The World Is Not Flat In the opening plenary
session of the World Future Society's 2008 annual meeting,
Edie Weiner, president of Weiner, Edrich, Brown, Inc.,
takes on the
idea that "the world is flat".
Information Vs. Hate
Nate Garvis (VP, Target) describes the
impact of the Technology Effect on the rise of uncivil discourse and the
"outrage industry" as well as its more positive influence in creating
communities of disparate people around the globe. Excerpted from the
World Future Society's 2007 conference. Note, Mr. Garvis's comments were
made as an individual and not as a representative of Target.
Watch the Video on YouTube.
TOP TEN FORECASTS for 2008 and Beyond
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.Watch
the video on Youtube. Blind Insight - Nat Irvin II at
WorldFuture 2007
In this WFS exclusive, business professor Nat Irvin II (University of
Louisville) tells a personal story about his partial blindness and his
insights as a futurist at the World Future Society's 2007 conference.
Watch here. Irvin will chair the
Society's 2008 conference in
Washington, D.C.
Personalized Medicine: Gregory
Stock at WorldFuture2007: UCLA researcher Gregory Stock looks at
the future of genomics and the cures of tomorrow.
Watch here.
"Drugs or Love? Helen Fisher at
WorldFuture 2007":
Helen Fisher discusses the future of sex,
love, and relationships at the World Future Society's conference in
Minneapolis.
Watch now.
The Top Ten Forecasts from
Outlook 2007-- a short film by C. Wagner. Watch the video now on
YouTube.
Attn: Teachers and instructors:
WMV or MOV Quicktime versions available for presentations upon
request.
email
Check out what's new in Future Survey,
a selection of user-friendly abstracts of new books, articles, and
reports on topics that may have a major impact on our future.
WFS: Leaders
Wanted!
WFS is looking for
members with passion and some experience
to help us expand programs, projects and its Global
Impact.
September Futurist Update Measles
is making a comeback in the United States.... The U.S.
Air Force is testing synthetic alternative fuels for
fighter planes.... Researchers are developing video
games to help prevent dyslexia.... Future cell phones
may be able to transmit sign language.
Check
out these stories, new videos, and more in the
September edition of Futurist Update.
How does the modern
college freshman navigate the uneven terrain of the future job market?
One strategy is to plan for a degree in an unusual field. The newest
edition of THE FUTURIST magazine takes a
fresh look.
Michael
Marien, long-time
editor
of
Future
Survey,
received
a
distinguished
service
award
from
World
Future
Society
President
Tim Mack
during
the
closing
session
of WorldFuture
2008 in
Washington,
D.C.,
July 28.
Marien
served
as
editor
of the
Future
Survey
newsletter
since
1979. He
will
retire
by the
end of
2008.
Paul
Moller has spent the last 40 years trying to bring a flying car to market.
We talked to him about his latest prototype, where you can get yours (hint:
not in the U.S., and not anytime soon), and some of his brushes with death
flying homemade, experimental aircraft.
August
Futurist Update
China's economy will
surpass the U.S. by 2035 and will double by mid-century. . .
. Europeans are wasting water by lingering in the
shower too long. . . . More research on the Internet cites
fewer other papers, suggesting a future of fewer ideas. . .
. And check out the click of the month, "Fauxtography," the
visual investigative arm of Snopes.com. These stories, plus
News from the Futurist Community, are in
the latest
issue of Futurist Update.
July Futurist Update
The world population will reach 7 billion in 4 years... The
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. releases resource
guide for businesses grappling with climate change....
Adolescents who believe themselves to be overweight--whether
or not they are--are likely to have a lower quality of life
than those who feel their weight is just right--whether or
not it is... The Center for Public Leadership at Harvard
University's John F. Kennedy School of Government identifies
questions for would-be leaders.
Read these and other stories in the July Futurist Update.
June
Futurist Update Engineers
hold annual robot-soccer competition... a new report from
the Urban Institute offers help for improving that
jail-to-community transition... The extreme, hypersaline
ecosystem of the Great Salt Lake is being turned into a
biology and chemistry laboratory, Keck grant recipients
split $1 million in research money to focus on improving
human health and life-span, with research topics ranging
from the comparative cellular biology of aging to the use of
robotics in diagnostics.
55 Trends
Shaping Tomorrow's World The world's population will double within the next four
decades. Important medical advances will continue to appear
almost daily. The global economy is growing more integrated.
Future seniors will be healthier and wealthier. And water
shortages will plague much of the world. These are among the
55 key trends that will change our world over the next two
decades. Veteran forecaster Marvin J. Cetron has teamed with
science writer Owen Davies for the latest update of their
ongoing study four decades in the making. This special
publication of the World Future Society is excerpted in the
March-April and May-June 2008 issues of THE FUTURIST.
May Futurist
Update
Nanotechnology is churning out new consumer products at a
rate of three or four a week... Bacteria may eventually
prove to be Earth's greatest evolutionary success story...
Solar energy technologies need about a decade more of
research and development investment to become an
economically competitive alternative to petroleum... and
Americans with low income and education levels spend more
time online when they do have access to the Internet.. Read
these and other stories in the
May issue of
Futurist Update.
April Futurist Update Nanotech will be a
"critical driver" of future growth in manufacturing. The
economic costs of hurricanes have been doubling every 10 to
15 years in the United States. The U.S. State Department
warns of an upsurge in anti-Semitism. And astronomers have
found salt on Mars and methane beyond our solar system.
Read
these stories and more in the April edition of Futurist
Update.
In the opening plenary
session of the World Future Society's 2008 annual meeting,
Edie Weiner, president of Weiner, Edrich, Brown, Inc., takes
on the idea that "the world is flat". Updated
8.15.08 Check back for further updates and free videos.
Life-cycle expert and
WorldFuture 2008 speaker Maddy
Dychtwald says that planning for life past 65 is more
important now than ever before. In March,
we asked her what increasing longevity will mean for the
future of retirement.
Gerald E.
Allan, president of
Criteria Architects Inc., is a
WorldFuture 2008 keynote speaker. Here, he discusses his upcoming
presentation: Five Great Ideas and Five Great
Challenges the World Needs to Address.
"The
very characteristics that early humans evolved in order to survive in a
harsh, dangerous, and competitive environment are now working against us in
the complex technological and interdependent environment we have created,”
says Allan. We asked him how we might move from competition to
sustainability.
VIEW HIGHLIGHTS of the
2007 conference, including photo gallery, speaker presentations, conference
volume summaries, and
more:
Futures Learning The Futures Learning Section is an
emerging group committed to all forms of futures learning from traditional
academic learning at all levels to profit and non-profit organizational futures
training and beyond. Learn more.
Measles
is making a comeback in the United States.... The U.S.
Air Force is testing synthetic alternative fuels for
fighter planes.... Researchers are developing video
games to help prevent dyslexia.... Future cell phones
may be able to transmit sign language.
The world's population will double within the next four
decades. Important medical advances will continue to appear
almost daily. The global economy is growing more integrated.
Future seniors will be healthier and wealthier. And water
shortages will plague much of the world. These are among the
55 key trends that will change our world over the next two
decades. Veteran forecaster Marvin J. Cetron has teamed with
science writer Owen Davies for the latest update of their
ongoing study four decades in the making. This special
publication of the World Future Society is excerpted in the
March-April and May-June 2008 issues of THE FUTURIST. 
