5 Trends Affecting the Future of Higher Education

1. Online Education/MOOCs. This trend shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone following the field but did you know that Georgia Tech--in partnership with Udacity--is now offering a master's degree in computer science for the low, low price of $7,000? Furthermore, two innovative professors at the University of Texas are now offering students the opportunity [...]

By |2013-09-12T17:22:04-05:00September 12, 2013|Future|Comments Off on 5 Trends Affecting the Future of Higher Education

Does Elon Musk Literally Have His Hand on the Future of Manufacturing?

The word literally is often misused but I don't believe I'm engaged in hyperbole when I say Elon Musk, the founder of Tesla and SpaceX, may literally have his hand on the future of manufacturing--and I don't believe you will either after watching these two videos. The first shows Musk demonstrating how new Leap Motion [...]

By |2013-09-06T16:38:50-05:00September 6, 2013|Future|Comments Off on Does Elon Musk Literally Have His Hand on the Future of Manufacturing?

39 Things That Should Keep Up Every Utility Executive At Night

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 [...]

By |2013-09-05T19:53:59-05:00September 5, 2013|Energy, Future, Utility|Comments Off on 39 Things That Should Keep Up Every Utility Executive At Night

5 Things to Think About

Twenty-five years ago, 20 megabytes of storage cost approximately $800. Today, Google and a handful of other cloud-based storage providers offer 100-times as much storage for free. Fifteen years ago, the idea that a world-class encyclopedia could be created and maintained by free labor would have seemed impossible. Today, Wikipedia is routinely access by millions [...]

By |2013-09-04T14:13:53-05:00September 4, 2013|Future|Comments Off on 5 Things to Think About

Thinking Ahead to Tomorrow's Cheaper Future

This ad from the late 1970's imploring its readers to "think ahead for the 1980s" is a wonderful reminder that future has a curious way of getting cheaper and cheaper. My quick back-of-the-envelop calculation estimates that if your $29.99 32GB jump drive were priced at a level comparable to the late 1970's it would today [...]

By |2013-08-23T19:17:33-05:00August 23, 2013|Future|Comments Off on Thinking Ahead to Tomorrow's Cheaper Future

Immigrate to the Future

“We are all immigrants to the future; none of us is a native of that land.” --Marina Gorbis “We are all immigrants to the future.” I love this statement, which I’ve pilfered from fellow futurist Marina Gorbis’ insightful new book, The Nature of the Future. The metaphor of an immigrant is useful to individuals and [...]

By |2013-08-22T06:00:50-05:00August 22, 2013|Future|Comments Off on Immigrate to the Future

Sports Aren’t Preparing Your Child for the Future

Let me rephrase that: Sports aren’t preparing your child for the future in the same way as in the past. I am a strong proponent of athletics and an even stronger proponent for how sports help prepare kids for the future by teaching them the importance of hard work, teamwork, discipline, persistence and goal-setting. (In [...]

By |2013-08-16T14:05:36-05:00August 16, 2013|Future|Comments Off on Sports Aren’t Preparing Your Child for the Future

Our Murky Future

I recently returned from a two week vacation in Italy. One of my favorite locations was Venice. While there, I came across a Venetian proverb: The sea gets deeper as you go further into it. This is how I feel about the future--even as a professional futurist: The future gets murkier as you go further [...]

By |2013-08-15T16:15:32-05:00August 15, 2013|Future|Comments Off on Our Murky Future

Wanted: More Dragon-Slayers

On many early maps, there was often a Latin phrase, HC Svnt Dracones. It translates into 'Here are dragons." In reality, the slogan was little more than the cartographers attempt to conceal their ignorance. Of course, with time and better technology, our maps got better and the dragons disappeared. This metaphor is worth keeping in [...]

By |2013-07-22T16:20:38-05:00July 22, 2013|Future|Comments Off on Wanted: More Dragon-Slayers

The Future of Google Glass is Bright but Fuzzy

Meghan Uldrich rockin' Google Glass Last week, I flew to New York, where as a Google "Explorer," I was fitted for my first pair. I am just in the early stages of my "exploration" and I have yet to reach a firm conclusion about the technology. Nevertheless, I am fascinated by its potential. To [...]

By |2013-07-18T21:54:45-05:00July 18, 2013|Future|Comments Off on The Future of Google Glass is Bright but Fuzzy
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