Blogs

Some very exciting developments are underway in the realm of hydroponic agriculture, i.e. the growing of crops in fertilized water without the use of soil. Grown in ultra clean, climate regulated environments inside warehouses or skyscrapers, crops could be spared both natural contamination (insects, infections etc) and pesticides, to make them entirely clean, even more so than organic crops.

When writing scenarios, you must come to terms with the fact that the people in your scenarios will not think like you. Their assumptions on society, technology, economics and politics will come from a completely different set of data than your own. The only way to understand how the future might go, then, is to put yourself in their shoes. This is not easy, but it is the only way.

My mother, who died two and a half years ago, probably would have had some sympathy for Hosni Mubarak this week, for no other reason than that she once shook his hand.

In a recent interview with USA TODAY, inventor and World Future Society member Ray Kurzweil discussed IBM's Watson computer, which is set to play former Jeopardy champs Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter on the popular game show. The match-up is being called the most significant public test of AI since world chess champion Garry Kasparov lost to IBM's Deep Blue in 1997. It will take place February 14, 15, and 16th.

Professional futurists seek to achieve the highest standards of expert performance in all that they do and endeavor to live up to constructive thoughts at all times.

First Tunisia, then Egypt, and on to Jordan and Yemen. Ought we to have been surprised by recent events in North Africa and the Middle East? No! Despite the timing of the revolutions now under way, I don’t think that we ought to be surprised at all. Some futurists have been pointing to the fragile nature of this region for some years.

In February, I’ll be attending a conference in Mumbai (Bombay), India. The conference is the “World HRD Congress” for Human Resource Development professionals.
Why is a futurist attending a conference for HR professionals? Because the organizers have asked me to speak about how Personal Futures can help them train leaders and potential leaders in their organizations in long term thinking—foresight. The title of my presentation is “Leadership and the Long-Term Perspective.”

Watching the news about Egypt and the debate as to whether Twitter, Facebook, etc.. are inherently pro-democracy, I'm struck by a connection to Joseph Tainter's 1988 classic, The Collapse of Complex Societies.

Nick Bilton of the New York Times recently did an experiment; he purchased a digital copy of WIRED on his iPad. While the magazine was downloading, he drove twelve blocks to his neighborhood magazine shop (Brooklyn), bought a paper copy of the same magazine, and drove home. The iPad version was still downloading.

I know, I know, you're shocked.

I’d like to underline the most important point from our podcast with World Future Society president Tim Mack yesterday. The study of the future is about fifty years old at this point, a fact that might escape you given the astonishment of major media every time they mention it.