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If, like me, you find President Obama's already overused "Win the Future" catchphrase catching in your throat, you might also be wondering how he decided on this feel-good, but nonsensical slogan. It seems incredible that an administration that so readily talks about future technologies doesn't give better consideration to the strategies behind their promotion. Reducing the dialog to the metaphor of competition diminishes it before it has even gotten started.

This past Friday, I found myself in the midst of a close-to-capacity crowd at the First Unitarian Church in downtown Portland, Oregon for a screening of The Economics of Happiness. The documentary was made by Helena Norberg-Hodge, along with Steven Gorelick and John Page, via their foundation, the International Society for Ecology and Culture (ISEC). It features such notable figures as Bill McKibben and Vandana Shiva among its impressive array of talking heads. The filmmakers are screening the film in various cities around the world as part of a cross-country build-up to the DVD release.

While different futurist-technologist teams and projects are focused on a wide range of topics, 6 grand challenges are more remarkable as they will impact at least one billion people’s lives over the next decade.

Where Are We Going?

The Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), launched in 2000 in the UK to accelerate solutions to climate change by putting relevant information at the heart of business, policy and investment decisions, is a first step in the right direction. The organization has around 3,000 members in 60 countries and requests carbon and climate change information from the world`s biggest economies and corporations.

At our small office in downtown Bethesda, Maryland, the World Future Society welcomed the former Haitian ambassador to the United States, Raymond Joseph. He was accompanied by his son, Paul Joseph (a futurist and activist who arranged the meeting), and Emmanuel Henry, a retired Panasonic executive. The goal of the meeting was to explore ways that the tools of futuring can help rebuild their nation.

On January 13, 2011, IBM's Watson supercomputer competed in a practice round of Jeopardy, marking a significant milestone in the development of artificial intelligence.

I've been reading Orvar Löfgren's and Billy Ehn's The Secret World of Doing Nothing (University of California, 2010) in preparation for the Spring semester. It's the first time I've used a work of ethnology (i.e., a comparison of different cultures) in the classroom, as opposed to the conventional, in-depth monographs that are the bread and butter of US anthropology.

Writing for the future is an exciting experience (and perhaps a fabulous job), especially for the futurists. In fact, the futurists explain their thoughts and ideas trough writing articles, books and blog posts.

What will the television-watching experience be like 20 years from now? Will watching TV still be a communal experience? Will we be looking at a device, or will the image be projected? Or will it appear on some sort of digital wallpaper? Will it be portable? Will it be 2D, 3D, or perhaps 4D or 5D? Will it be interactive, reactive, immersive, or participative?

As William Law once wrote, “perpetual inspiration is as necessary to the life of goodness, holiness and happiness as perpetual respiration is necessary to animal life”.