Author & neurologist Robert Burton visited IFTF today and treated us to a conversation building from the principles of his book, On Being Certain:  Believing You're Right Even When You're Not.

On June 16 from 8am-1pm, Institute for the Future and the Center for Creative Leadership will host a Train-the-Trainers module on Futures Thinking, designed for those who work with young people on leadership and self-development.  Registration is now open!

Today, at IFTF's Technology Horizons workshop on the Future of Open Fabrication, Dominic Muren spoke on the future of manufacturing. 

His presentation was great and led me to explore his site, where you can see a wealth of ideas--some of which relate to fabrication, but also others like this amazing use of biometrics, technology, and design to augment empathy. From his site:

Today, IFTF Research Affiliate, Jerry Michalski came to IFTF to share about his work on the Relationship Economy. 

The next social and industrial order has more to do with abundance and trust than with scarcity and stickiness.  The key assets are trusted relationships.

 At sundown this Friday, March 4 the 2011 US National Day of Unplugging will begin (powered by Reboot).   

Think slow, think sabbath (Abraham Heschel is my favorite thinker on the Sabbath, with his discussion of sanctified time).

What can an engaged forecasting game do for my company?

This is a question I've heard a lot over the past couple of years.  Based on aggregated lessons from the corporate games of which I've been a part, below are 4 key insights from engaging with games in a corporate context:

1.  Dipping a toe in gaming = liberating!

Michael Chorost's new book World Wide Mind:  The Coming Integration of Humanity, Machines, and the Internet is in bookstores as of today.   The 5 minute video below describes his thesis:

Want to live up to be your best intentions?  Wish you hydrated yourself better?  Or that you were more consistent in taking your vitamins everyday?  Or that you made greener choices in terms of biking to work instead of driving? 

Today Rudy Adler, co-founder of 1000Memories visited us here at Institute for the Future to share about his project, which links to the future of death, the future of connecting, the future of memories, and the future of storytelling.

Today I measured the number of minutes I jogged, how many glasses of water, tea & coffee I drank, and the number of hours of sleep on which I am operating. I shared (and perhaps overshared) that data with my husband and a co-worker.