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Our technology is consuming virtually all of our attention. Even our dogs have resigned themselves to the fact they are no long man’s best friend. But while those who are desperately concerned with the wellbeing of our society are raising red flags, the business world is being incentivized to create technologies that elevate our addictions even further.

Brooklyn-based MakerBot has just released its 4th generation 3D desktop printer called MakerBot Replicator 2 and it is going to change small business as we know it.

The not-so-distant future (2030-2045) may turn out very different from how we commonly imagine. It may turn out very different from what we desire.

At that time, those of us who remain alive and who still have the faculty to think critically, may well bemoan the fact that we didn’t properly anticipate the intervening turn of events, and didn’t organise ourselves effectively to enable a better future to unfold. We may bitterly regret our present-day pre-occupations with celebrity gossip and 24×7 reality TV and rivalries between the latest superphones and by bickering over gullible interpretations of antiquated religious folk tales.

Clearly, the world is reeling from the inability of young people to find jobs. It is not at all surprising to hear that many college graduates are struggling to find and keep jobs immediately after graduation. As these twenty-something’s return back from their summer vacations and hit the job pavement, many more are finding that their hard-won diplomas no longer guarantee immediate employment.

Wouldn’t it be great if you could turn on your television and it instantly knew what show you wanted to watch? We all dream of an easier life, so what if we got into our car and it knew where we wanted to go, or turned on a radio and it played the perfect music, or pressed “call” on our phone and we would instantly be connected to the person we most wanted to talk to. Our days are filled with countless decisions and the stress level of all these choices is growing steadily. Yes, we want to be in control, but control can be very taxing. That’s why I was so intrigued when I came across a new iPad app called MindMeld that is based on the emerging science of “anticipatory computing.”

In many industries, we have seen the disappearance of jobs, the workplace, and the workweek.  Work happens anytime and from anywhere.  Yet, other businesses are comparatively unchanged. Why is this?  We currently have two separate economies running in parallel – the digital and the physical.

The decline of the US is pretty well-accepted now by all but the most fervent believers in American exceptionalism, with books and articles on the decline appearing regularly. The Foreign Policy magazine’s website features a “Decline Watch” column reporting the latest grim statistics, while Steve Pearlstein, The Washington Post business editor, asks “Can we Save American Capitalism?”

Against the common belief that the success or failure of foresight entities is determined by the strategies they take or their management ability in running a business, I want to highlight that larger forces in the environment, typically unseen by managers, allow some foresight entities to succeed and others to fail.

As the world’s leading producer of synthetic rubber for the automotive industry, Lanxess is very interested in positioning itself at the forefront of our mobile future. One of the biggest trends for this industry is the push to make vehicles driverless. While most people have been focusing on the driverless technology inside the vehicle itself, where noteworthy accomplishments seen to be happening on a daily basis, the shift will also cause huge changes to occur in area’s like insurance, public policy, parking, delivery services, and especially highway engineering.

When I was a student in the Futures Studies program at the University of Houston Clear Lake (Class of 2000), there was considerable concern among students about how they would build a career from what they had learned. Some would apply what they learned to their current career, others expected to become consultants (internal or external). A few hoped to be professional speakers or writers.