NOW IN PROGRESS: Join us for a new Signtific Lab thought experiment at acs.signtific.org.

Are you a chemist? Do you have an interest in chemistry? Would you like to help us envision the role of chemistry in robotics and sustainability?

We need your ideas. We want your comments and questions. Robotics could play a world-changing role in the future of sustainability. And chemistry will  play a perhaps surprisingly big role in the future of robotics. Help us think this out to 2020.

Guest expert: Arthur Brock on the future of alternative currency and open money

Date & time: Friday, November 20 at 11:00 am, Pacific Time

Two ways to join the call:

1) If you're Skype-savvy, friend Jerry Michalski at "sociate" anytime between now and the call. Tell him you want to join the call and then he'll call your Skype address a few minutes before the call. (Please "get there early."

2) If you're more comfortable with land lines, call the conference call line:

Toll free: 1-800-868-1837
Direct dial: 1-404-920-6440
Participant code: 548723#

IFTF is happy to announce that we will be introducing a new FutureCast podcast series, starting Friday, November 20, at 11 am Pacific Time. Our first podcast will be hosted by Jerry Michalski, and our guest expert will be Arthur Brock of The Metacurrency Project.

The Technology Horizons program at IFTF held our spring exchange two weeks ago.  Our research topic was the Future of Video, a subject that could not be timelier.

Undoubtedly, video is a medium on the rise.  The technology itself is expanding, from a screen in front of us, to screens all around us: wearable screens, foldable screens, building-sides turned into screens; 2D is becoming 3D, and pixels function like words, allowing for the construction of an image, unit by unit.

With the Ten-Year Forecast annual retreat just weeks away, the team has been fine-tuning our thoughts about the major reinvention our economy and society is undergoing. Our work on Superstruct last fall has given us a handful of strategies for reorganizing ourselves at both smaller and larger scales, and as I was reading the Ruby's Bequest stories this morning, it was obvious to me that they are superstructing caregiving.

"In case you didn't catch the article in the most recent issue of BusinessWeek, "The Power of Us" recaps many of the ideas and examples we were exploring at the Ten Year Forecast annual meeting. In the meantime, we've been moving ahead on a couple fronts:

Notes from the final session of the Commerce Department's RFID in 2005 conference. As with all notes, they're my take on what was said, not a precise transcript, and all errors are mine.

James Lewis

More notes from the Commerce Department's RFID in 2005 conference. The usual caveats-- that, as Jacques Derrida put it, every decoding is another encoding-- apply.

Lori Denham (Retail Industry Leaders Association)

More notes from the Commerce Department's RFID in 2005 conference. The usual caveats-- my notes, not author's own words, etc.-- apply.

Nicholas Tsougas (SRA)

Yesterday I attended the Commerce Department's RFID in 2005 conference, at which I gave a talk on the futures of RFID. Eventually audio recordings of the panels are supposed to be put up online, but I thought it would be useful to post my notes on each of the sessions. As with all notes, they reflect my interpretation of what each speaker said, and are more or less accurate, depending on how warm the room was, how awake I was, etc.

Sue Hutchinson: