Blogs

Each year since 1985, the editors of THE FUTURIST have selected the most thought-provoking ideas and forecasts appearing in the magazine to go into our annual Outlook report. The forecasts are meant as conversation starters, not absolute predictions about the future. We hope that this report--covering developments in business and economics, demography, energy, the environment, health and medicine, resources, society and values, and technology--inspires you to tackle the challenges, and seize the opportunities, of the coming decade. Here are our top ten.

Professor Lee Cronin heads up a world-class team of 45 researchers at Glasgow University in England. His team has figured out how to turn a 3D printer into a sort of universal chemistry set capable of “printing” prescription drugs via downloadable chemistry.

Nobody thinks that pouring more sand onto a pile of sand -- or even pouring more abacuses onto a pile of abacuses -- is the least bit likely eventually to prompt the pile to "wake up" and become intelligent, even though the pile grows incomparably more complex the larger it grows.

What will happen to money, and especially cash, in this new electronic age? Will all money eventually be digitized? Will PayPal become the big bank of the future? Will virtual currencies like Linden dollars one day rival the British Pound and other currencies?

Tape recorders, portable music players, digital cameras—mobile phones and their apps are already substituting for, or even replacing, many such products that used to be ubiquitous in everyday life. Don’t be surprised if they soon stand in for car keys and credit cards, as well.

WorldFuture 2013: Exploring the Next Horizon has been chosen as the theme for our next conference. We are seeking new ideas to help us explore the next horizon seriously and methodically, and to transform the way we live, work, and communicate across the world. Let us know how you are contributing to this progress. Submit a proposal to speak at WorldFuture 2013 before October 31st.

Planned obsolescence has caused an enormous amount of damage to our environment around the world.

From plastics floating "islands" in our seas, to mountains of  discarded computers and cell phones. E-waste has become a huge 21st-century issue and it will only continue if we do not do something to stop it.

In much the same way that we now expect every child’s toy to talk, in the future, we will expect virtually everything we own to be connected to the Internet. Our mushrooming “Internet of Things” is growing exponentially, and estimates of its progression vary tremendously. GSMA estimates connecting 24 billion devices by 2020, while Cisco and Ericsson think we will hit 50 billion. Depending on a few key breakthroughs, these estimates may all be on low end, and here’s why.

As we say goodbye to Endeavour and look to the future of space travel in the US and around the world, we wanted to take a moment to admire the futurist concepts that inspired NASA's space shuttle program.

Citizen engagement is essential to our fast-changing civilization. Politics could certainly use more empowerment of common citizens. So could innovative commerce, and even national defense relies on a robust citizenry. But one area with especially bright prospects, is crowd-sourced -- or individual participation in -- inventiveness and science.