One of my many strategies for thinking about the future includes the dropping of words. This old post explains the concept but an example of the idea can be found in the term “color TV.” When most television sets were black-and-white it was necessary to add the word “color” as a necessary descriptor for new…

Did you know the cartoon series The Jetson’s was originally released in September of 1963? Also, the program wasn’t a commercial success and only 26 episodes were ever produced. The program’s relative failure may, perhaps, surprise you—especially if, like me, you grew up watching countless re-runs of the program. The reason the program didn’t meet…

A common and popular vision of the Internet of Things—which I loosely define as the connection of billions of physical objects to the Internet through the use of low-cost sensors—is the example of an alarm clock smart enough to read your daily schedule, review the latest traffic and weather reports and then communicate this information…

Over the coming months, I’m scheduled to deliver a series of 12 keynote presentations across the United States for Verizon Wireless on “How the Internet of Things Will Transform Business.” I have written a little about the “Internet of Things” here but it’d be presumptuous for me or anyone to claim that they will know…

From the outside, the utility industry may appear to slow, cumbersome and resistant to change. These characterizations may or may not be fair, but I do know the industry is poised for extraordinary change in the years ahead and that what has served the industry well in the past won’t be sufficient for remaining competitive…

Two of my favorite writers and thinkers have recently released books. Clay Shirky has written a book entitled Cognitive Surplus: Creativity and Generosity in a Connected Age in which he persuasively argues, among other things, that the Internet is making us smarter because it is allowing society to produce such knowledge accelerators as Wikipedia at…

This week Futurist Jack Uldrich shares insights about the future of insurance, leadership, vertical farming, supercomputers, and China.

(Editor’s Note: I am in Egypt this week traveling the Nile River and researching the future of water. As a result, this week’s edition is abbreviated. If you’re looking for more, I encourage you to review last week’s Friday Future 15–it had a number of thought stimuating articles.) Think: Thinking of traveling in the future?…