Tag: future

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Analysis, Education, Science & Technology News, top 10

Top 10 changes we can expect from the library of the future

library

Libraries have acted as community cornerstones for millennia.

Every April marks School Library Month.  Libraries celebrate how they promote education and awareness in an open, nurturing space. What makes them such lasting institutions, though, isn’t the mere act of preserving books and promoting knowledge. Rather, it’s the almost uncanny ability to consistently adapt to the changing demands of the local populace and emerging technology alike. The library system probably won’t disappear anytime soon, but rather, see itself blossoming into something new and exciting in congruence with today’s myriad informational demands.

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Analysis, Business, Education, Latest Trend, People Making a Difference, Science & Technology News

Teacherless Education and the Competition that will Change Everything

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Nephew Mikaia showing Grandpa Norman what he knows

Futurist Thomas Frey: Over the past couple months I’ve become enamored with watching my two-year-old nephew Mikaia learn the letters of the alphabet, colors, and numbers. Even though he doesn’t have them all perfect, he’s scoring in the high 90% when we quiz him verbally.

Next up, the periodic table of elements?

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Analysis, Business, Historical Perspectives, Latest Trend, People Making a Difference, Science & Technology News

Creating a ‘Ripple in the Force’ of the Power Industry

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Futurist Thomas Frey: Working with many early stage inventors, I often have the privilege of seeing some truly remarkable inventions and innovations. A few days ago I was shown a technology that snugly fits into that remarkable category, one that has the potential to radically transform the way cars and other vehicles are powered. In fact, vehicles using this power source will never need to stop and refuel.

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Big Problems, Breakthrough Thinking, Crazy Stuff, New Discoveries, New Viewpoints

The future of pothole repair is Silly Putty

pot hole

Pot holes pepper highways everywhere.

Fixing a hole in a road should be easy—but the fact that our nation’s highways are littered with potholes is testament to the fact that it’s not quite as straightforward as it sounds. But a new solution, inspired by silly putty, could make our streets much smoother in the future.

In fact, the idea—developed by students from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland—has won an engineering contest, reports Science. But prize-winning or not, the idea of mending a road with something like silly putty sounds like madness, right?

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Analysis, Economy, Globalism, Historical Perspectives, Latest Trend

Limits to growth: 40 year old prediction of ‘collapse’ still on track

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In a controversial study released 40 years ago, recent research supports the conclusions of that study: The world is on track for disaster. So says Australian physicist Graham Turner, who revisited perhaps the most groundbreaking academic work of the 1970s,The Limits to Growth.

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Analysis, Business, Great Videos, Latest Trend, People Making a Difference, Photo Perspectives, Science & Technology News

Printable Houses and the Massive Wave of Opportunity it will bring to Our Future

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Futurist Thomas Frey: All the way back in March of 2004, working in his laboratory at the University of Southern California in San Diego, Dr. Behrokh Khoshnevis, was working with a new process he had invented called Contour Crafting to construct the world’s first 3D printed wall.

His goal was to use the technology for rapid home construction as a way to rebuild after natural disasters, like the devastating earthquakes that had recently occurred in his home country of Iran.

While we have still not seen our first “printed home” just yet, that will be coming very soon. Perhaps within a year. Commercial buildings will soon follow.

For an industry firmly entrenched in working with nails and screws, the prospects of replacing saws and hammers with giant printing machines seems frightening. But getting beyond this hesitancy lies the biggest construction boom in all history.

Here’s why I  think this will happen.

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Analysis, Business, Globalism, Latest Trend, Science & Technology News

14 Global Projects that could Make You the World’s Next Billionaire

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Opportunities are often right before our eyes, but few of us can see them.

Futurist Thomas Frey: The super-connected nature of the Internet is giving us a far different “opportunity landscape” than ever before in history. Unlike the painstakingly slow 400-year period between DaVinci’s drawings of flying machines and the Wright Brother’s first flight, development cycles in the digital era can now be measured in hours and minutes rather than decades or centuries.

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