Institute For The Future

IFTF and the U.S. Department of Labor: Imagining a Bright Future of Work for All

There’s a lot of talk about rapid technology-enabled changes in the nature of work. In July 2015, IFTF's Workable Futures Initiative met with the U.S....

Innovation Is Happening Faster Than We Can Adapt

[Reposted from The New York Times] The changes coming out of Silicon Valley are fundamentally transforming our institutional, social and cultural...

Futures at Build Peace 2015

To help build a vision for a post-conflict world, we’ve begun mapping emerging alternative structures of equality and inclusion. We’re tracking four...

The Green Connection: A Human+Machine Futures Scenario

You shake hands with an old friend and sit down for lunch in the cafe. It is so good to see them ... [This is the third in a series of four scenarios...

Rethinking Care Models in the Post-ACA Decade

Boundaries are important. In health, meaningful boundaries protect personal health information, ensure patient and product safety, and, in many cases,...

Navigating Tradition and Innovation for the Future of Food

On June 22, a team of IFTF researchers traveled from Silicon Valley to Italy to launch our 2015 research on the ingredients for food innovation. What...

Exploring a Decade of Fragmentation + Opportunity with Ten-Year Forecast

Each spring, we host the annual Ten-Year Forecast retreat, a multi-day event where thought leaders and strategists from nearly every sector and...

So you want to be a food futurist?

Want to be a food futurist? Help the IFTF Food Futures Lab map the innovations and forces of change that will make a resilient, equitable, and...

The Red Competition: A Human+Machine Futures Scenario

"Mmm ... this feels good," Andrew murmured inaudibly. Throngs of adoring fans were hanging on his every word ... [This is the second in a series of...

How We’ll Build a Workable Future

With the support of a grant from the Knight Foundation, IFTF is launching the Workable Futures Initiative to bring together policy makers and platform...

Food Futures Lab launches research at Expo Milano

From California's Bay Area to Emilia-Romagna, Italy, epicenters in our global food system integrate their unique entrepreneurial and food cultures...

Future of International Development: Process not Outcome

Until we can design our process for social change so that they reflect our desired outcomes—equal access and voice, open and shared dialogue, power...

It's not about Uber: Beyond the W-2 vs. 1099 debate

The recent ruling by the California Labor Commission that an Uber driver should be classified as a W-2 employee, not an independent contractor,...

Explore the Automated World with us June 16-17

Join IFTF's Tech Horizons program June 16-17 as we explore a future where everyday people, organizations, and cities use previously-unimagined machine...

The Future of Work at Skoll World Forum 2015

At the Skoll World Forum on April 15, IFTF's Bettina Warburg planned a session bent on bringing together technological and societal perspectives on...

News from the Future: June 2015 Newsletter

Join us June 16-17 for The Automated World: Toward Human+Machine Symbiosis. We’re on the verge of transformation on an entirely new scale....

The Challenge of Food Waste | Join us at BITE Silicon Valley June 5

IFTF's Food Futures Lab Joins Tom Colicchio, Bon Appetit Management Company, and James Beard-Winning DC Central Kitchen Founder for a discussion about...

Podcast: Kathi Vian on the Seven-Economy Future

In this podcast, Kathi Vian talks with the Knight Foundation's Carol Coletta about the seven-economy...

The Blue City: A Human+Machine Futures Scenario

If you paused and observed, you could almost make out the invisible hand guiding people on their hurried but merry marches around the city ... [This...

Science Hack Day Celebrates 50th Global Event!

For the last five years, an international grassroots network of people has been challenging this status quo with Science Hack Day: bringing together...

The Workable Futures Initiative: Transforming work for the coming decade

We are pleased to announce the Workable Futures Initiative, a new project with three key goals: 1) Deepen public understanding of the new emerging...

Programming the Global Food System in the Age of Networked Matter

Imagine what will happen when the connections within the entire global food system are not only evident, but also programmed—when natural and...

New! Human+Machine Futures forecast map

We're happy to share Technology Horizons' new research map, 'Human+Machine Futures in Full Color: Extending Our Senses and Ourselves' with you. This...

News from the Future: Spring 2015 Newsletter

We face a future in which our familiar templates for business plans are obsolete. This year’s Ten-Year Forecast research maps emerging templates of...