Tiny Homes – Redefining the simple life
Futurist Thomas Frey: Most of us hate feeling cramped. We hate being stuck on a crowded plane, stuck in congested traffic, and wading through packed concert halls. We like to be able to stretch out, get casual, and relax, but we can’t do that when people are invading our space.
Continue reading… “Why the Tiny Home Movement May Not be So Tiny”
TED (Technology, Entertainment, and Design) talks are a huge business and have had over a billion views. There are two main TED conferences a year – the TED conference and the TEDGlobal, are two main TED conferences done each year and there are a large number of satellite conferences (TEDx) all over the world. A quick Google Scholar search shows TED talks even receive scholarly citations. Sugimoto, Thelwall, Larivière, Tsou, Mongeon and Macaluso (2013) published an article in PLOS ONE discussing the scientific impact of TED talks. They looked into the characteristics of academic presenters, the relationship between these characteristics and video popularity, and the impact a TED talk has on the presenter’s citation impact.
Continue reading… “What impact do TED talks have on the audience?”
Dennis Sørensen smiles confidently with his new robotic hand as he flexes his robotic fingers, and gingerly closes them around a disposable plastic cup. Sørensen is blindfolded but he instantly recognizes what he is touching. Round. Hard. Breakable. Lethargic sensory nerves, rusty and unused since an accident nine years ago, begin to stir.
Continue reading… “Breakthrough prosthetic hand restores amputee’s sense of touch”
Ray Kurzweil, Google’s engineering director, is famous for the strides he has made in machine learning, speech recognition and music technology. But he would rather be known for achieving immortality.
Continue reading… “Futurist Ray Kurzweil’s radical plan to be the first man to achieve immortality”
Bill and Melinda Gates
Bill and Melinda Gates have released a letter in January outlining the work the foundation has done in the last year and they have done this for the past five years. This year, they took a bit of a different approach. They were concerned by virulent myths that programs funded by the Gates Foundation are useless, are not effective, or are potentially dangerous, the couple’s letter focuses on dispelling what they call the three main myths of foreign aid. (videos)
Continue reading… “Bill Gates crushes 3 myths about foreign aid”
Futurist Thomas Frey: Many of us suffer from a sinister and often contagious disorder, something I call just-in-case disease.
We own toolboxes full of tools, just in case we need to fix something. We have kitchens full of appliances just in case we want to prepare a meal. We have cars in our garages just in case we need to go somewhere. We even have closets full of clothes we know we’ll never wear just in case we get desperate.
Finnish programmer Linda Liukas had a major crush on Al Gore as a teenager. She wanted to share her passion for the then-vice president with a fan page. She didn’t have the pre-made templates that Tumblr and WordPress now place at our fingertips so built a site from scratch by teaching herself HTML and CSS.
Continue reading… “‘Hello Ruby’ – a children’s book that teaches programming to 4 – 7 year olds”
Local authorities are seeing tangible benefits from citizen innovation.
In numerous towns and cities across the world, citizens are having more of a say in sorting out civic problems. Through open innovation and crowdsourcing initiatives thousands of people are not only involved in identifying particular challenges such as pollution, poor water quality and graffiti, but also in designing and implementing the solutions.
Continue reading… “The roles of citizens in civic problem-solving and innovation”
Google’s smart contact lens.
Google announced its next big project last week—smart contact lenses intended to help diabetics manage their condition. The tiny contact lens uses a wireless chip attached to a glucose sensor that measures glucose levels in tears.
Continue reading… “Google developing ‘smart’ contact lenses to monitor diabetes”
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSbUddr9QEU[/youtube]
There is just one month left for student innovators around the world to enter the massive global Valeo Innovation Challenge. The contest is a search for a product or system that will make the cars of 2030 more intelligent and intuitive.
Continue reading… “Global innovation challenge for the future of cars”
When it comes to landing a high-paying entry level position, young people have very few options without spending tons of money on college. And even then, unless they get engineering degrees from top tier schools, the odds are against them. But now young people have a faster, cheaper option.
Continue reading… “Colorado’s First Micro College for Learning Programming Skills”
Futurist Thomas Frey: Who are you as an individual?
As part of a family, you are measured by your domestic life and the relatives closest to you. As a prospective employee, you are evaluated by your skills, talents, and knowledge. As part of a community, you are gauged by the kind of relationships you build and maintain. As an athlete you are assessed by your physical strengths, your reaction times, and your determination.
Continue reading… “The Quantified Self, the Great College Killer”
By delving into the futuring techniques of Futurist Thomas Frey, you’ll embark on an enlightening journey.
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