The Most Popular Stories from THE FUTURIST magazine in 2012
From the editors of THE FUTURIST magazine, here are the most popular articles, stories, and blog posts we were honored to bring to you this year. We couldn't do it without our members and the generous support of people like you.
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Outlook 2013
Human actions could become more accurately predictable, thanks to neuroscience. Nano-sized robots will deliver cancer-fighting drugs directly to their targets. And though many recently lost jobs may never come back, people will find plenty to do (and get paid for) in the future. These are just a few of the forecasts you’ll find in this latest edition of Outlook. Read more.
Dream, Design, Develop, Deliver: From Great Ideas to Better Outcomes
By Rick Docksai
A better future doesn’t happen on its own. We create it with our ideas, plans, and actions. In July, hundreds of futurists from around the world took the opportunity todream, design, develop, and deliver the future together at WorldFuture 2012. Read more.
The 22nd Century at First Light: Envisioning Life in the Year 2100
A child born today will only be 88 years old in the year 2100. It’s time to start thinking and caring about the twenty-second century. THE FUTURIST invited WFS members and friends such as Paul Saffo, David Brin, and Brenda Cooper to share. They sent in forecasts, scenarios, wild cards, dreams, and nightmares about the earth, humanity, governance, commerce, science and technology, and more. Here are their stories. Read more
The Abundance Builders
By Peter H. Diamandis and Steven Kotler
Progress occurs when inventive people solve problems and create opportunities. Here, Peter Diamandis and best-selling science writer Steven Kotler present just a few of the breakthroughs that offer the brightest prospects for a future that leaves austerity and deprivation behind. Read more.
The Secret Life of Data In the Year 2020
By Brian David Johnson
Author Brian David Johnson, a futurist for Intel, shows how geotags, sensor outputs, and big data are changing the future. He argues that we need a better understanding of our relationship with the data we produce in order to build the future we want. Read more.
The Individual in a Networked World: Two Scenarios
By Lee Rainie and Barry Wellman
Collaborative agent bots? A walled world under constant surveillance? Two information technology experts parse the future of human–network interaction.Read more.
From Smart House to Networked Home
By Chris Carbone and Kristin Nauth
Two foresight specialists describe how tomorrow’s integrated, networked, and aware home systems may change your family life. Read more.
A Thousand Years Young
By Aubrey de Grey
An "anti-aging activist" identifies the medical and biochemical advances that could eventually eliminate all the wear and tear that our bodies and minds suffer as we grow old. Those who undergo continuous repair treatments could live for millennia, remain healthy throughout, and never fear dying of old age. Read more.
Engineering the Future of Food
By Josh Schonwald
Tomorrow's genetically modified food and farmed fish will be more sustainable and far healthier than much of what we eat today—if we can overcome our fears and embrace it. Here's how one foodie learned to stop worrying and love "Frankenfood."Read more.
Thriving in the Automated Economy
By Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee
Two management experts show why labor's race against automation will only be won if we partner with our machines. They advise government regulators not to stand in the way of human–machine innovation. Read more.
Rethinking “Return on Investment”: What We Really Need to Invest In
By Timothy Mack
Innovation means more than inventing new products for the world's growing populations to consume. Innovation also means solving the problems created by consumption. By investing in sustainable innovation and creativity now, we will enhance our future returns. Read more.
The Best Predictions of 2011
By the editors
Drawing from a variety of sources throughout the past year, the editors of THE FUTURIST take a look at some of the best predictions for the world’s future. Read More.
This is just a small sampling of the MANY stories we published in 2012.
Benefits of Joining the World Future Society
When you join the World Future Society, you will not only receive THE FUTURIST magazine, you also become eligible for discounts to WFS events, such as...
The Annual Conference of the World Future Society: July 19-21, 2013, at the Hilton Chicago Hotel, Chicago, Illinois.
Don't miss your chance to meet Nicholas Negroponte.
Nicholas Negroponte is the founder of the MIT Media Lab, author of the bestselling book Being Digital and a seminal voice in education reform. His One Laptop Per Child program has distributed more than 2.5 million computers to children around the globe.
The World Future Society's annual conference, WorldFuture 2013: Exploring the Next Horizon, will give you the opportunity to learn from others in many different fields, and to explore actions affecting our futures in as yet unimagined ways.
The conference will feature nearly 100 leading futurists offering more than 60 sessions, workshops, and special events over the course of two and a half days. And for those who want to take a deeper dive into key studies of interest, the preconference Master Classes allow for an in-depth look in a small group setting.
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2012 Standouts from THE FUTURIST magazine blog
THE FUTURIST Magazine Releases Its Top 10 Forecasts for 2013 and Beyond
By the editors
Eight Shocking Quotes from 2012 that will Redefine Our Future
When is the last time you heard a statement that caused you to stop dead in your tracks? Here are the eight statements I've judged to be trend-setters for 2013 and beyond.Read more.
The Future of Human Enhancement
Is it ethical to put money and resources into trying to develop technological enhancements for human capabilities, when there are so many alternative well-tested mechanisms available to address pressing problems such as social injustice, poverty, poor sanitation, and endemic disease? Read more.
World Technology Summit and Awards 2012
Shock-testing the Black Swan Theory
Are Today’s Students ‘Academically Prepared’ but not ‘Marketplace Ready’?
As twenty-somethings return back from their summer vacations and hit the job pavement looking for work, many more are finding that their hard-won diplomas no longer guarantee immediate employment.Read more.
Seven Themes for the Coming Decade
By Innovaro Research and Insights
It's Not That Bad: Why Our Global Future is Better Than it Appears
By Arnold Brown
In the late 18th century, a series of stunning events – including the American and French Revolutions and the onset of the Industrial Age – cracked the existing world order wide open. Read more
The Future of U.S. Health Care, A FUTURIST Magazine Primer
The editors
What happens when we reach the natural limits of human ability? What happens when the last record has been broken? Read more.
Point-of-care tests (POCTs)—portable devices that can diagnose patients on-site for HIV, tuberculosis, malaria, heart disease, and many other illnesses will reshape developing world medicine in the next decade. Read more.
Radical Futurism for Newbies: A Brief Reading List
If Great Corporations Could Lead: How to Unite Left and Right and Save the World
Why is the USA Slipping Behind in Life Expectancy?
Prodigious wealth and scientific achievement isn’t keeping Americans around very long. Quite the opposite. Read more.
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Essays and comments posted in World Future Society and THE FUTURIST magazine blog portion of this site are the intellectual property of the authors, who retain full responsibility for and rights to their content. For permission to publish, distribute copies, use excerpts, etc., please contact the author. The opinions expressed are those of the author. The World Future Society takes no stand on what the future will or should be like.
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Blogs
THE FUTURIST Magazine Releases Its Top 10 Forecasts for 2013 and Beyond (With Video)
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.
Why the Future Will Almost Certainly Be Better than the Present
Five hundred years ago there was no telephone. No telegraph, for that matter. There was only a postal system that took weeks to deliver a letter. Communication was only possible in any fluent manner between people living in the same neighborhood. And neighborhoods were smaller, too. There were no cars allowing us to travel great distances in the blink of an eye. So the world was a bunch of disjointed groups of individuals who evolved pretty much oblivious to what happened around them.
Headlines at 21st Century Tech for January 11, 2013
Welcome to our second weekly headlines for 2013. This week's stories include:
- A Science Rendezvous to Inspire the Next Generation
- Next Steps for the Mars One Project
- Feeding the Planet Would Be Easier if We Didn't Waste Half of What We Produce
Where is the future?
Like the road you can see ahead of you as you drive on a journey, I suggest the future is embedded in emerging, continuous space-time. Although you’re not there yet, you can see the road in front of you. In the rear-view mirror stretches the landscape of the past, the world you have been through and still remember.
Transparency 2013: Good and bad news about banking, guns, freedom and all that
“Bank secrecy is essentially eroding before our eyes,” says a recent NPR article. ”I think the combination of the fear factor that has kicked in for not only Americans with money offshore, countries that don’t want to be on the wrong side of this issue and the legislative weight of FATCA means that within three to five years it will be exceptionally difficult for any American to hide money in any financial institution.”
The Internet of Things and Smartphones are Breaking the Internet
I have written several articles on network communications on this blog site as well as on other sites, describing its e
BiFi, Biology, Engineering and Artifical Life
BiFi is to biology as WiFi is to computers. It's a technology being pioneered by researchers at Stanford University and other institutions, looking at bioengineering techniques for creating complex biological communities working together to accomplish specific tasks. In a sense every organ and every system of coordinated activity within our bodies runs as a BiFi network.
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