Institute For The Future

Remembering Andrew J. Lipinski 1920-2012

Andrew J. Lipinski, a senior research fellow at IFTF from its earliest days in Connecticut until his retirement in the late 1980's, passed away on...

Seven Transformations for Children at Play

IFTF has been studying smart machines and robotics for over 30 years. And all the way across the world the Lego Group first introduced its Mindstorms...

Future of the Hospital: Announcing Challenge #3

For 24 hours, starting January 8 at 9am PST, play the game to help reinvent the community hospital. Pre-register now at futureofhospitals.org....

Maker Cities

What does a city look like when each citizen has a sense of agency in shaping his or her own life, community, and city? What would it be like to live...

Awards + Judges: Future of the Hospital

The Future of the Hospital Foresight Engine Game starts in less than one week! Here is a sneak peak at some of the awesome awards you could win if you...

What’s The Future Of Doctors When Sensors In Your Electronics Diagnose Disease?

I have a new piece over at Fast Coexist looking at how new diagnostic technologies will transform traditional health roles. It begins: ...

Global Food Outlook Goes to Brazil

If you want to understand the future of food, Brazil is one of the most important and interesting places in the world to look. Brazil’s food...

Future of the Hospital: Announcing Challenge #2

For 24 hours, starting January 8 at 9am PST, play the Future of the Hospital game to help reinvent the community hospital. Register now...

Historical Factors behind Germany’s Energy Transformation

Germany’s Energiewende is propelling the shift to a new energy economy. This post is Part 2 of a series on Germany’s energy transformation....

The Energiewende: Germany’s Energy Transition

Germany’s Energiewende is propelling the shift to a new energy economy. This post is Part 1 of a series on Germany’s energy transformation....

CivicMeet Palo Alto: How can civic life innovate in the heart of Silicon Valley?

When you put the Mayor of Palo Alto, futures thinking methodologies, and engaged citizens together, the outcome is far from your average local...

Kopimism

Kopimism is a new religion that is based around the belief that sharing is a sacred act. Their sacred symbols are CRTL-C and CRTL-V, the keyboard...

Ben & Jerry’s, B-Corps, Domino’s, and the Search for Sincere Food

Recently, I came across an ad for Domino’s “We’re Not Artisans” Artisan Pizza. The thin-crusted, rectangular pizza comes in a box with the words...

Seeking Silicon Valley: Experimenting with Alternative Futures

On Saturday December 8th, I had the pleasure of participating in a panel discussion on the Future of Silicon Valley, as part of the closing...

HH Previews Personalized Medicine World Conference

Health Horizons researchers will be attending the 2013 Personalized Medicine World Conference here in Silicon Valley, January 28-29. In the run-up to...

Game starts January 8! Play to reinvent the Future of the Hospital.

Future of the Hospital game starts January 8 at 12pm EST / 9am PST - register now!

Government for the 100%: new insights from the MMOWGLI game

What if games will be critical tools for finding new ideas and catalyzing new collaborations to solve our most wicked and intractable problems? ...

Inventing a Toy in the 21st Century

What do you do when you want to manufacture and sell a toy?...

Trends Shaping Our Future

IFTF's Ten-Year Forecast Research Director Kathi Vian spoke at Sustaining Women in Business conference (SWB 2012) on the trends shaping our collective...

A Human Solution

The December issue of US Airways Magazine features the first publicized excerpt from The Nature of the Future: Dispatches from the Socialstructed...

Libraries as the Commons for Creation

Libraries are the future of making. Everyone knows that libraries have books, and more recently DVDs and free internet. But libraries all over the...

Gifs, clearly the future of all communication for all of mankind. Seriously

The gif (graphic interchange format) was introduced in 1987 by Steve Wilhite (who knew?)! But gifs are just beginning to find their true usefulness....

Task and Matter Routing for Health

Via Springwise comes word of an interesting project out of the UK called Click to Cure. At its core, the idea is simple: Give people a bit of training...

Urgent Futures: IFTF Advisory Council Inaugural Meeting

The futurist and sci-fi writer William Gibson (@GreatDismal) recently said, “give me a room full of either artists or criminals talking about what...