Industries: Future

Feb
21

Growing Up Everywhere: The Future of Farming

(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 [...]

Feb
15

The Future of Healthcare Will Be Simulated

According to a new study, surgeons performing knee surgery don’t become proficient at their trade until after they have performed 150 operations. This is understandable in the sense that “practice makes perfect.” It’s bad news, however, for the first 150 patients who have the misfortune of being the “practice” for the new surgeon. One solution [...]

Feb
14

The Future of Higher Education Has Arrived

“Students who demonstrate their mastery will be able to receive a certificate of completion for free.” Re-read that last sentence again: “Students who demonstrate their mastery will be able to receive a certificate of completion for free.” If you’re in the field of higher education it should send a cold chill down your spine because [...]

Feb
10

Get Your Head–and Mind–Into the Future

Late last year, I reported mobile web video conferencing was expected to grow 250-fold by 2015. Not surprisingly, I suggested this would impact how a great many people conducted their work. To this end, the field of tele-psychiatry is now taking off. To understand, consider this statement from a professional using tele-confernecing to consult with [...]

Feb
7

Here Comes the Sun and It Could Burn the Utility Industry

This article (Co-ops Told to Prepare for New Technologies) offers a solid recap of my keynote presentation at the 2012 Touchstone Energy New & Emerging Technologies Conference. To emphasize the point that big change is coming for the utility industry, consider this paragraph from India’s Panel Price Crash Could Spark Solar Revolution: Recent figures from [...]

Feb
6

The Power of Envisioning the Future

I’m in Chennai, India where I delivered a keynote presentation to a group of emerging leaders within PepsiCo India this morning. After my talk, I had the pleasure of listening to Dr. Michael Yaziji. As part of his presentation, he showed this astounding “futuristic” video from Apple. The video was made in 1987 and, apparently, [...]