Here are five indicators, observations or articles that caught the eye of FA futurists today. Highlighting different ways to look at information and organization, San Francisco artist Chris Cobb created an installation at a book store in which he cataloged 20,000 books by color. (Click the link, it is a wonder to behold.) Ford is…
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Here are five indicators, observations or articles that caught the eye of FA futurists today. Fifty-nine percent of Americans are afraid of falling out of their current economic class, a poll finds. In this video interview, Dr. Susan Katz, a retired pediatrician and biochemist, discusses new research on “obesogens”–chemicals that may promote weight gain in humans and…
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Here are five indicators, observations or articles that caught the eye of FA futurists today. Steve Waldman hypothesizes that the moribund economies of World 1 have fallen prey to a technology-driven resource curse. Elite access to finance capital and technology is becoming increasingly monopolized, impeding the re-distribution of economic resources to non-elites. According to Packaging World, waste-to-energy…
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Here are five indicators, observations or articles that caught the eye of FA futurists today. A slew of new “Big Mother” apps and devices are coming online to nudge people into better behavior. These include cameras that watch posture, forks that alert a user if she is eating too quickly, and fitness devices that remind consumers…
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Here are five indicators, observations or articles that caught the eye of FA futurists today. Nest’s smart thermostats are rolling out new peak-load management capabilities, enabling the company to offer participants cash discounts if they enable their thermostats to manage their electricity and A/C consumption during heavy load periods. Demand reduction for participants is always voluntary, and…
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Here are five indicators, observations or articles that caught the eye of FA futurists today. New iPhone app in Iceland ensures that cousins don’t become “kissing cousins.” Phillips has developed prototypes of a tubular LED light that could be retrofit into existing overhead fluorescent fixtures. Although the tubular LED bulbs will have a significant cost…
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Here are five indicators, observations or articles that caught the eye of FA futurists today. “Computational sociologists” are using recipes to understand global eating patterns. Global food prices have been increasing for a decade and rose 2.7% in 2012. Price volatility has also increased substantially in the last few years, though neither prices nor volatility have…
DetailsThe crowdsourced surveillance that unfolded in the wake of the terrorist attacks in Boston is no surprise to futurists. Indeed, it sounded rather familiar. Poking around, I found this scenario vignette in a paper I wrote for the Proteus security conference five years ago: They thought they had the assassin: he was at the rally…
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Here are five indicators, observations or articles that caught the eye of FA futurists today. In the wake of the Boston bombings, the website Reddit is providing a new example of the potential power — and perhaps potential abuses — of crowdsourced intelligence gathering, as users track down multiple views of people carrying specific backpacks in the…
DetailsHere are five indicators, observations or articles that caught the eye of FA futurists today. The goal of the Digital Olfaction Society, which just held its first world congress, is to “digitize, transmit, reproduce and recapture smells, flavors and fragrances.” The Society’s founder imagines a “digiscented” future world in which smells are digitally detected and transmitted.…
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