The Future of Futures Studies Today, the increasing number of futurists, scholars, business planners, and others in the futuring field is a good sign of the usefulness of Futures Studies for humanity, just as Dator wished so 26 years ago (Dator, 1986). Masini (1989) described the future of Futures Studies 23 years ago in this manner: “Global models have lost their appeal, and there is a growing movement toward Futures Studies that are local. … As for methods, strategic planning will become more important in both the public and the private sectors.” Just a decade ago, Bell hoped that the future of Futures Studies was bright, “because it is reasonable to hope that futurists will be able to establish the field in most of the world’s colleges and universities” (Bell, 2002). While the open and facilitative aspects of futures work should not be dismissed or minimized, Sardar (1999) believed the field must move beyond its identification with limited areas, agendas and interests. Alireza Hejazi is a freelance futurist.
Futures studies Moore's law is an example of futures studies; it is a statistical collection of past and present trends with the goal of accurately extrapolating future trends. Futures studies (also called futurology and futurism) is the study of postulating possible, probable, and preferable futures and the worldviews and myths that underlie them. There is a debate as to whether this discipline is an art or science. In general, it can be considered as a branch of the social sciences and parallel to the field of history. In the same way that history studies the past, futures studies considers the future. Overview[edit] Futures studies is an interdisciplinary field, studying yesterday's and today's changes, and aggregating and analyzing both lay and professional strategies and opinions with respect to tomorrow. Foresight may be the oldest term for the field. The futures field also excludes those who make future predictions through professed supernatural means. Probability and predictability[edit]
INTRODUCTION TO FUTURE STUDIES Dr. Linda Groff & Dr. Paul Smoker Co-Directors, Global Options ***NOTE: Many, but not all, Buttons or Hotlinks below are active. Work is in progress! Introduction/Overview of Topic Brief History of the Future Studies Field Range of Futurist Views and Perspectives Characteristics of a Futurist Perspective Time Periods for Studying the Future Holistic/Systems View of Our Place in the Universe (as Systems within Systems within Systems) Key Subjects Studied by Futurists Methodologies for Studying Change and the Future Steps in Designing an Alternative Future World Key Organizations Involved in the Study of the Future and Change Future Studies Conferences Declarations of Organizations and/or Conferences Related to Future Studies Future Studies Universities and Programs Additional Online Universities, Programs, and Courses Relevant Writing (Abstracts/Outlines, Papers, & Articles) From Global Options (Co-Directors: Dr. See Information below. Journals,Magazines,Newsletters: Organizations: Dr.
2015-16 SOF by Jerome C. Glenn, Elizabeth Florescu, and The Millennium Project Team The Global Futures Collective Intelligence System offers the full version of the State of the Future with ongoing updates to the 15 Global Challenges plus access to all The Millennium Project research Individual – US$14.95/month (Purchase on GFIS) Individual – US$99.95/year Government – $850/year* Corporations – $2100/year* Universities, non-profit organization - $400/year * UN other international organizations - $799/year* * includes 10 users; additional users beyond 10 cost $25/year Subcribe here Table of Contents FOREWORD EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 1 GLOBAL CHALLENGES 15 1. Sustainable Development and Climate Change 18 2. The 2015–16 State of the Future brings together an extraordinarily diverse set of data, information, intelligence, and hopefully some wisdom about the future. The short overviews of the 15 Global Challenges are getting longer and more detailed each year. Jerome C. List of Figures, Tables, Boxes
Don’t Guess, Learn: Rapid Prototyping with Tom Chi [Video] “Doing is the best type of thinking.” – Tom Chi Tom Chi, CPO and head of X at Factory, is largely known for his work creating Google Glass, but arguably one of his largest contributions to the world has been unleashing the rapid prototyping framework and bringing it to organizations large and small. What is rapid prototyping? In Chi’s own words, “Rapid prototyping is the process of finding the fastest path to a direct experience of the thing you’re trying to create.” As a tool, rapid prototyping shifts how teams approach research, design, and development by prioritizing the creation of a high volume of “quick and dirty” prototypes early on, getting those into the hands of users, and then iterating based on direct user feedback and observation. The goal is reframing the learning process to foster education through direct application and testing, or as Chi puts it, “Don’t guess. Video produced by Brent Christo Have you met the seven startups in the SU Labs Accelerator? Alison E.
5 Mind-Boggling Predictions for the Next 25 Years – Live Learn Evolve Bill Gates calls Ray, “the best person I know at predicting the future of artificial intelligence.” Ray is also amazing at predicting a lot more beyond just AI. This post looks at his very incredible predictions for the next 20+ years. So who is Ray Kurzweil? He has received 20 honorary doctorates, has been awarded honors from three U.S. presidents, and has authored 7 books (5 of which have been national bestsellers). He is the principal inventor of many technologies ranging from the first CCD flatbed scanner to the first print-to-speech reading machine for the blind. In short, Ray’s pretty smart… and his predictions are amazing, mind-boggling, and important reminders that we are living in the most exciting time in human history. But, first let’s look back at some of the predictions Ray got right. Predictions Ray has gotten right over the last 25 years In 1990 (twenty-five years ago), he predicted… … that a computer would defeat a world chess champion by 1998. In 1999, he predicted…
7 Top Futurists Make Some Pretty Surprising Predictions About What The Next Decade Will Bring From smartphone apps that can do seemingly everything to driverless cars and eerily humanlike robots, the past decade has seen dramatic advances in science and technology. What amazing advances are we likely to see in the next 10 years? To find out, HuffPost Science reached out to seven top futurists — and they gave us some pretty surprising predictions. Dr. “In the next 10 years, we will see the gradual transition from an Internet to a brain-net, in which thoughts, emotions, feelings, and memories might be transmitted instantly across the planet. Scientists can now hook the brain to a computer and begin to decode some of our memories and thoughts. Perhaps even tensions between people will diminish, as people begin to feel and experience the pain of others.” Dr. “By 2025, 3D printers will print clothing at very low cost. We will spend considerable time in virtual and augmented realities allowing us to visit with each other even if hundreds of miles apart. Dr. Dr. Dr.
Silicon Valley’s Singularity University Has Some Serious Reality Problems The pitch was simple: Forget accredited graduate schools and think big at Singularity University. Google co-founder Larry Page and futurist Ray Kurzweil could be among your lecturers in the Graduate Studies Program at Singularity, named for the notion that humans will someday merge with machines. You’d work in a kind of combination think tank and startup incubator, trying to address challenges as grand as renewable energy and space travel. Reality hasn’t matched the hype. Alumni say for-profit Singularity is becoming just another organizer of conferences and executive seminars. While Singularity says it takes seriously its community’s security and any related allegations, most of those matters are far in the past, says Chief Executive Officer Rob Nail. Nail says although GSP may be reborn largely online, conferences and executive education (tuition: $14,500 for a weeklong program) will become the bulk of Singularity’s work. Singularity had NASA connections beyond its rented buildings.