Futurist Thomas Frey: As a Futurist, people often ask me how many of my predictions have come true. I find this to be a rather uncomfortable question. It’s uncomfortable, not because my track record hasn’t been up to par (actually, a high percentage have come true), but because accuracy of predictions is a poor way of measuring the value of a Futurist.
Continue reading… “The Eight Critical Value Points of A Futurist”
Futurist Thomas Frey: Every couple years, as the November election draws near, my wife Deb and I receive our ballots in the mail. Both of us spend considerable time studying the issues and candidates before making our final decisions. As with most couples, we don’t always agree.
Consumer tastes of the Facebook generation is changing at a greater rate than ever.
The purchasing habits of the youngest generation present the most dramatic shifts in consumer tastes — a reflection of what they find important, and are changing at a greater rate than ever. 24/7 Wall St. has identified eight popular products that the “Facebook generation” is not buying.
Continue reading… “Top 8 products the Facebook generation will not buy”
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.
Continue reading… “Creating a ‘Ripple in the Force’ of the Power Industry”
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.
Continue reading… “Printable Houses and the Massive Wave of Opportunity it will bring to Our Future”
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.
Continue reading… “14 Global Projects that could Make You the World’s Next Billionaire”
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.
Continue reading… “Majority of births among under 30 are to unmarried women”
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?
Continue reading… “Rethinking Retail and 18 Examples of Change”
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?
Continue reading… “Driverless Cars: A Driving Force Coming to a Future Near You”
Nanobot
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.
Continue reading… “7 top medical breakthroughs coming in the next decade”