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.
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.
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.
Futurist Thomas Frey: The year is 2032. You have just celebrated your 80th birthday and you have some tough decisions ahead. You can either keep repairing your current body or move into a new one.
Futurist Thomas Frey: Five years ago was the beginning of 2007. George Bush was President, Arnold Schwarzenegger was governor of California, Barack Obama wasn’t very well known, and Saddam Hussein had just been executed in Iraq.
Motherhood without marriage has settled deeply into middle America.
Birth to unmarried women used to be called illegitimacy, now it is the new normal. The share of children born to unmarried women has crossed a threshold after steadily rising for five decades: more than half of births to American women under 30 occur outside marriage.
Futurist Thomas Frey: What music comes to mind when you try on your new pair of jeans? Does that “music in your head” somehow change when you try on a different brand?
Futurist Thomas Frey: If you were traveling between Boston and Washington, DC, and had the choice of either flying or riding in a driverless car, which would you choose?
An effective treatment for Alzheimer’s, a cure for the common cold, gene therapy that destroys cancers, transplant organs grown in the lab. These medical miracles are no longer the dreams of science fiction, but are likely coming in the next decade, say experts.
Futurist Thomas Frey: On December 29th, Verizon announced it would begin charging a $2 “convenience fee” for any customers paying monthly bills with a credit or debit card via the Internet or telephone.
Futurist Thomas Frey: The sixth law of the future states, “The “unknowability” of the future is what gives us our drive and motivation.”
The fact that the future is unknowable is a good thing. Our involvement in the game of life is based on our notion that we as individuals can make a difference. If we somehow remove the mystery of what results our actions will have, we also dismantle our individual drives and motivations for moving forward.
“High expectations are the key to everything” – – Sam Walton
Futurist Thomas Frey: On a recent shopping trip, I went to three separate stores and had difficulty finding what I was looking for. On each of these occasions I talked with a staff person and they told me about an option that either wasn’t apparent to most customers, or that I hadn’t considered.