Futurist Thomas Frey: People are seriously worried. I’ve been in a number of conversations recently where people are very worried about our coming era of automation where fewer and fewer jobs will be left for people to do.
Peter Thiel’s Quest for Creating a Viable Global Currency
Futurist Thomas Frey: In 2003 the DaVinci Institute produced a landmark event called “The Future of Money Summit” which took place at the Omni Hotel in Broomfield, CO. One of the featured speakers was Bernard Lietaer, chief architect of the Euro.
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Two views on a post-employment economy
Post-employment economy
Will a post-employment economy actually suck or will it wallow in awesomeness? DaVinci Institute founder, Thomas Frey and the Atlantic’s Conor Sen offer two different views on the post-employment economy.
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Workerless Businesses: An Explosive New Trend
Futurist Thomas Frey: In 2004, when Chris Anderson released “The Long Tail,” the world was suddenly awakened to the potential for niche markets that appeal to an increasingly diverse consumer marketplace.
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Controlling Your Own Legacy
Futurist Thomas Frey: Over the 4th of July, I attended a theatrical production of the history of my hometown of Mobridge, SD. The actors and actresses did a terrific job of illustrating the tough times of the early pioneers trying to forge a new life along the Missouri River in barren lands of northern South Dakota.
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Turmoil Ahead for the Automotive Industry
Futurist Thomas Frey: In 1954, Brook Stevens, a well-known industrial designer gave a keynote speech at an advertising conference titled “Planned Obsolescence.”
By his definition, planned obsolescence was “instilling in the buyer the desire to own something a little newer, a little better, a little sooner than necessary.”
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The Disruptive Underground Vs. the Banking Industry
Futurist Thomas Frey: In 1997 Reed Hasting returned his copy of “Apollo 13” to the video store and was hit with a late fee so big that he was embarrassed to tell his wife about it. Out of this moment of humiliation the idea for Netflix was born, a business that would eventually take down the entire video rental industry, and its excessive fee-charging practices in the process.
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The Curse of Infrastructure
Futurist Thomas Frey: Every time I drive to the office there are 11 separate stoplights along my route. Based on some cosmic luck-of-the-draw, two thirds of the stoplights will either be red or green, and the time it takes me will vary from 12 to 22 minutes.
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56 Future Accomplishments: Waiting for Someone to go First
Futurist Thomas Frey: On May 24th, Gary Connery, a 42 year old stuntman from Oxfordshire, England jumped from a helicopter hovering over one mile in the air over southern England, and glided to the earth using a specially designed wing suit. His runway was comprised of a cobbled-up crash-pad fabricated from 18,000 cardboard boxes to soften the impact.
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When Countries Go Bankrupt
Futurist Thomas Frey: In December 2006, Britain made its final payment of $84 million on a $4.34 billion loan from the U.S. that was made all the way back in 1945. Germany wasn’t the only country to go bankrupt after WWII. This money allowed Britain to stave off its total collapse after devoting almost all its resources to the war for over half a decade.
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Transforming the Future of the Insurance Industry
Futurist Thomas Frey: The insurance industry exists as a tool for mitigating the costs and damage associated with a single incident occurring for an individual or organization.
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Inventing Our Next Great Scarcities
Futurist Thomas Frey: Scarcity is defined as an economic condition that arises when people have far greater wants than the available resources. Most often we think about the limited supplies of natural resources, but it includes far more than that.
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