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Whether it is New York’s Greenwich Village or London’s Shoreditch, these neighbourhoods once home to artists and musicians are gentrified for the Whole Foods-shopping neo-yuppie urbanite. Housing no longer affordable. What does the future city look like?

“Everything depends on the people in the labs. New discoveries in fields such as biotechnology and nanotechnology could create entire new industries” ― Yuval Noah Harari. Bread, beer, acetone, penicillin and yoghurt are derivatives of living organisms.

As the new year begins, some reflect on the past and others proffer predictions for the future. We prefer to look at long-term themes but if we were to make a prediction we foresee a Latino president in the Oval Office in the near future.

What price will Bitcoin be by the time you read this? $50,000? $5? Its value today is around $17,000, an increase of 1,600% since 1 January 2017 and around 5,666,666% since 1 January 2011. The total market cap of all Bitcoins is close to $280 billion.

It is hard to ignore Saudi Arabia; headlines painting an ever-bleaker picture for a country already associated with conflict and extremism. When looking at this oil giant with an investment lens, it is very easy to get distracted by the noise of politics.

It’s almost 2019. Flying police cars have not happened; the acid rain debate shelved; and Shimago-Domínguez' globalisation has been and gone. Ridley Scott’s future hit the screens 35 years ago, but some of this cult film noir’s themes are very prescient.