Recent Publications
IFTF is pleased to announce the public release of the Technology Horizons Program’s 2009 publication, The Future of Video: Becoming People of the Screen. The report provides a deep exploration into our research on the future of video as a new medium for entertainment, information, and communication. As video becomes increasingly ubiquitous, we will all soon become people of the screen. ...
The future is a high-resolution game. Never before has humanity been able to explore the emerging landscape in such detail, to measure the forces of change at such vast scales, and to fill in the details with such fine grain. But this high-resolution grid is not complete. It challenges us to envision and build the future we want. As both gamers and creators of the game, we will fill in the grid...
[Conferenece PPTs with their scripts] The 2009 Ten-Year Forecast Annual Retreat, "Superstructing the Next Decade," took place in historic Cavallo Point in Sausalito, CA on April 20-21, 2009. Materials from this meeting are available for download, including:OverviewThe Future is our chance to be new. This
year’s TYF research delves into issues from a collapsing economy paving
the way for new kinds...
In recent years, rising obesity rates, a crushing disease burden, and the direct impact of what we eat on our health has moved food to the forefront of health discourse. Food nourishes and sustains us, but it also impacts our health, environment, and politics in critical ways. We are pleased to announce the public release of IFTF's 2007 map of The Future of Foodscapes, which explores the major...
A Map for the Programmable World
The map created for our Technology Horizons Fall conference in 2009, When Everything is Programmable is now available to you!
Millennia ago, young couples in Egypt prayed to fertility gods with the hope of receiving the gift of a child. Much later, Native Americans performed ceremonial dances to pray for rain and a bountiful harvest. In the middle of the 19th...
As a part of the year-long Technology Horizons Program research task, When Everything is Progammable: Life in a Conmputational Age, the research team created a digital story—a scenario of of the future—in three parts to accompany the research released for the 2009 Fall Exchange. The story follows "Omar"—a doctor working at Seattle Grace in about 2019—as he moves through his day and interacts...
What is the future of real-time video communication and what will it feel like to live and work in a world where real-time video is ubiquitous?
Skype commissioned IFTF to research and start a conversation about this question and much more in this newly-released report.
Video technologies are improving dramatically and rapidly, supporting mobile and ubiquitous real-time video experiences. Low cost...
Green Health is emerging from the convergence of the global health economy and the growing public recognition of the imperative for global sustainability. This convergence is visible in the two distinct ways in which our concept of “health” has expanded. We are managing, preserving, andenhancing our health in ways that include underlying causes of well-being andthe interrelated systems of our...
Sustainability Outlook is a forward‐thinking project that explores how changing social, cultural and technological conditions are likely to alter the ways that companies integrate sustainability into their business strategies.Jointly sponsored by Business for Social Responsibility (BSR) and the Institute for the Future (IFTF), this ongoing project combines IFTF’s methodologies for...
Remember the feeling of going into a darkened theater and losing yourself in another world. The overhead lights darken; you settle into your seat; the projector begins to whirr; and on the screen, a new reality flickers to life. All you're aware of is the world on the screen, the world of the screen. Finally the credits roll. The lights come up. The world ebbs back into your consciousness....
