July 17-19, 2009 • Chicago Hilton • Chicago, Illinois
 Professional Members' Forum: July 20, 2009

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Managing Innovation for Sustainable Development

Buckminster Fuller, in his classic work The Critical Path, suggested that in order to lead changes we must learn to see life flowing like a river, where turbulent times of today are a clear sign of a closer change of direction. Most importantly, he suggested that, even though we don’t seem to know where the river is going to lead us, there is a critical path lying underneath that we may be able to access by going deeper into the river as we flow.  Today, thinkers help us to see problems from a more systematic perspective, understand the dynamics at a deeper level, seek and foster synergic convergences, and flow more co-creatively. This is what is needed today for sustainable development.

Who should attend: Anyone interested in sustainable development.
What you’ll learn: Attendees will learn some new trends in applied conscious evolution.
How this new knowledge can be applied: Previous work of the International Congress on Innovation and Management will be presented and participants will be invited to the next Congress. Attendees can apply these new trends to help their organizations in this ever changing global environment.

Arnoldo de Hoyos, professor, The Management Program, The Catholic University of São Paulo; director, Center for Future Studies NEF, Campinas, Brazil

key words: sustainable development, management, innovation
issue area: Technology and Science, Social and Cultural Trends

Technological Innovations and Revolutions

The world is currently undergoing various technological revolutions—in information, energy, antiaging, nanotechnology, and space tech areas—each with major global/societal restructuring, ethical, and worldview implications. These implications highlight the evolving policy issues and relationships between humans and various technologies and their futures. Debates about transhumanist views on our technological and human future will also be discussed, as well as how technological change relates to changes of consciousness.

Who should attend: Anyone who wants to understand the many technological innovations and revolutions currently transforming our world.
What you’ll learn: Participants will learn about the many technological innovations and revolutions, which are transforming our world and which each have global and societal restructuring, ethical, and worldview implications.
How this new knowledge can be applied: Technological innovation and change affect all areas of life, including business, organizations, and our professional and personal lives.  This session will help participants better understand the implications of all this technological change and the decisions and opportunities that result. 

Linda Groff, professor, political science and future studies, California State University, Dominguez Hills, Carson, California.
José Cordeiro, founder, Venezuela Chapter of the World Future Society; former director, World Transhumanist Association, Chiba, Japan. 

key words: technology, society, worldview
issue areas: Technology and Science, Resources and Environment

The Third Scientific Revolution

While futurists study historical trends and extrapolate these trends to their logical conclusions, they are merely looking at the logical evolution of ideas and processes. When a scientific revolution occurs, it overturns many previous trends while emphasizing just a few of the trends. As a new fundamental shift in science and scientific norms emerges, a new way of looking at the future will also emerge, rendering older trends invalid for forecasting possibilities in the future. For example, faster-than-light travel is currently considered impossible, yet it will become a real possibility after the coming revolution has occurred. 

Who should attend: Everyone, Technology and Science, Social and Cultural Trends, Futures Methodologies: The new scientific revolution will affect everyone.
What you’ll learn: People will learn how our past history affects and changes our lives.
How this new knowledge can be applied: Knowledge of the revolution, just knowing that it is occurring, and having some ideas of the emerging new paradigms will better help people plan for the future.

James Beichler, retired professor, Belpre, Ohio.

key words:  consciousness, motion of matter, quantum, Einstein
issue areas: Technology and Science, Social and Cultural Trends, Futures Methodologies

The Thieves of Thought: Protecting Intellectual Property in the Information Age and Beyond

According to the World Intellectual Property Organization, 156,000 patent applications were filed in 2007. Additionally, hundreds of thousands of artistic works (including music, books, articles, artwork, recordings, etc.) where protected by copyright, and logos and catch phrases where trademarked. Each of these items is considered intellectual property, and once registered these ideas are protected by law.

Copyright and patent laws where created to protect the works of inventors, authors, artists, composers, and others from being used without permission. Copyright protection subsists from the time the work is created in fixed form. The copyright in the work of authorship immediately becomes the property of the author who created the work. A patent must be requested and granted to obtain legal protection. An application consists of a description of the invention together with official forms and correspondence relating to the application. As the distribution of intellectual property (IP) proliferates via the World Wide Web, copyright and patent laws are becoming harder to enforce. Adding to the problem is the fact that laws often vary from country to country and sometimes from state to state. Meanwhile, IP infringers are becoming more creative in terms of what they produce and how they go about distributing their ill-gotten gains. As we move ever further into the information age where massive amounts of information are distributed, how can you protect your own intellectual property from unauthorized use? 

Who should attend: Anyone who has ever had an original idea will want to attend this session.
What you’ll learn: This seminar features industry experts on intellectual property who will explore the challenges to protecting your IP now, and in the future.
How this new knowledge can be applied: Participants can use the information garnered from this seminar to plan a strategy to protect their ideas and works from IP infringement. 

Kelly “KJ” Kuchta, president and CEO, Forensics Consulting Solutions, LLC, Phoenix, Arizona.
Laurie Weiss, partner, Fulbright & Jaworski L.L.P., San Antonio, Texas.
Bijal Vakil, intellectual property partner, White & Case, LLP, Palo Alto, California

key words:  intellectual property, copyright, patent, trademarking
issue areas: Technology and Science, Social and Cultural Trends, Futures Methodologies

Does Technology Inspire or Inhibit Human Creativity?

Some of us feel inspired by technology, both creatively and spiritually. Technology gives us access to networks of people and multiple sources of information, as well as the ability to permutate our ideas quickly and efficiently. This allows us to reach new levels of creativity faster than ever before and marvel at our increasingly expanded ability. On the other hand, some argue that technology distracts us, causes disruptions to our social fabric, and interferes with our natural rhythm of life, thereby suppressing our true ability to create. 

In this session, we will compare and contrast these two opposite views of the effects of the technological footprint on human creative abilities.

Who should attend: Anyone interested in how technological changes will effect and transform human creativity and spirituality.
What you’ll learn: Attendees will better understand how human creativity will morph and adapt with technological advancements.
How this new knowledge can be applied: With a better understanding of the role that technological changes play in our creativity, participants will be able to reduce some anxiety caused by the rapidly changing technological world, and instead, be able to utilize technological advances as a tool for inspiration.

Neal Patel, senior partner, Strategic Foresighting Associates, Glendale, California.

key words: creativity, technology, inspiration
issue areas: Technology and Science, Values and Spirituality, Business and Careers

Get to Know Your Two-Pound Computer

None of the technology world is familiar with the brain and the interesting world of neurotransmitters (brain juices) and how important it is to have a basic understanding of these brain juices. Learn about our brain—at least more than our iPod or cell phones.

Who should attend: Anyone in the field of technology who is interested in learning about the brain.
What you’ll learn: How we can make human brain learning more interesting than an iPod.
How this new knowledge can be applied: Learning about the brain will help the participant learn to apply this information when dealing with the psychology of behavior.

Shamshad Haroon, chairperson, WOW Village For Big and Little Kids, Hot Springs, Arkansas.

key words:  technology, brain, psychology
issue areas: Technology and Science, Learning and Education, Health and Wellness Futures

Special Event Driving Digital Quality of Life through a Connected and Intelligent World Over the last 200 years, industrial economies have been periodically transformed and driven by core “general purpose technologies.” Today, that technology is information technology (IT). Indeed, IT is the key enabler of many, if not most, of today’s key innovations and improvements in our lives and society—from better education and health care, to a cleaner and more energy-efficient environment, to safer and more secure communities and nations. This is happening because, after 5,000 years of human progress, the digital information revolution is finally enabling the transformation from an inert and obtuse world to an intelligent one that is alive with information. Far from being exhausted or having reached its limits, current and forthcoming developments in IT are enabling a new era where IT is the major driver of higher quality of life. Who should attend: Individuals interested in learning about the implications of the emergence—finally—of the true information society, and its implications for public, private, and nonprofit organizations. What you’ll learn: Attendees will learn the technologies underpinning the next wave of digital progress and how the applications based on them will dramatically improve quality of life around the nation, including in the areas of health, education, transportation, and energy and environment. How this new knowledge can be applied: By better understanding how the next wave of IT is enabling the emergence of a smart world, attendees will be able to better understand the opportunities in their own organization and communities. Robert D. Atkinson, founder and president, Information Technology and Innovation Foundation; formerly project director, Congressional Office of Technology Assessment, Washington, D.C. key words:  technology, information issue areas: Technology and Science, Social and Cultural Trends

The Future of Haptics

Haptics (pronounced HAP-tiks, from the Greek haptein, meaning “to fasten”) is the science of applying touch (tactile) sensation and control to interaction with computer applications. By using special input/output devices, users can receive feedback from computer applications in the form of felt sensations delivered to their hands or other parts of the body. In combination with a visual display, haptics technology can be used to train people for tasks requiring hand–eye coordination, such as surgery and spaceship maneuvers. It can also be used for games in which you feel as well as see your interactions with images.

Who should attend: All individuals and organizations who are interested in gaining an understanding of the state of art in the science of haptics and who want to learn about new tends in the development of this new technology.
What you’ll learn: Participants will gain a broad overview of how important tactile feedback (haptics) is in modern human–computer interfaces, especially those without keyboards and mice. Participants will also learn  (1) how performance gains associated with haptic feedback have been evaluated; (2) how removing tactile feedback affects user performance; (3) what happens when tactile feedback is combined with sight and sound; (4) why users prefer haptic feedback; and (5) particular situations where haptics provides advantages over sight.
How this new knowledge can be applied: Participants will learn about user interface paradigms that take advantage of the unique tactile bi-directional communications channel and how to implement various haptic interfaces in their workplaces.

Paul D. Tinari, director, Pacific Institute for Advanced Study, Coquitlam, British Columbia, Canada

key words:  haptics, sensory
issue area: Technology and Science

Are Emerging Technologies Destroying Our Ability To Think?

Recent books and articles have warned that using the Web to search for information makes us less able to contemplate deeply and think logically about the information we find. These authors claim that our brains are actually being reconfigured by our use of the internet, video games, and mobile phones so that our thought patterns are starting to resemble pancakes: informationally wide, but shallow. Is this just more Luddite-like, anti-tech paranoia, or is there a scientific basis for this claim? If the claim is true, are we experiencing a new, technology-driven evolutionary stage in human mentality? Are the new technologies we are developing[, in turn developing us into a new species of human being? And is there an upside to this brain shift after all? Studies show that tech-savvy young people’s IQs and their all-sensory, multi-modal, interactive, digital multi-tasking abilities are zooming upward, even as their reading and writing scores fall. These are vital questions about key trends affecting the future of human thought, human nature, and the direction of human society. Listen to the experts and join the discussion.

Who should attend: Futurists, educators, and scientists interested in what new information technologies (IT) are doing to our brains/minds. 
What you’ll learn: How the Internet, video games, mobile phones, and other IT products are affecting our thought patterns and processes, the upsides and the downsides of this major shift.
How this new knowledge can be applied: Depending on whether attendees view this shift as positive or negative, they can learn, teach, and encourage the use and development of new IT and IT skills at work and at home or they can discourage them.

William Crossman, founder and director of CompSpeak 2050 Institute, Oakland, California
Les Gottesman, director of General Education at Golden Gate University, San Francisco, California

key words: information technology, thinking, Internet, video games
issue areas: Technology and Science, Learning and Education, Social and Cultural

The Future of Inventing: How Computers Are Automating Invention

Computers are automating the process of invention just as the assembly line automated the process of manufacturing. Software has been used to automatically generate designs for everything from toothbrushes to antennas to automobile frames. This presentation draws on primary research into such “artificial invention” technology both to explain how such technology works and to provide real-world examples of inventions that have been designed automatically by software.

This presentation will address vexing questions that artificial invention technology raises for patent law, such as whether inventions designed by software be patentable. The presentation will also explore the impact of invention automation technology on four key groups of people: inventors, high-tech companies, consumers, and legal professionals.

Who should attend: Anyone interested in the future of science, technology, invention, and intellectual property rights in inventions.
What you’ll learn: Attendees will learn about: (1) how software is automating the process of invention; (2) specific examples of real-world computer-generated inventions; (3) how computer-automated inventing is affecting inventors, high-tech companies, and consumers; and (4) how patent law should apply to computer-generated inventions.
How this new knowledge can be applied: Attendees can apply the content of the presentation to learn: (1) which skills inventors will need to develop to take advantage of computer-automated invention technology; (2) which business strategies high-tech companies should adopt in light of computer-automated inventing; and (3) how consumers will be able to use computer-automated inventing technology to become inventors themselves. 

Robert Plotkin, attorney, Robert Plotkin, P.C.; lecturer, Boston University School of Law, Burlington, Massachusetts

key words:  invention, computers, intellectual property
issue areas: Technology and Science, Governance and Communities, Business and Careers

FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:
World Future Society Headquarters
7910 Woodmont Avenue, Suite 450
Bethesda, Maryland 20814
Web site: www.wfs.org.
Telephone: 800-989-8274 or 301-656-8274; fax: 301-951-0394