We're pleased to release IFTF's Future of Persuasion report (PDF). This report journeys through the future of persuasion, looking at “forces of persuasion”—the core drivers of change in how...

At each stage of human evolution we have used the tools and knowledge of the day in our efforts to achieve control of our bodies, our minds, and our surroundings. Now on the horizon are new kinds of tools for programming our world, from the micro to the macro-scale, from our minds and bodies to...

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...

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.

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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...

We are creating a new kind of reality, one in which physical and digital environments, media, and interactions are woven together throughout our daily lives. In this world, the virtual and the physical are seamlessly integrated. Cyberspace is not a destination; rather, it is a layer tightly...

The 2008 Technology Horizons fall event, Blended Reality: Reports from the Digital/Physical Future, immersed attendees in a new blended world, a place where people weave together digital and physical environments as they go about their daily lives. Attendees interacted with...

IFTF is pleased to release the latest research report written by game designer Jane McGonigal. In Engagement Economy, McGonigal turns her attention to the pressing problem facing leading organizations today: how to actively engage users. She writes:

In the economy of...

Welcome to the Future of Making! We are on the verge of a transformation of how products are designed, manufactured, and distributed. The entire supply chain is undergoing reinvention and the impact will be felt not only by manufacturers but also by individuals, households, communities,...

The Chinese-language Internet is part of the transformation of contemporary China and the emergence of China as a world power in the 21st century. As it has been in other places, the Chinese-language Internet is a platform for new kinds of connection, collectivity, and expression.

A new language is emerging that will transform how we conduct business, make life decisions, and interact with our world over the next decade: it is the language of simulation. At the most basic level, a simulation is an imitation of a real thing, experience, or process. But in recent years, it’...

Do you have what it takes to become your company's Data Whisperer? To work with your organization's new Affinity Agent? Or to manage your firm's new Neurological Trainer? Through a series of creative "job interview" challenges, you'll find out firsthand exactly what it will take to...

Over the next 15–20 years we will overcome limits in availability of our computational resources. While today, high-performance computing applications are mostly limited to capital-intensive industries like petroleum exploration, aircraft and automotive design, and pharmaceuticals, over time...

For most of our history, humans have treated Nature as a gigantic warehouse and commissary. The natural world has been a source of raw materials, food, and other resources. Today, rapid advances in biological science and the growth of nanotechnology are taking that inspiration to a new level and...

A technology or tool must meet a need or desire or help alleviate a problem to be used on a regular basis, and thus create a successful market for itself. To understand the changing landscape of needs, desires, fears, and pains in some of the world’s largest and most dynamic places—Brazil...

In 2005, the U.K. Government’s Office of Science and Technology asked us to take a comprehensive look at the future of science and technology 10, 20, and 50 years out. Over the course of the project, the team co-led by Marina Gorbis, Director, Technology Horizons Program, and Alex Pang, Research...

To help Technology Horizons Program members understand the long-term potential RFID, the Institute for the Future (IFTF) has
undertaken a project to map the future of RFID beyond the supply
chain. Even though companies are struggling with the Wal-Mart and Tesco mandates to add RFID...

A new physical-digital landscape is emerging, linking places and spaces to unprecedented amounts of information. The infrastructure that will enable this new landscape—the emerging geoweb—is actually a rich ecology, including technologies, policies, data repositories, and skill sets...