Institute For The Future

Participatory Biology: Socialstructing Science

On June 17, 2014, IFTF's Eri Gentry joined a panel of community biology leaders at Techonomy Bio to share her experience. Eri co-founded BioCurious, a...

IFTF Presents 20 Combinatorial Forecasts

Today, IFTF launches its new online map, 20 Combinatorial Forecasts. Innovation happens at the edges—use this map to understand the shifting and...

From #20forecasts: Code Becomes Law

We are familiar with tactics like firewalls that censor banned websites, whether you are in China or in a Kansas office cubicle. We are also...

The Future of Food: Creating an Open, Shared Food Web

“Eating is an agricultural act,” Wendell Berry reminds us, and it is also just as much a technological act. The ways in which we engage with...

From #10YF2014: A Wikipedia for Making

IFTF’s 2014 Ten-Year Forecast explores the landscape of change over the coming decade by contemplating ten projects that, if successfully undertaken...

Living Infrastructures | #Catalyze4 Zone of Innovation

In 2010 we started a journey to uncover new paths out of poverty. We analyzed 18,000 ideas from Catalysts for Change, a global participatory game on...

Maker Cities: Shenzhen

A research team from the Institute for the Future recently visited Shenzhen to explore the maker culture of the city. We toured factories and...

From #10YF2014: Paying It Forward

Experiments with new models of value exchange are often dismissed as quirky. Think: Ithaca hours, a timebanking initiative in which an hour of your...

Tinkering at the White House: Obama Promotes Marc Roth & The Learning Shelter

Today was not your typical day at the White House. Five years after one of the worst economic crises of our lifetimes, DIY is in full force on the...

Mapping the future of health + well-being with Vitality Institute

In the coming decades we have the opportunity to create a culture of health, transforming the art and science of health promotion and chronic disease...

Dine with IFTF at Edible Futures: Supper+Tech

Join IFTF and SupperShare for Edible Futures: Supper+Tech, a community dinner with San Francisco food-tech entrepreneurs on Monday, June 23....

Seeds of Disruption: How Technology is Remaking the Future of Food

In 2013, IFTF’s Global Food Outlook program undertook a yearlong exploration into the ways that emerging technologies and sciences are reshaping the...

IFTF Congratulates GOOD 100's Nic Weidinger

Earlier this year, GOOD Magazine honored IFTF Researcher and Designer Nic Weidinger in the 2014 GOOD 100, a list of 100 people who embody what it...

New Paths out of Poverty | 25 Future Zones of Innovation

In 2010 we started a journey to uncover new paths out of poverty. We analyzed 18,000 ideas from Catalysts for Change, a global participatory game on...

City Making / City Hacking at MacroCity

IFTF is proud to have co-sponsored the MacroCity Conference, a two-day event developed by 2014 IFTF Fellow Tim Hwang with his Bay Area Infrastructure...

Future of Art #MakerCities Hackathon!

On Saturday, May 24th, IFTF #MakerCities finished up a mini-hackathon in collaboration with the NYC Museum Media Lab Meetup Group, and demoed and...

Governance Futures Lab heads to Personal Democracy Forum 2014

How can we redesign the structures around us to better represent our values? This question has become even more relevant in light of the events of the...

Hack the Story: Edit Your City

The city of Redding, California needs a new narrative. In a March 2014 Gallup survey about community well-being, Redding ranked 187th out of 189...

Living Longer, Aging Well: #AgingForward

On June 5 and 6, we host our annual client-only Health Horizons conference, where we’ll dive deep into the shifts in society and technology that are...

The Millennial Trains Project: Applications Open

Last August the Institute for the Future sent me on the Millennial Trains Project - an experimental educational journey sponsored by National...

From #10YF2014: 3D-Printed Cities

During the 2014 Ten-Year Forecast Annual Retreat, Jamais Cascio explored the potential of 3D printing to change the way we rebuild, restore, and...

As Fitbits for Feelings Emerge, Whither Empathy?

Are we losing touch with one another? Are we sinking towards something like Roman civilization, when bloodthirsty spectators eagerly watched men fight...

Maker Cities NYC Immersion Storify now available

On May 20-21, our Maker Cities team led a group of research sponsors on a discovery journey into the maker culture of New York. Now you can share the...

#MakerCities and NYC Museum Media Labs: Day 1!

Alex from the Maker Cities team at Day 1 of our hackathon with NYC Museum Media Lab Meetup Group.