Institute For The Future

Socialstructing empathy and human experience

IFTF is a proud presenting sponsor of the Global Lives Project's newest series, Lives in Transit, which documents a day in the life of 10 transit...

Download and Play 'Sneaky Cards'

In 2009, we partnered with Boing Boing and Sun Microsystems to hold Digital Open, an online tech expo for teens 17 and under around the world....

Artifact from the Future: FuturU

As we step into the new year, many of us will be making resolutions that reflect our hopes and aspirations. It can be challenging to imagine how much...

Artifact from the Future: Mindwriter

More and more platforms claiming copyright ownership for any thoughts you share via mindshare...

Reaching for the Stars with Jose M. Hernandez

Serendipity seems to be a way of life at the Institute for the Future. On a flight back from visiting one of IFTF's Future for Good Fellows in Mexico...

Artifact from the Future: Global Health Heroes

Health Heroes translate technology breakthroughs into new capabilities and new professions, and pioneer new models of clinical...

UN: GMOs and Monocrops Can't Save Us

The UN has come out and said it—small-scale, diversified, organic farming is the only way to sustainably feed the world. Forget about GMOs. Forget...

Artifact from the Future: Apples Awake

Pharmaceuticals escape the pharmacy and find their way into fruitbaskets and veggie bins—all part of a long-term “normalization” of...

THINK&ACT at Parisoma

There has never been a better time to be a civic participant or a maker in governance. On Friday, December 6, IFTF researcher Bettina Warburg...

Artifact from the Future: Sharing with Drones

What if there was a database of every object in the world, and you could rent anything from anybody at any...

Artifact from the Future: Smart Shopping Cart

What if important health information were delivered through multi-sensory processes, so that you not only relied on visual cues to make health...

Artifact from the Future: A Machine that Prints Your Daily Nutrition

What if self-care practices did not entail engagement, willpower, and attention? Through a quick body screen and a syncing up of your...

IFTF + Food Hackathon: Alternative Scenarios for Food

Technology is remaking the future of food, with innovation seeding disruption from production to distribution to eating. These new technologies are...

Artifact from the Future: Public Health Automation

In 2032, the role of public health surveillance expands from monitoring and collecting data to creating actuating systems that can respond proactively...

Investigating the Social Good Summit

Scanning the horizon for emerging trends during UN Week.

Artifact from the Future: Energy Wants To Be Free

UN teams up with the Global Pirate Party to create IP free disaster relief kits.

Artifact from the Future: Microbial Weather Map

“Mirror, mirror on the wall, which neighborhood is healthiest of all?”

Artifact from the Future: Reputation Statement

Small contributions add up to real value. You get points for contributing to wikis, podcasting, sharing your photos. Your monthly statement is as good...

Digital Music's New Freemium Model

You know when you fall madly in love with a super local musician? Their sound just captures your spirit to a tee. You love it when you go to a local...

Wyrd Con, Where Futures Come Alive

Walk into the Hilton Costa Mesa in Los Angeles on the weekend of Wyrd Con, and you would never know from the cool and elegant lobby that down in the...

Four #Innovate2038 Official Awards Announced!

The four #Innovate2038 official awards are now live! Find out if you're a finalist or a winner, and see the game's winning leaderboard. The game ended...

Making is a Way of Experiencing

Prototyping systems of all kind at the World Maker Faire.

Robin Hood “Parasite Algorithm”

I’m fascinated to learn of a new “asset management cooperative” coming out of Finland—Robin Hood Minor Asset Management....

The Globalization of Paola Monzillo

During a recent visit to Montevideo, Uruguay, I was struck by an underground exhibit at the SUBTE gallery of sculptures, collage,drawing, painting and...