Would the world be a better place if Adolph Hitler never existed?
While many people will argue over who exactly was the worst of the worst, with names like Pol Pot, Josef Stalin, Idi Amin, Ivan the Terrible, Genghis Khan, Nero, Osama bin Laden, Attila the Hun, and Hirohito entering the conversation, it’s easy to attribute a face to the evil we all despise.
Continue reading… “Optimizing Evil”
There will be significant growth for jobs that require a college education and occupations in health care, energy and technology.
The jobs market for the future currently looks bleak. The unemployment rate has been stuck above 7 percent since December 2008, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. And as futurist Thomas Frey recently told AOL Jobs, half of all the jobs in existence today will no longer be around by 2030.
Continue reading… “Top 19 fastest growing occupations”
Imagine a world filled with hyperlinked smart objects that are constantly interacting over a network to improve user experience IRL. The ‘Internet of Things’ is perhaps the buzzwordiest buzzword in all of the tech sector right now, as it promises to produce a sleek, futuristic, friction-free—and lucrative—environment for all of us to live and consume products in. Which is probably why it’s relentlessly being heralded as the next big thing in consumer electronics: Recent projections from some of the industry’s biggest players say the IoT could be a $15 trillion market in just six years.
Continue reading… “Internet of Things will be the ‘biggest business in the history of electronics’”
ULTra PRT transport pod.
Chances are if you have been to London’s Heathrow Airport you have probably caught a glimpse of something called an ULTra PRT transport pod. These driverless pods have been shuttling travelers from terminal to terminal at the massive airport sonce 2011. That’s all well and good, but now these driverless robo-cars are breaking free of their confines and heading out into the city streets. (Video)
Continue reading… “Driverless cars to be launched on UK streets by 2015”
Futurist Thomas Frey: It’s easy to spot signs of desperation in people’s eyes. With unemployment rates at persistently high levels and young people unable to find jobs from one year to the next, we have become a society seething with anxiety.
What are energy CEO’s thinking?
Grid-Scale Energy Storage in North America 2013: Applications, Technologies, and Suppliers, author Chet Lyons spoke with dozens of energy storage CEOs and summarized their thoughts in a recent report. Below is an excerpt of his 311-page report, highlighting eleven common threads shared by energy storage executives.
Continue reading… “11 major trends in mass energy storage”
Sensors that indicate when a product is no longer good will replace the ‘best before’ print.
Sometimes, packaging may appear very wasteful to people. The packaging is used only temporarily and the act of throwing it away does not feel good. The ‘throw away society’ has given way for a society that shares and reuses as much as possible. However, packaging, even for one time use, is still vital in our way of live. As a fact, packaging design can help make sustainable lifestyle choices. Here are five trends in the future of food packaging which we will see in the coming years.
Continue reading… “5 trends for the future of food packaging”
Elon Musk and Daryl Oster, competing for what could become
the world’s largest infrastructure project
Futurist Thomas Frey: When Tesla Motors CEO, Elon Musk, mysteriously leaked that he was working on his Hyperloop Project, the combination of secrecy, cryptic details, and his own flair for the dramatic all contributed to the media frenzy that followed.
Some day in the near future, cars will drive themselves.
A study by the ENO center for transportation has been done to see what needs to be done to prepare for a nation where cars will be driving themselves sometime in the near future. (Videos)
Continue reading… “The benefits and barriers of self-driving cars”
High-frequency trading.
Futurist Brian David Johnson describes his job as a “futurehunter” and his fascination with both algorithmic trading and high-frequency trading (HFT) in this excerpt from Humanity in the Machine: What Comes after Greed?. Both methods use computer programs to automate and accelerate the execution of certain financial transactions. Yet heavy reliance on such technology in the finance world can be dangerous—the Flash Crash of 2010 cited by Johnson stands out as a prominent example.
Continue reading… “The dangers of stock trading with highly automated systems”
Libraries and librarians need to exist and help foster a love of reading and places in which reading can occur.
Neil Gaiman gives The Reading Agency annual lecture on the future of reading and libraries. He explains why using our imaginations, and providing for others to use theirs, is an obligation for all citizens.
Continue reading… “Our future depends on libraries, reading and daydreaming: Neil Gaiman”
Help Wanted: Cocktail waitresses in Iceland. Must adapt well to extreme temperatures!
Quote of the Day: “I have six locks on my door all in a row. When I go out, I lock every other one. I figure no matter how long somebody stands there picking the locks, they are always locking three.” – Elayne Boosler
Continue reading… “Top 13 Photos of the Week”
By delving into the futuring techniques of Futurist Thomas Frey, you’ll embark on an enlightening journey.
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