Institute For The Future

Three Lessons from Genetics for Thinking about the Future

There have been a lot of great articles looking back at the history of genetic sequencing to mark the ten-year anniversary of the sequencing of the...

SIGNALS: Turing Test, Regenerative Medicine, Pakistan, Coal, Spy Plane, Carbon, Energy, Kinect

Mind vs.

4 Lessons from Gaming in a Corporate Context

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,...

Maker Bot Day 4: Spaceship Thing-O-Matic

Sometimes, when I am really and truly immersed in something, I find myself making some truly banal, self evident non sequitur, but then treating them...

SIGNALS: Water, Fabrication Futures, Alt Energy, TechTYF, Power Struggle

Water Studies Institute (Source) #FutureOfWater10 year old extols his 3D printer's virtues (Source) #FabFuturesEnergy Technology to 2050: Shell...

I'm going to let you in on a secret: this post is a composite of sorts. Because, as it turns out, when you are as cautious (and inept) at putting...

Humanity + Machines + Internet

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...

SIGNALS: Food Futures, Power Struggle, Fabrication Futures

How biofuels contribute to the food crisis (Source) #FoodFutures #PowerStrugglePrint me a...

IFTF Research Methodology: Signal Scanning

One of IFTF's research methodologies is Signals Scanning.  This process is used on internal research projects, with clients, shared on Twitter, and...

SIGNALS: Robots, Power Struggle, Food Futures, Future Jobs

Robots to get their own internet (Source) #IFTFRobotsNew Congress Majority Plans $100 Billion in Budget Cuts, Slashes Clean Energy...

Gaming Religion

Hacking religion is what happens when DIY culture and the Maker Movement meet religion.  On the one hand, this is nothing new, just think of the...

SIGNALS: Space, Alt Energy, Power Struggle, Fabrication Future, Extended Self, Retail, Language

Japanese Space Agency to Use Fishing Nets to Scoop Up Space Junk (Source) #FreeSpaceChina: Number 1 in Thermal, Solar, Nuclear, Wind and Hydro Power...

MakerBot Day 2: I Start to Build

Let me start off by saying that I mean this in the nicest way possible -- I am really enjoying the lurching process of building my MakerBot, and am...

The box sits unopened in my living room and I am feeling, if I am being perfectly honest, quite nervous about cracking it open. The sticker --...

What Are The Health Benefits of That Sedan?

A few months ago, the automaker Nissan announced announced that its cars will soon spray out vitamin C at drivers to ward off skin damage, and that...

GreenGoose: Live Up To Your Best Intentions

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? ...

Your (digital) Life After Death

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...

The Canary in the Coal Mine

One of my favorite new products of the past couple of years is something called

Technologies to Measure Emotion

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...

This is your brain. This is your brain on meditation. Any questions?

Studies of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) are taking off, with the recent addition of a study to be published in Neuroimaging today.  Will...

But You'll Look Sweet Upon the Seat of a fMRI Built for Two

Today's New Scientist features a write-up on a new research tool for studying human social interaction, a...

The Future of Wild California

So far, most discussion stimulated by the Institute for the Future's Future of California research map and California Dreaming contest have focused on...

What Your Facebook Profile Can Tell Fraud Investigators

An interesting story in the Los Angeles Times highlights the different ways that insurance companies have begun to monitor social networking cites in...

BodyShock Winner Profile: Portion Control

Thrive PortionWare from IFTF on Vimeo.