularly batteries, has increased. ESSs are employed for several enhancement tasks in power systems on both the operation and planning scales. On the operation side, ESSs play a main role in offering several ancillary services. In the context of planning, ESSs are used for asset upgrade deferral among other grid applications. This work employs a battery energy storage system (BESS) to minimize the electricity bill charges associated with global adjustment for large consumers in the jurisdiction of Ontario, Canada. An optimization formulation for sizing and scheduling the BESS, to minimize the utility charges and gain profits from other revenue streams, such as energy price arbitrage (EPA), was developed and implemented. The results show the economic feasibility of the developed algorithm to minimize the annual bills of real customers and gain profits. A sensitivity analysis was also carried out to show the potential of the proposed method in providing significant benefits and gains for customers.

Measurements of radiation and energy balances were made over two forests, 12.8 km apart, in eastern Ontario during three summers, 1989-1991. The two sites were AECL, a primarily deciduous forest with fine sandy soils, and PNFI, a mixed forest over a thin sandy-loam soil. The objective of the study was to investigate spatial heterogeneity in energy fluxes in a mixed forest landscape by examining interannual variations in radiation and energy balance components between the sites. The two sites showed small differences in albedo and net radiation. Total heat storage was not different between the two sites, yet there were some differences in the relative magnitudes of the storage components. The largest between-site differences were in energy partitioning between the convective fluxes of sensible heat, QH, and latent heat, QE. The QH was usually larger at PNFI and QE was usually larger at AECL. Thus, Bowen ratios were almost always smaller at AECL. The magnitude of these differences was controlled by soil moisture stress, with moisture stress frequently observed at PNFI but not at AECL. The implications of these results for regional-scale surface-vegetation-atmosphere climate modelling are discussed.

Energy storage was examined in relation to the timing of the fall molt in racoons (Procyon lotor) in southwestern Ontario, Canada. Total carcass lipids, corrected for body size, increased curvilinearly over time for juveniles and adults. As well, there were changes in the proportions of the three fall molt categories over time, but these changes were not the same for all four age–sex classes. We suggest that various behavioral and physiological factors are responsible for the differences observed in lipid accumulation and molting over time. Finally, the fall molt had no effect on lipid accumulation by juveniles or adults. For juveniles, lipid stores appeared to have some effect on the start of the fall molt. We suggest that this is due to the need for juveniles to attain a certain level of growth and lipid storage before the fall molt can begin. We conclude that the fall molt and lipid accumulation are occurring simultaneously and that the fall molt is not stressful in adult raccoons. There may be some consequences of growth on the timing of the cycle in juvenile raccoons.

Power-to-Gas (PtG) is a potential means of managing intermittent and weather-dependent renewable energies to create a storable chemical energy form. Power-to-Gas is not only a storage technology; its role can be extended to many other applications including energy distribution, transportation, and industrial use. This study quantifies the hydrogen volumes upon utilizing Ontario, Canada’s surplus electricity baseload and explores the allocation of the hydrogen produced to four Power-to-Gas pathways in terms of economic and environmental benefits, focusing on the following Power-to-Gas pathways: Power-to-Gas to mobility fuel, Power-to-Gas to industry, Power-to-Gas to natural gas pipelines for use as hydrogen-enriched natural gas, and Power-to-Gas to renewable natural gas (i.e., Methanation). The study shows that the Power-to-Gas to mobility fuel pathway has the potential to be implemented. Utilization of hydrogen for refueling light-duty vehicles is a profitable business case with an average positive net present value of $4.5 billions, five years payback time, and 20% internal rate of return. Moreover, this PtG pathway promises a potential 2,215,916 tonnes of CO2 reduction from road travel.

Photocatalysis can be used advantageously for hydrogen production using a light source (near-UV light), a noble metal-doped semiconductor and an organic scavenger (2.0 v/v% ethanol). With this end, palladium was doped on TiO2 photocatalysts at different metal loadings (0.25 to 5.00 wt%). Photocatalysts were synthetized using a sol-gel method enhancing morphological properties with a soft template precursor. Experiments were carried out in the Photo-CREC Water II reactor system developed at CREC-UWO (Chemical Reactor Engineering Centre- The University of Western Ontario) Canada. This novel unit offers hydrogen storage and symmetrical irradiation allowing precise irradiation measurements for macroscopic energy balances. Hydrogen production rates followed in all cases a zero-order reaction, with quantum yields as high as 30.8%.

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are a heavily researched candidate for fuel-cell electric vehicle (FCEV) hydrogen storage. However, little analysis has been done on the environmental impact of potential MOF vehicles compared to established alternative vehicles, such as compressed hydrogen or battery-electric vehicles. In this work, a preliminary eco-audit was conducted for a FCEV using an MOF hydrogen storage system based the best current MOF Ni₂(m-dobdc) (Ni-MOF-74). (1) Cost and environmental impact analyses were performed for both the production and use phases of an MOF-FCEV. The cost and environmental impact of MOF production was compared to that of Lithium Nickel Manganese Cobalt Oxide (LiNMCO) batteries, the current state-of-the-art for BEVs. (2) Environmental impact was assessed using embodied energy estimates based on reported values for LiNMCO BEVs. These highlighted MOF vehicles as a competitor to current renewable energy vehicle technologies. For the use phase, a hydrogen refueling station that produces hydrogen onsite by proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolysis from grid electricity was compared to an equivalent population of battery electric vehicles (BEVs) charged at distributed recharging stations. FCEVs using the proposed refueling model were able to compete with BEVs both in terms of electricity CO₂ footprint and cost in the simulated solar-dominated Californian grid, but not in the hydro- and nuclear-heavy Ontario grid.

Biomass gasification, utilized for various energy uses including power generation, provides an attractive option of energysecurity for remote rural communities and simultaneously helps in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. However, widerapplication of biomass gasification technology is limited due to a number of technical and economic challenges. Althougha few studies have developed process-based models for reducing the costs of biomass supply chains through efficient logisticsoperations, there is a dearth of integrated modeling to capture the behaviour of the entire production system. In thispaper an integrated non-linear dynamic mixed-integer programming model, using optimization and simulation techniques,is developed for biomass gasification power plants using General Algebraic Modeling System (GAMS) computersoftware. The major variables considered in the model are harvesting and processing costs, logistic costs for biomass feedstockdelivery and storage, capital costs of power plant, operation and maintenance costs including labour, insurance andcapital financing, and other regulatory costs. The model provides different cost-benefit trajectories depending upon thescale of power generation from biomass gasification, thereby providing the prospective investors with information regardingmarket potential of the technology. The application of the model for setting up of a biomass gasification plant at a typicallocation in northwestern Ontario shows decreasing costs with increasing plant capacity up to 50 MW. The total costper MWh production ranged from CAD 47.65 for a 50-MW plant to CAD 79.55 for a 10M-W plant. Key words: bioenergy, biomass, market potential, modeling, systems analysis

Water security is the capability of a community to have adequate access to good quality and a sufficient quantity of water as well as safeguard resources for the future generations. Understanding the spatial and temporal variabilities of water security can play a pivotal role in sustainable management of fresh water resources. In this study, a long-term water security analysis of the Grand River watershed (GRW), Ontario, Canada, was carried out using the soil and water assessment tool (SWAT). Analyses on blue and green water availability and water security were carried out by dividing the GRW into eight drainage zones. As such, both anthropogenic as well as environmental demand were considered. In particular, while calculating blue water scarcity, three different methods were used in determining the environmental flow requirement, namely, the presumptive standards method, the modified low stream-flow method, and the variable monthly flow method. Model results showed that the SWAT model could simulate streamflow dynamics of the GRW with ‘good’ to ‘very good’ accuracy with an average Nash–Sutcliffe Efficiency of 0.75, R2 value of 0.78, and percentage of bias (PBIAS) of 8.23%. Sen’s slope calculated using data from over 60 years confirmed that the blue water flow, green water flow, and storage had increasing trends. The presumptive standards method and the modified low stream-flow method, respectively, were found to be the most and least restrictive method in calculating environmental flow requirements. While both green (0.4–1.1) and blue (0.25–2.0) water scarcity values showed marked temporal and spatial variabilities, blue water scarcity was found to be the highest in urban areas on account of higher water usage and less blue water availability. Similarly, green water scarcity was found to be highest in zones with higher temperatures and intensive agricultural practices. We believe that knowledge of the green and blue water security situation would be helpful in sustainable water resources management of the GRW and help to identify hotspots that need immediate attention.

The enrichment of natural gas with hydrogen has been identified as a promising pathway for power-to-gas technology with the potential to reduce emissions while achieving feasible return on investment. The evolving regulatory market in the province of Ontario motivates the analysis of business cases for hydrogen on the industrial microgrid scale. This paper aims to investigate the financial and environmental returns associated with producing and storing electrolytic hydrogen for injection into the natural gas feed of a manufacturer’s combined heat and power plants (CHPs). A mathematical methodology was developed for investigating the optimal operation of the integrated system (power-to-gas along with the current system) by considering hydrogen-enriched natural gas. The result of this simulation is an operation plan that delivers optimal economics and an estimate of greenhouse gas emissions. The simulation was implemented across an entire year for each combination of generation price limit and storage coefficient. Because the provincial grid imposes a lesser carbon footprint than that of a pure natural gas turbine, any offset of natural gas by hydrogen reduces the carbon intensity of the system. From an environmental perspective, the amount of carbon abated by the model fell within a range of 3000 ton CO2/year. From a policy perspective, this suggests that a minimum feasible carbon price of $60/ton CO2e must be set by applicable regulatory bodies. Lastly, a Failure Modes and Effects Analysis was performed for the proposed system to validate the safety of the design.

Emissions and pollution from the transportation sector due to the consumption of fossil fuels by conventional vehicles have been negatively affecting the global climate and public health. Electric vehicles (EVs) are a cleaner solution to reduce the emission and pollution caused by transportation. Lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries are the main type of energy storage system used in EVs. The Li-ion battery pack must be considerably large to satisfy the requirement for the vehicle’s range, which also increases the cost of the vehicle. However, considering that most people use their vehicles for short-distance travel during daily commutes, the large pack is expensive, inefficient and unnecessary. In a previous paper, we proposed a novel EV powertrain design that incorporated the use of a zinc–air (Zn–air) battery pack as a range-extender, so that a smaller Li-ion pack could be used to save costs. The design and performance aspects of the powertrain were analyzed. In this study, the environmental and economic benefits of the proposed dual-battery powertrain are investigated. The results from the new powertrain were compared with values from a standard EV powertrain with one large Li-ion pack and a conventional internal combustion engine vehicle (ICEV) powertrain. In addition, an air pollution model is developed to determine the total amount of pollution released by the transportation sector on Highway 401 in Ontario, Canada. The model was then used to determine the effects of mass passenger EV rollout on pollution reduction.

Abstract Gaucher disease (GD) is a lysosomal storage disorder characterized by anemia and thrombocytopenia, hepatosplenomegaly, and skeletal involvement. The management of Gaucher disease was improved by the development of enzyme replacement therapy (ERT). However, the bone response to ERT is generally slower compared to other clinical manifestations. Some have recommended the early use of ERT to prevent the development of severe skeletal complications. Because we have access to over 30 untreated patients in Ontario, we questioned the extent to which the bony complications progress in severity over a long period of time. We examined retrospectively the natural history of GD and the extent of skeletal manifestations in 22 untreated type 1 GD adult patients (mean age 49 ± 3.3, range of 20–81 years). Ten patients were N370S homozygotes and twelve were compound heterozygotes. The patients were followed for a median of 9.5 years (range of 3 to 16 years). Assessments included complete blood counts (CBC); levels of angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE), ferritin, and chitotriosidase; liver and spleen volumes; and occurrences of bony complications. Dual Energy X-ray Absorptiometry (DEXA), Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) of femurs, skeletal survey, and plain radiography were utilized to assess bony complications in 21 patients. Hemoglobin (Hb) concentration did not significantly change over time (mean baseline concentration of 12.8 ± 0.27 g/dL vs mean recent concentration of 12.6 ± 0.37 g/dL, p = 0.65). Mean platelet count also remained relatively stable over time (mean baseline count of 138 ± 13 × 109/L vs mean recent count of 138.5 ± 18 × 109/L, p = 0.98). Mean ferritin and ACE concentrations were elevated and were stable over time. Liver volumes decreased over time (mean baseline liver volume of 1.2 × normal (N) vs mean recent volume of 1.06 × N, p = 0.27) and 6/21 (29%) patients had moderate hepatomegaly (liver volume ≥ 1.25 × N). Spleen volumes remained stable over time (mean baseline spleen volume of 6.4 × N vs mean recent volume of 5.1 × N, p = 0.56). None of the changes was statistically significant. Three of 19 (15.8 %) patients had moderate splenomegaly (spleen volume ≥ 5 × N), 2/19 (10.5%) had severe splenomegaly (spleen volume ≥ 15 × N), and 2/22 (9%) had splenectomy. The most common skeletal manifestations were infiltration of the bone marrow in 15/21 (71%) patients followed by osteopenia in 14/21 patients (67%), and infarctions in 6/21 (29%) patients. Other bony complications included osteoporosis in 3/21 (14%), avascular necrosis (AVN) in the left knee and femur in 1/21 (5%), and osteolysis in 1/21 (5%) patients; there were no cases of fractures. Three of 21 (14%) patients developed new infarcts (2N370S homozygous patients) over time, 1/21 (5%) developed AVN, and 4/21 (19%) had an increase in the degree of osteopenia. There were no significant differences observed between the N370S homozygous and compound heterozygous patients. Although GD and its skeletal complications progress in severity in some patients, our results suggest that GD complications including bony disease may stabilize over time. Therefore, early use of ERT may not be necessary in all type 1 GD patients.

Abstract Forests are major terrestrial carbon (C) sinks and play a crucial role in climate change mitigation. Despite extensive studies on forest C sequestration, the relationship between seasonal C uptake and its allocation to woody biomass is poorly understood. Here we used a novel dendro-anatomical approach to investigate the relationships between climate variability, C uptake, and woody biomass growth in an 80-year-old eastern white pine (Pinus strobus) plantation forest in Ontario, Canada. We used eddy covariance Gross Primary Productivity (GPP) from 2003-2018 and woody biomass estimated from chronologies of cell wall area (CWA, a proxy for C storage in individual wood cells) and ring wall area (RWA) for earlywood and latewood from 1970-2018. Warm temperatures in early spring and high precipitation in mid-spring and summer positively and strongly affected GPP, while high temperature and high VPD in the summer had a negative effect. From 2003 to 2018, there was a steady increase in both GPP and woody cell biomass. Moreover, we found strong positive correlations between GPP and CWA both in earlywood (May – July GPP, r = 0.65) and latewood (July – August GPP, r = 0.89). Strong positive correlations were also found between GPP and RWA both in earlywood and latewood (April – September, r = ≥ 0.79). All these associations were stronger than the association between annual GPP and tree-ring width (r = 0.61) used in previous studies. By increasing the resolution of tree-ring analysis to xylem-cell level, we captured intra-annual variability in biomass accumulation. We demonstrated a strong control of seasonal C assimilation (source) over C accumulation in woody biomass at this site. Coupling high-resolution eddy covariance fluxes (GPP) and wood anatomical measurements can help to reduce existing uncertainties on C source-sink relationships, opening new perspectives in the study of the C cycle in forests.

The combination of solar thermal and heat pump systems as a single solar assisted heat pump (SAHP) system can significantly reduce residential energy consumption in Canada. As a part of Team Ontario's efforts to develop a high performance house for the U.S. Department of Energy's Solar Decathlon 2013 Competition, an integrated mechanical system (IMS) consisting of a SAHP was investigated. The system was designed to provide domestic hot water (DHW), space-heating, space-cooling, and dehumidification. The system included a cold and a hot thermal storage tanks and a heat pump to move energy from the low temperature reservoir to the hot reservoir. Solar thermal collectors supplied heat to the cold storage and operated at a higher efficiency due to the heat pump reducing the temperature of the collector working fluid. The combination of the heat pump and solar thermal collectors allows more heat to be harvested at a lower temperature, and then boosted to a suitable temperature for domestic use via the heat pump. The IMS and the building's energy loads were modeled using the TRNSYS simulation software. A parametric study was conducted to optimize the control, sizing, and configuration of the system. The simulation results suggested that the investigated system can achieve a free energy ratio (FER) of about 0.583 for the high performance house designed for the Ottawa climate.

Introduction 2021 was the year that NFTs got big—not just in value but also in terms of the cultural consciousness. When digital artist Beeple sold the portfolio of his 5,000 daily images at Christie’s for US$69 million, the art world was left intrigued, confused, and outraged in equal measure. Depending on who you asked, non-fungible tokens (NFTs) seemed to be either a quick cash-grab or the future of the art market (Bowden and Jones; Smee). Following the Beeple sale, articles started to appear indicating that the film industry was abuzz for NFTs. Independent filmmaker Kevin Smith was quick to announce that he planned to release his horror film Killroy Was Here as an NFT (Alexander); in September 2021 the James Bond film No Time to Die also unveiled a series of collectibles to coincide with the film’s much-delayed theatrical release (Natalee); the distribution and collectible platforms Vuele, NFT Studios, and Mogul Productions all emerged, and the industry rumour mill suggests more start-ups are en route (CurrencyWorks; NFT Studios; NewsBTC). Blockchain disciples say that the technology will solve all the problems of the Internet (Tewari; Norton; European Business Review); critics say it will only perpetuate existing accessibility and equality issues (Davis and Flatow; Klein). Those more circumspect will doubtless sit back until the dust settles, waiting to see what parts of so-called web3 will be genuinely integrated into the architecture of the Internet. Pamela Hutchinson puts it neatly in terms of the arts sector: “the NFT may revolutionise the art market, film funding and distribution. Or it might be an ecological disaster and a financial bubble, in which few actual movies change hands, and fraudsters get rich from other people’s intellectual property” (Hutchinson). There is an uptick in the literature around NFTs and blockchain (see Quiniou; Gayvoronskaya & Meinel); however, the technology remains unregulated and unstandardised (Yeung 212-14; Dimitropoulos 112-13). Similarly, the sheer amount of funding being put into fundamental technical, data, and security-related issues speaks volumes to the nascency of the space (Ossinger; Livni; Gayvoronskaya & Meinel 52-6). Put very briefly, NFTs are part of a given blockchain system; think of them, like cryptocurrency coins, as “units of value” within that system (Roose). NFTs were initially rolled out on Ethereum, though several other blockchains have now implemented their own NFT frameworks. NFTs are usually not the artwork itself, but rather a unique, un-copyable (hence, non-fungible) piece of code that is attached, linked, or connected to another digital file, be that an image, video, text, or something else entirely. NFTs are often referred to as a digital artwork’s “certificate of authenticity” (Roose). At the time of writing, it remains to be seen how widely blockchain and NFT technology will be implemented across the entertainment industries. However, this article aims to outline the current state of implementation in the film trade specifically, and to attempt to sort true potential from the hype. Beginning with an overview of the core issues around blockchain and NFTs as they apply to film properties and adjacent products, current implementations of the technology are outlined, before finishing with a hesitant glimpse into the potential future applications. The Issues and Conversation At the core of current conversations around blockchain are three topics: intellectual property and ownership, concentrations of power and control, and environmental impact. To this I would like to add a consideration of social capital, which I begin with briefly here. Both the film industry and “crypto” — if we take the latter to encompass the various facets of so-called ‘web3’ — are engines of social capital. In the case of cinema, its products are commodified and passed through a model that begins with exclusivity (theatrical release) before progressing to mass availability (home media, streaming). The cinematic object, i.e., an individual copy of a film, is, by virtue of its origins as a mass product of the twentieth century, fungible. The film is captured, copied, stored, distributed, and shared. The film-industrial model has always relied on social phenomena, word of mouth, critical discourse, and latterly on buzz across digital social media platforms. This is perhaps as distinct from fine art, where — at least for dealers — the content of the piece does not necessarily matter so much as verification of ownership and provenance. Similarly, web3, with its decentralised and often-anonymised processes, relies on a kind of social activity, or at least a recorded interaction wherein the chain is stamped and each iteration is updated across the system. Even without the current hype, web3 still relies a great deal on discourse, sharing, and community, particularly as it flattens the existing hierarchies of the Internet that linger from Web 2.0. In terms of NFTs, blockchain systems attach scarcity and uniqueness to digital objects. For now, that scarcity and uniqueness is resulting in financial value, though as Jonathan Beller argues the notion of value could — or perhaps should — be reconsidered as blockchain technology, and especially cryptocurrencies, evolve (Beller 217). Regardless, NFT advocates maintain that this is the future of all online activity. To questions of copyright, the structures of blockchain do permit some level of certainty around where a given piece of intellectual property emerged. This is particularly useful where there are transnational differences in recognition of copyright law, such as in France, for instance (Quiniou 112-13). The Berne Convention stipulates that “the subsistence of copyright does not rest on the compliance with formal requirements: rights will exist if the work meets the requirements for protection set out by national law and treaties” (Guadamuz 1373). However, there are still no legal structures underpinning even the most transparent of transactions, when an originator goes out of their way to transfer rights to the buyer of the accompanying NFT. The minimum requirement — even courtesy — for the assignment of rights is the identification of the work itself; as Guadamuz notes, this is tricky for NFTs as they are written in code (1374). The blockchain’s openness and transparency are its key benefits, but until the code can explicitly include (or concretely and permanently reference) the ‘content’ of an NFT, its utility as a system of ownership is questionable. Decentralisation, too, is raised consistently as a key positive characteristic of blockchain technology. Despite the energy required for this decentralisation (addressed shortly), it is true that, at least in its base code, blockchain is a technology with no centralised source of truth or verification. Instead, such verification is performed by every node on the chain. On the surface, for the film industry, this might mean modes of financing, rights management, and distribution chains that are not beholden to multinational media conglomerates, streamers like Netflix, niche intermediaries, or legacy studios. The result here would be a flattening of the terrain: breaking down studio and corporate gatekeeping in favour of a more democratised creative landscape. Creators and creative teams would work peer-to-peer, paying, contracting, servicing, and distribution via the blockchain, with iron-clad, publicly accessible tracking of transactions and ownership. The alternative, though, is that the same imbalances persist, just in a different form: this is outlined in the next section. As Hunter Vaughan writes, the film industry’s environmental impact has long been under-examined. Its practices are diverse, distributed, and hard to quantify. Cinematic images, Vaughan writes, “do not come from nothing, and they do not vanish into the air: they have always been generated by the earth and sun, by fossil fuels and chemical reactions, and our enjoyment of them has material consequences” (3). We believe that by watching a “green” film like Avatar we are doing good, but it implicates us in the dirty secret, an issue of “ignorance and of voluntary psychosis” where “we do not see who we are harming or how these practices are affecting the environment, and we routinely agree to accept the virtual as real” (5). Beyond questions of implication and eco-material conceptualisation, however, there are stark facts. In the 1920s, the Kodak Park Plant in New York drew 12 million gallons of water from Lake Ontario each day to produce film stock. As the twentieth century came to a close, this amount — for a single film plant — had grown to 35-53 million gallons per day. The waste water was perfunctorily “cleaned” and then dumped into surrounding rivers (72-3). This was just one plant, and one part of the filmmaking process. With the shift to digital, this cost might now be calculated in the extraction of precious metals used to make contemporary cameras, computers, or storage devices. Regardless, extrapolate outwards to a global film industry and one quickly realises the impact is almost beyond comprehension. Considering — let alone calculating — the carbon footprint of blockchain requires outlining some fundamentals of the technology. The two primary architectures of blockchain are Proof of Work (PoW) and Proof of Stake (PoS), both of which denote methods of adding and verifying new blocks to a chain. PoW was the first model, employed by Bitcoin and the first iteration of Ethereum. In a PoW model, each new block has a specific cryptographic hash. To confirm the new block, crypto miners use their systems to generate a target hash that is less than or equal to that of the block. The systems process these calculations quickly, as the goal is to be “the first miner with the target hash because that miner is the one who can update the blockchain and receive crypto rewards” (Daly). The race for block confirmation necessitates huge amounts of processing power to make these quick calculations. The PoS model differs in that miners are replaced by validators (or staking services where participants pool validation power). Rather than investing in computer power, validators invest in the blockchain’s coins, staking those coins (tokens) in a smart contract (think of this contract like a bank account or vault). When a new block is proposed, an algorithm chooses a validator based on the size of their stake; if the block is verified, the validator receives further cryptocurrency as a reward (Castor). Given the ubiquity and exponential growth of blockchain technology and its users, an accurate quantification of its carbon footprint is difficult. For some precedent, though, one might consider the impact of the Bitcoin blockchain, which runs on a PoW model. As the New York Times so succinctly puts it: “the process of creating Bitcoin to spend or trade consumes around 91 terawatt-hours of electricity annually, more than is used by Finland, a nation of about 5.5 million” (Huang, O’Neill and Tabuchi). The current Ethereum system (at time of writing), where the majority of NFT transactions take place, also runs on PoW, and it is estimated that a single Ethereum transaction is equivalent to nearly nine days of power consumption by an average US household (Digiconomist). Ethereum always intended to operate on a PoS system, and the transition to this new model is currently underway (Castor). Proof of Stake transactions use significantly less energy — the new Ethereum will supposedly be approximately 2,000 times more energy efficient (Beekhuizen). However, newer systems such as Solana have been explicit about their efficiency goals, stating that a single Solana transaction uses less energy (1,837 Joules, to be precise) than keeping an LED light on for one hour (36,000 J); one Ethereum transaction, for comparison, uses over 692 million J (Solana). In addition to energy usage, however, there is also the question of e-waste as a result of mining and general blockchain operations which, at the time of writing, for Bitcoin sits at around 32 kilotons per year, around the same as the consumer IT wastage of the Netherlands (de Vries and Stoll). How the growth in NFT awareness and adoption amplifies this impact remains to be seen, but depending on which blockchain they use, they may be wasting energy and resources by design. If using a PoW model, the more valuable the cryptocurrency used to make the purchase, the more energy (“gas”) required to authenticate the purchase across the chain. Images abound online of jerry-rigged crypto data centres of varying quality (see also efficiency and safety). With each NFT minted, sold, or traded, these centres draw — and thus waste, for gas — more and more energy. With increased public attention and scrutiny, cryptocurrencies are slowly realising that things could be better. As sustainable alternatives become more desirable and mainstream, it is safe to predict that many NFT marketplaces may migrate to Cardano, Solana, or other more efficient blockchain bases. For now, though, this article considers the existing implementations of NFTs and blockchain technology within the film industry. Current Implementations The current applications of NFTs in film centre around financing and distribution. In terms of the former, NFTs are saleable items that can raise capital for production, distribution, or marketing. As previously mentioned, director Kevin Smith launched Jay & Silent Bob’s Crypto Studio in order to finish and release Killroy Was Here. Smith released over 600 limited edition tokens, including one of the film itself (Moore). In October 2021, renowned Hong Kong director Wong Kar-wai sold an NFT with unreleased footage from his film In the Mood for Love at Sotheby’s for US$550,000 (Raybaud). Quentin Tarantino entered the arena in January 2022, auctioning uncut scenes from his 1994 film Pulp Fiction, despite the threat of legal action from the film’s original distributor Miramax (Dailey). In Australia, an early adopter of the technology is director Michael Beets, who works in virtual production and immersive experiences. His immersive 14-minute VR film Nezunoban (2020) was split into seven different chapters, and each chapter was sold as an NFT. Beets also works with artists to develop entry tickets that are their own piece of generative art; with these tickets and the chapters selling for hundreds of dollars at a time, Beets seems to have achieved the impossible: turning a profit on a short film (Fletcher). Another Australian writer-producer, Samuel Wilson, now based in Canada, suggests that the technology does encourage filmmakers to think differently about what they create: At the moment, I’m making NFTs from extra footage of my feature film Miles Away, which will be released early next year. In one way, it’s like a new age of behind-the-scenes/bonus features. I have 14 hours of DV tapes that I’m cutting into a short film which I will then sell in chapters over the coming months. One chapter will feature the dashing KJ Apa (Songbird, Riverdale) without his shirt on. So, hopefully that can turn some heads. (Wilson, in Fletcher) In addition to individual directors, a number of startup companies are also seeking to get in on the action. One of these is Vuele, which is best understood as a blockchain-based streaming service: an NFT Netflix, if you like. In addition to films themselves, the service will offer extra content as NFTs, including “behind the scenes content, bonus features, exclusive Q&As, and memorabilia” (CurrencyWorks). Vuele’s launch title is Zero Contact, directed by Rick Dugdale and starring Anthony Hopkins. The film is marketed as “the World’s First NFT Feature Film” (as at the time of writing, though, both Vuele and its flagship film have yet to launch). Also launching is NFT Studios, a blockchain-based production company that distributes the executive producer role to those buying into the project. NFT Studios is a decentralised administrative organisation (DAO), guided by tech experts, producers, and film industry intermediaries. NFT Studios is launching with A Wing and a Prayer, a biopic of aeronaut Brian Milton (NFT Studios), and will announce their full slate across festivals in 2022. In Australia, Culture Vault states that its aim is to demystify crypto and champion Australian artists’ rights and access to the space. Co-founder and CEO Michelle Grey is well aware of the aforementioned current social capital of NFTs, but is also acutely aware of the space’s opacity and the ubiquity of often machine-generated tat. “The early NFT space was in its infancy, there was a lot of crap around, but don’t forget there’s a lot of garbage in the traditional art world too,” she says (cited in Miller). Grey and her company effectively act like art dealers; intermediaries between the tech and art worlds. These new companies claim to be adhering to the principles of web3, often selling themselves as collectives, DAOs, or distributed administrative systems. But the entrenched tendencies of the film industry — particularly the persistent Hollywood system — are not so easily broken down. Vuele is a joint venture between CurrencyWorks and Enderby Entertainment. The former is a financial technology company setting up blockchain systems for businesses, including the establishment of branded digital currencies such as the controversial FreedomCoin (Memoria); the latter, Enderby, is a production company founded by Canadian film producer (and former investor relations expert in the oil and uranium sectors) Rick Dugdale (Wiesner). Similarly, NFT Studios is partnered with consulting and marketing agencies and blockchain venture capitalists (NFT Investments PLC). Depending on how charitable or cynical one is feeling, these start-ups are either helpful intermediaries to facilitate legacy media moving into NFT technology, or the first bricks in the capitalist wall to bar access for entry to other players. The Future Is… Buffering Marketplaces like Mintable, OpenSea, and Rarible do indeed make the minting and selling of NFTs fairly straightforward — if you’ve ever listed an item for sale on eBay or Facebook, you can probably mint an NFT. Despite this, the current major barrier for average punters to the NFT space remains technical knowledge. The principles of blockchain remain fairly opaque — even this author, who has been on a deep dive for this article, remains sceptical that widespread adoption across multiple applications and industries is feasible. Even so, as Rennie notes, “the unknown is not what blockchain technology is, or even what it is for (there are countless ‘use cases’), but how it structures the actions of those who use it” (235). At the time of writing, a great many commentators and a small handful of scholars are speculating about the role of the metaverse in the creative space. If the endgame of the metaverse is realised, i.e., a virtual, interactive space where users can interact, trade, and consume entertainment, the role of creators, dealers, distributors, and other brokers and players will be up-ended, and have to re-settle once again. Film industry practitioners might look to the games space to see what the road might look like, but then again, in an industry that is — at its best — somewhat resistant to change, this may simply be a fad that blows over. Blockchain’s current employment as a get-rich-quick mechanism for the algorithmic literati and as a computational extension of existing power structures suggests nothing more than another techno-bubble primed to burst (Patrickson 591-2; Klein). Despite the aspirational commentary surrounding distributed administrative systems and organisations, the current implementations are restricted, for now, to startups like NFT Studios. In terms of cinema, it does remain to be seen whether the deployment of NFTs will move beyond a kind of “Netflix with tchotchkes” model, or a variant of crowdfunding with perks. Once Vuele and NFT Studios launch properly, we may have a sense of how this all will play out, particularly alongside less corporate-driven, more artistically-minded initiatives like that of Michael Beets and Culture Vault. It is possible, too, that blockchain technology may streamline the mechanics of the industry in terms of automating or simplifying parts of the production process, particularly around contracts, financing, licensing. This would obviously remove some of the associated labour and fees, but would also de-couple long-established parts and personnel of the industry — would Hollywood and similar industrial-entertainment complexes let this happen? As with any of the many revolutions that have threatened to kill or resurrect the (allegedly) long-suffering cinematic object, we just have to wait, and watch. References Alexander, Bryan. “Kevin Smith Reveals Why He’s Auctioning Off New His Film ‘Killroy Was Here’ as an NFT.” USA TODAY, 15 Apr. 2021. <https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/movies/2021/04/15/kevin-smith-auctioning-new-film-nft-killroy-here/7244602002/>. Beekhuizen, Carl. “Ethereum’s Energy Usage Will Soon Decrease by ~99.95%.” Ethereum Foundation Blog, 18 May 2021. <https://blog.ethereum.org/2021/05/18/country-power-no-more/>. Beller, Jonathan. “Economic Media: Crypto and the Myth of Total Liquidity.” Australian Humanities Review 66 (2020): 215-225. Beller, Jonathan. The Cinematic Mode of Production: Attention Economy and the Society of the Spectacle. Hanover, NH: Dartmouth College P, 2006. Bowden, James, and Edward Thomas Jones. “NFTs Are Much Bigger than an Art Fad – Here’s How They Could Change the World.” The Conversation, 26 Apr. 2021. <http://theconversation.com/nfts-are-much-bigger-than-an-art-fad-heres-how-they-could-change-the-world-159563>. Cardano. “Cardano, Ouroboros.” 14 Feb. 2022 <https://cardano.org/ouroboros/>. Castor, Amy. “Why Ethereum Is Switching to Proof of Stake and How It Will Work.” MIT Technology Review, 4 Mar. 2022. <https://www.technologyreview.com/2022/03/04/1046636/ethereum-blockchain-proof-of-stake/>. CurrencyWorks. “Vuele - CurrencyWorks™.” 3 Feb. 2022 <https://currencyworks.io/project/vuele/>. Dailey, Natasha. “Quentin Tarantino Will Sell His ‘Pulp Fiction’ NFTs This Month despite a Lawsuit from the Film’s Producer Miramax.” Business Insider, 5 Jan. 2022. <https://www.businessinsider.com.au/quentin-tarantino-to-sell-pulp-fiction-nft-despite-miramax-lawsuit-2022-1>. Daly, Lyle. “What Is Proof of Work (PoW) in Crypto?” The Motley Fool, 27 Sep. 2021. <https://www.fool.com/investing/stock-market/market-sectors/financials/cryptocurrency-stocks/proof-of-work/>. Davis, Kathleen, and Ira Flatow. “Will Blockchain Really Change the Way the Internet Runs?” Science Friday, 23 July 2021. <https://www.sciencefriday.com/segments/blockchain-internet/>. De Vries, Alex, and Christian Stoll. “Bitcoin’s Growing E-Waste Problem.” Resources, Conservation & Recycling 175 (2021): 1-11. Dimitropoulos, Georgios. “Global Currencies and Domestic Regulation: Embedding through Enabling?” In Regulating Blockchain: Techno-Social and Legal Challenges. Eds. Philipp Hacker et al. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2019. 112–139. Edelman, Gilad. “What Is Web3, Anyway?” Wired, Nov. 2021. <https://www.wired.com/story/web3-gavin-wood-interview/>. European Business Review. “Future of Blockchain: How Will It Revolutionize the World in 2022 & Beyond!” The European Business Review, 1 Nov. 2021. <https://www.europeanbusinessreview.com/future-of-blockchain-how-will-it-revolutionize-the-world-in-2022-beyond/>. Fletcher, James. “How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the NFT!” FilmInk, 2 Oct. 2021. <https://www.filmink.com.au/how-i-learned-to-stop-worrying-and-love-the-nft/>. Gayvoronskaya, Tatiana, and Christoph Meinel. Blockchain: Hype or Innovation. Cham: Springer. Guadamuz, Andres. “The Treachery of Images: Non-Fungible Tokens and Copyright.” Journal of Intellectual Property Law & Practice 16.12 (2021): 1367–1385. Huang, Jon, Claire O’Neill, and Hiroko Tabuchi. “Bitcoin Uses More Electricity than Many Countries. How Is That Possible?” The New York Times, 3 Sep. 2021. <http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/09/03/climate/bitcoin-carbon-footprint-electricity.html>. Hutchinson, Pamela. “Believe the Hype? What NFTs Mean for Film.” BFI, 22 July 2021. <https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/features/nfts-non-fungible-tokens-blockchain-film-funding-revolution-hype>. Klein, Ezra. “A Viral Case against Crypto, Explored.” The Ezra Klein Show, n.d. 7 Apr. 2022 <https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/05/opinion/ezra-klein-podcast-dan-olson.html>. Livni, Ephrat. “Venture Capital Funding for Crypto Companies Is Surging.” The New York Times, 1 Dec. 2021. <https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/01/business/dealbook/crypto-venture-capital.html>. Memoria, Francisco. “Popular Firearms Marketplace GunBroker to Launch ‘FreedomCoin’ Stablecoin.” CryptoGlobe, 30 Jan. 2019. <https://www.cryptoglobe.com/latest/2019/01/popular-firearm-marketplace-gunbroker-to-launch-freedomcoin-stablecoin/>. Miller, Nick. “Australian Start-Up Aims to Make the Weird World of NFT Art ‘Less Crap’.” Sydney Morning Herald, 19 Jan. 2022. <https://www.smh.com.au/culture/art-and-design/australian-startup-aims-to-make-the-weird-world-of-nft-art-less-crap-20220119-p59pev.html>. Moore, Kevin. “Kevin Smith Drops an NFT Project Packed with Utility.” One37pm, 27 Apr. 2021. <https://www.one37pm.com/nft/art/kevin-smith-jay-and-silent-bob-nft-killroy-was-here>. Nano. “Press Kit.” 14 Feb. 2022 <https://content.nano.org/Nano-Press-Kit.pdf>. Natalee. “James Bond No Time to Die VeVe NFTs Launch.” NFT Culture, 22 Sep. 2021. <https://www.nftculture.com/nft-marketplaces/4147/>. NewsBTC. “Mogul Productions to Conduct the First Ever Blockchain-Based Voting for Film Financing.” NewsBTC, 22 July 2021. <https://www.newsbtc.com/news/company/mogul-productions-to-conduct-the-first-ever-blockchain-based-voting-for-film-financing/>. NFT Investments PLC. “Approach.” 21 Jan. 2022 <https://www.nftinvest.pro/approach>. NFT Studios. “Projects.” 9 Feb. 2022 <https://nftstudios.dev/projects>. Norton, Robert. “NFTs Have Changed the Art of the Possible.” Wired UK, 14 Feb. 2022. <https://www.wired.co.uk/article/nft-art-world>. Ossinger, Joanna. “Crypto World Hits $3 Trillion Market Cap as Ether, Bitcoin Gain.” Bloomberg.com, 8 Nov. 2021. <https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-11-08/crypto-world-hits-3-trillion-market-cap-as-ether-bitcoin-gain>. Patrickson, Bronwin. “What Do Blockchain Technologies Imply for Digital Creative Industries?” Creativity and Innovation Management 30.3 (2021): 585–595. Quiniou, Matthieu. Blockchain: The Advent of Disintermediation, New York: John Wiley, 2019. Raybaud, Sebastien. “First Asian Film NFT Sold, Wong Kar-Wai’s ‘In the Mood for Love’ Fetches US$550k in Sotheby’s Evening Sale, Auctions News.” TheValue.Com, 10 Oct. 2021. <https://en.thevalue.com/articles/sothebys-auction-wong-kar-wai-in-the-mood-for-love-nft>. Rennie, Ellie. “The Challenges of Distributed Administrative Systems.” Australian Humanities Review 66 (2020): 233-239. Roose, Kevin. “What are NFTs?” The New York Times, 18 Mar. 2022. <https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/03/18/technology/nft-guide.html>. Smee, Sebastian. “Will NFTs Transform the Art World? Are They Even Art?” Washington Post, 18 Dec. 2021. <https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2021/12/18/nft-art-faq/>. Solana. “Solana’s Energy Use Report: November 2021.” Solana, 24 Nov. 2021. <https://solana.com/news/solana-energy-usage-report-november-2021>. Tewari, Hitesh. “Four Ways Blockchain Could Make the Internet Safer, Fairer and More Creative.” The Conversation, 12 July 2019. <http://theconversation.com/four-ways-blockchain-could-make-the-internet-safer-fairer-and-more-creative-118706>. Vaughan, Hunter. Hollywood’s Dirtiest Secret: The Hidden Environmental Costs of the Movies. New York: Columbia UP, 2019. 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It's the beginning of 2000 and the 21st century is all mapped out. Since we've just had that time at the end of a decade (not to mention the end of the century, as well as the Christian calendar "millennium"), when all the pundits came out to review where we had been and forecast where we are going, we should have expected a profundity of future-casting. But neither the familiar prognostications of the coming apocalypse spewing forth from the Religious Right, nor the usual statistical projections made by "experts" on such things as population growth, world politics, economic cycles, new products and shifting job markets, etc. will provide any help in reading the map we have already drawn up, or translating the directional signs. The future is now. It occupies the same domain as the past. Both are inhabitants of the present moment. History, memory, desire, imagination, the creative instinct, and the impetus to act, unfold and are realised as the future becomes the present. We cannot help but tinker with the universe. The future is what we make it and there are an infinite number of possible timelines. Or maybe not. It's the beginning of 2000 and the 21st century is all mapped out. The Human Genome Project1 is about to decode our physiology. We are preparing for the next evolution of the species. The battle between the cyberneticists and the geneticists for a new and improved version of homo sapiens version 3.0 has just begun. The question of where it will lead is open-ended. Will the insatiable quest for self-improvement lead to enlightenment -- a world with less suffering, hunger, disease, violence, and greed? Or, will we be the makers of our own extinction, and end up as a version of Star Trek's Borg -- the ultimate consumers, assimilating automatons devouring everything they encounter, and utterly devoid of the qualities that make us human? As an example of a hypothetical biological and social future the Borg are an interesting model -- a synthesis of a utopian socialist dream and the capitalist imperative of acquisition in the information age. As organic/cybernetic humanoid machines with one unified mind, equal and undifferentiated, untroubled by ego or id, individual ambitions, desires or passions, loneliness, alienation, or imagination they are the ultimate homogeneous collective. At the same time they are both the perfect corporate entity -- masters of the merger, the hostile takeover ("resistance is futile"), and a mindless population programmed to consume and continually upgrade each and every new technology and product. But the Borg don't invent; they only appropriate. Postmodern androids to the core! And we are presently very busy making new discoveries, creating and inventing, and transforming theories into things which tell us not only what is possible, but probable. One of the determining factors in the course of our future is whether or not our belief in technology over other values turns us into the puppets instead of the puppeteers, slaves to masters of our own invention -- be it HAL, Dr. Frankenstein's monster, or the Terminator. Let us consider some possible future scenarios, based not on fiction, but on what already exists, or is about to do so. Facts No one now disputes that the transformation of stem cells into new body parts, cloning technology, genetic engineering, nanotechnology, and microchip replacements not only could, but will dramatically change medicine and extend life in the coming century. In strictly medical terms, the implementation of all these technologies will bring about extraordinary relief of both the physical and psychological pain and suffering caused by debilitating, disabling, or disfiguring disease or injuries, not to mention the lives saved, and the genetic diseases prevented. Current research has found that not only stem cells taken from human embryos or fetuses could be directed to grow replacements for ailing hearts, livers or other organs, but that some stem cells taken from adult tissue could be converted into other types of cells -- brain cells becoming blood cells, or bone marrow becoming liver. The application of this technology is dazzling -- transformative biology, and it is just over the horizon2. Recently, scientists announced the creation of the first artificial cornea made from human cells. It could help restore the sight of those with certain kinds of eye damage. At the same time cybernetics is playing an equally important part. In development is a mini-computer that essentially takes over damaged visual functions and projects them onto a screen. One model expected to be ready for market within three years is a version of Geordie's visor in Star Trek: Next Generation. Another is a microchip that is inserted behind the eye3. In his newest book Fuzzy Future: From Society and Science to Heaven in a Chip, University of Southern California electrical engineering professor Bart Kosco, author of Fuzzy Thinking (1993), projects his theories onto everything from smart machines, the politics of genomes (who owns you, your genetic material, that is) and the environment (who owns the sea, or for that matter the air) to the problem of human mortality. Kosco foresees the day when we may be able to download our brains onto a microchip, thus achieving digital immortality via a gradual (fuzzy) transformation in which the brain's "meat" is replaced piece by piece with nanochips that work ever faster, better, and more creatively than old-fashioned neurons and synapses. The use of microchips to repair or replace damaged cells or portions of the brain is one thing, but as a means to greatly increase mental capacity, and gain everlasting life by "leaving your gray matter pickled in a jar" in favour of a computer in your skull is another. Would you still be you? While researchers have currently found new molecules in the brain that play a role in creating memories and learning, it does not ensure wisdom in how we put our knowledge to work. That great benefits await us, in the prevention and treatment of disease and the disintegration due to aging, is not in dispute. Nor is the enhanced capacity of a healthier society in body and mind. What constitutes the latter is. We are still left with ethical questions about the uses of technology, and spiritual and philosophical questions about what it means to be human. What are the political and social ramifications of biotechnology? British television playwright Dennis Potter's last work Cold Lazarus represents the ethical dilemmas of a future world capable of robbing a man's soul against his will. Scientists, whose funding is controlled by one or another governing media megalomaniac, seek to experience the 20th century through the genuine memories of the late Daniel Feeld, whose frozen head they have obtained. Their biochemical experiments are no less despicable than the CEO who wants to broadcast Feeld's "consciousness" worldwide twenty-four hours a day. Political opposition exists only in the form of a clandestine "terrorist" organization known as R.O.N. (Reality Or Nothing). If we were to base our forecasts on the patterns of history, just such a techno-fascist corporate future awaits us. If we are to judge by the dominant values of the present, the economic priorities of the marketplace will overpower the dissenting voices, placing not only the natural environment at risk, but our social environment as well. What will such a society do about the underclasses when smart machines have taken over their work, and they haven't the means to buy our goods, only consume precious resources; that is, when they are no longer "necessary" to the economic system. Will they be technologically phased out or upgraded? Fast Forward Let's not jump too far ahead. Maybe just to 2050. You can grow your own body part replacements, not just internal organs, but muscle, nerve tissue, skin. You can rejuvenate. Living to 120 or longer will not be unusual. The manufacture of body parts will be a big biotech business. Invest now! But will this technology be available to anyone and everyone, or only those who can afford it? Will we have parts kept in cold storage ready and waiting? Organs grown from extractions of our own foetal tissue perhaps. If it is a right not a privilege, how will our society deal with the problems of overpopulation? Will only those over a certain age -- say 80 -- who are viewed as "contributing" or "productive" members of society be eligible for new organs? Or will your lifestyle and health habits be a factor? No new livers for recalcitrant unreformed alcoholics? Will there be a ranking system of qualifications? Who will decide what they will be? Never mind arms and drugs. Consider this black market in the making! Subterranean high-tech operating rooms, organ factories, contraband stem cells, DNA, "smart" nanochips. Fast Forward And what about those microchips for brain functions? Not just for disease but for self-improvement. You might be able to improve your personality the way you can have a face-lift or breast implants. Then again, microchips could replace both pharmacology and psychotherapy in the treatment of mental disease, or merely antisocial or criminally aberrant behaviour, a new form of rehabilitation. As for sheer brain power, there would be no end to your capacity to absorb information, memorize and catalogue it, or to calculate stock market transactions. And just think of the lawsuits bound to jam up the courts, should someone have the misfortune to get a faulty chip, or even one that doesn't live up to expectations. Advertising is bound to promise you the answer to your dreams. The insertion of these parts by choice is one thing, but suppose it is forced on you by a government or a corporation. Or even by a parent while you are too young to fight back, the ones who want their offspring to be a math genius, Olympic athlete, or musical prodigy. Then again, genetic engineering may take care of some of that. Babies to order. By the end of this century you might not even have to have one the old messy way. Or you might not even be allowed to. Your genetically selected child might be grown in a computer-controlled organic womb. No more unwanted pregnancies. No more crack babies, or Downs Syndrome, or spina bifida4. We've been messing around for quite some time with a lot of things we don't know or haven't considered the consequences of in terms of the long term ecological balance of life and all its interdependent systems: cross-species genetic implants in plants and animals; plants altered to kill insects that are food for another creature on the food chain. And so on up the ladder: tomatoes that only look like tomatoes, but aren't really tomatoes any more. A perfect example of surface over substance. While we are so sure of our technological mastery, the actual "apocalypse" may well be of our own making when the forces of nature wreak havoc and pay us back for our abuses and arrogance. Or perhaps it will be nature's way of resetting the balance of things by greatly reducing the human population. Or it just might turn out this way. The newly evolved, genetically and cybernetically enhanced humanoids 3.0 survive and adapt (to 3.5), while the great mass of old humans become an endangered species like the Siberian tiger. Present Tense If you think this is all just science fiction, consider this. Already a number of young men in Silicon Valley or at M.I.T. walk around all day every day with one eye and ear always focused on the little headset computer screen that keeps them perpetually "on-line", plugged in. Do they look a little like the Borg? Well yes. Or, think about this. About a year ago a bill came up in the California state legislature proposing that a microchip be inserted in all newborn infants, like the ones you can put in your dog so you can track her if she gets lost or stolen. Same principle with babies. The bill was defeated. But very soon we will all be locatable, "on-line". No chance of disappearing in the 21st century when the wilderness is about to become another "theme" park, and when, at this very moment, you can be traced every time you use a plastic card or make a phone call. What a scary thought for dissidents, revolutionaries, battered women, or anyone who just wants to "get away from it all". In the 21st century, Huxley's "savages" would have as hard a time surviving or avoiding capture as a wolf in Arizona. How will our civil rights, our human rights be affected at the present rate of invasion into our privacy. Is your body your own? And what about your mind? What exactly will the "right to your life" mean? Will "smart" machines have that right? How will we define a sentient being? And so here we are. The 21st century is all mapped out. Maps can be misread. Maps can be wrong. The place that has been charted can be changed. By a force of nature, or an act of will. Or better still, by an act of conscience or consciousness, for it is an energy force with transformative powers. We could become better in our hearts and souls. We could use our knowledge with grace. Now go out and draw a new map(s). Happy New Century! Footnotes Huge advances in genomics, the science of deciphering the basic genetic pattern of life, were made in 1999, including the complete gene sequence for three microbes, a third of the base pairs in human DNA, along with one complete chromosome, number 22, and a rough draft of the entire human genome is expected by March 2000. For more about the Human Genome Project check out the following Website: http://www.ornl.gov/hgmis/ and all its links. Also http://www.turbulence.org/ for Bionet :: Recombinant by Eugene Thacker, an artist's "attempt to assemble a body of discourse surrounding contemporary molecular genetics and biotechnology at the end of the millenium". Science journal editor Floyd E. Bloom optimistically predicts that "although much remains to be done to convert today's results into tomorrow's treatments and tools, the likelihood of success seems high". Researchers in this field are: May Griffith, Research Scientist, University of Ottowa Eye Institute, Professor, Cellular and Molecular Medicine, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario Gislin Dagnelie, Researcher, Lions Vision Research and Rehabilitation Center, Wilmer Eye Institute, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland Dr. Thomas Friberg, Professor, Ophthalmology, Chairman, Department of Ophthalmology, Director of Retina and Vitreous Service, The Eye and Ear Institute of Pittsburgh, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Dr. Terry Ernest, Professor, Chairman, Ophthalmology and Visual Science, University of Chicago Medical Center, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois A congenital cleft of the vertebral column with hernial protrusion of the meninges (membranes that envelop the brain and spinal cord). Citation reference for this article MLA style: Jacki Apple. "Some Speculation on the Future of the Body and Soul." M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture 2.9 (2000). [your date of access] <http://www.uq.edu.au/mc/0001/body.php>. Chicago style: Jacki Apple, "Some Speculation on the Future of the Body and Soul," M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture 2, no. 9 (2000), <http://www.uq.edu.au/mc/0001/body.php> ([your date of access]). APA style: Jacki Apple. (2000) Some speculation on the future of the body and soul. M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture 2(9). <http://www.uq.edu.au/mc/0001/body.php> ([your date of access]).