Amazon just unveiled this compelling video of the store of the future.  (It is also posted below) By combining advances in camera technology, artificial intelligence and “sensor fusion”, the company believes that soon you will be able to just “grab and go.” In other words, in the near future, you’ll be able to walk into…

The science fiction writer William Gibson once wrote: “The future is here. It just isn’t evenly distributed.” It’s a powerful insight because it implies that savvy business people, farsighted political leaders and even average citizens can discern the future if only they heed today’s emerging trends. Five current trends, in particular, appear poised to transform…

Yesterday, I released my annual predictions for 2014, and a few weeks ago I shared with you 10 Game-Changing Technological Trends That Will Transform Tomorrow. In the sprit that more is better, and a different perspective is always welcome, I’d like to share with you IBM’s annual “5 in 5” series–5 predictions for the next…

As a professional futurist and forecaster, I prefer to read the newspaper from back to front because I often find the most interesting items are buried on the back pages. To this end, this past week I stumbled upon this Wall Street Journal article explaining that Foxconn–the massive Chinese manufacturing company that employs thousands of…

Given all the talk about “fiscal cliffs,” budget ceilings, deficits, crumbling bridges, struggling schools and gridlock—both traffic and political, the list of issues confronting government leaders can appear daunting and the future bleak. It isn’t. Here are ten trends transforming government that promise a brighter tomorrow: 1. The Internet of Things. For the past year,…

Last December, I published my annual list of predictions for the coming year. Number 9 on the list was “Networked Traffic” and I wrote: The labor union representing Munich taxi drivers will seek an injunction against the social networks claiming they enable individual drivers to act as taxi companies and should therefore be subject to…

Nine years when I was director of the Office of Strategic Planning for the state of Minnesota, I urged labor leaders, government leaders and officials at the Ford plant in St. Paul (which closed in 2011 and took 600 jobs with it) to convert the facility into one that builds fuel cell vehicles. At the…

I’m in Newport, Rhode Island today to deliver the closing keynote address at the Farm Credit Corporations 2011 National Directors Conference. The title of my presentation is “Preparing for the Future: A Steep Unlearning Curve.” As I wrote on my other website today, change is the only constant. It is a message I intend to…

“[We’re] operating with a scale of data that is way beyond what was possible even three years ago,” say Sam Madden, an MIT professor in this article discussing how continued advances in GPS and mobile technology are now able to deliver customized driving directions. The technology is so sophisticated that it will deliver different routes to the…

Last week, fellow futurist Simon Anderson and I posted a chapter from our forthcoming book, Foresight 2020, which discussed the future of crime and law enforcement. It was entitled Crime By Design. One of the trends we outlined was the application of predictive analytics (or data-crunching) to deter crime. To emphasize this point, I’d like…