The accelerating pace of change is often difficult for the average person to comprehend. As a futurist, business forecaster and frequent conference speaker, I have often use recent history to remind people of how much we’ve lived through in the past few years. For example, Google is only 13 years-old–a mere teenager. Facebook is just…

You can see the future … if you know where to look. One good place to look is on the inside of the newspaper. For example, here are just four articles from the inside of today’s newspaper: Article #1 discusses the driverless car. Article #2 talks about the “officeless office.” Article #3 notes that for…

(Editor’s note: The following is an excerpt from my forthcoming book, 20/20 Foresight: A Futurist Looks Ahead to the Ten Trends That Will Shape the World of 2020, that I am writing with the able assistance of fellow futurist Simon Anderson. This chapter takes a look at the future of agriculture.) On a 7,000 acre farm in…

(Editor’s note: The following is an excerpt from my forthcoming book, 20/20 Foresight: A Futurist Looks Ahead to the Ten Trends That Will Shape the World of 2020, which I am writing with the able assistance of fellow futurist Simon Anderson, host of www.futur1st.com. This chapter takes a look at the future of healthcare.) Jonathan Rothberg, a…

Editor’s note: The following is an excerpt from our forthcoming book, 20/20 Foresight: A Futurist Looks Ahead to the Ten Trends That Will Shape the World of 2020, which I am writing with the able assistance of fellow futurist Simon Anderson, host of www.futur1st.com. This chapter takes a look at the future of higher education.) In 2002,…

“Titan will be used for a variety of important research projects, including the development of more commercially viable biofuels, cleaner burning engines, safer nuclear energy, and more efficient solar power.” So states a recent press release from Cray announcing the creation of a new supercomputer capable of between 10 and 20 quadrillion calculations per second….

Over the past few months, I have delivered a number of insurance oriented keynotes and, later this week, I’ll be addressing the LOMA Conference on Emerging Technologies for the Insurance Industry. While I cover a wide variety of trends in the information technology, biotechnology and nanotechnology sectors, here are five trends already impacting the insurance…

(Editor’s note: The following is an excerpt from my forthcoming book, 20/20 Foresight: A Futurist Looks Ahead to the Year 2020, that I am writing with the able assistance of fellow futurist Simon Anderson, host ofwww.futur1st.com. This chapter covers trends in the emerging field of 3D manufacturing.) In a non-descript lab in the mechanical engineering department…

"Sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast." The Queen in "Through the Looking Glass" "It is difficult to say what is impossible, for the dream of yesterday is the hope of today and the reality of tomorrow." Robert Goddard, U.S. physicist & pioneer rocket engineer (1882-1945)