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 [...]

Last year, Simon Anderson, one of my favorite futurists--and a reverse mentor of sorts—said something that really resonated with me. He said, “2013 is the year the future arrived.” In a literal sense, the future will always be, well, in the future; but let me provide you a glimpse into what Simon was driving at: [...]

Yesterday, I delivered the opening keynote presentation at the American Technical Education Association's 51st annual meeting in St. Paul, Minnesota. The title of my talk was "The Ten Trends Transforming the Technical Education of Tomorrow." To demonstrate how fast the world of technical (and higher) education is changing I explained how Oculus Rift--a promising virtual [...]

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 [...]

As a futurist, I am frequently asked, "What will the future look like?" My response, in two words, is: predictably unpredictable. This then begs the question: How does a person prepare for such a paradoxical future? The answer lies in embracing other paradoxes such as learning to unlearn, thinking about the unthinkable, embracing failure as [...]

As is my annual tradition, below are my top books on the future for the past year. They are not listed in any particular order. 1. Big Data: A Revolution That Will Transform How We Live, Work and Think by Viktor Mayer-Schonberger and Kenneth Cukier. The world is awash in data and it will only [...]

(Editorial note: An exaggerated level of specificity—and, in some cases, humor—has been added to each prediction for the reader’s enjoyment. The trend or technology behind each “prediction” is real but are not intended to be taken literally. Rather, each is merely demonstrative of a broader trend that will continue to shape society in the coming [...]