Institute For The Future

The future is now.

Political upheaval. Turbulent markets. Massive climate disruptions. Today’s volatility means big challenges tomorrow. Will the future find you or your...

News from the Future #32

The future is now.

Welcome to the Party: A Data Analysis of Chinese Information Operations

Twitter recently released a 1.6 GB archive of tweets that it determined had been spread by the government of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) as...

Beijing’s Computational Propaganda Goes Global

The Significance of China’s Debut as a Disinformation Actor...

Lessons from Laputa

Whenever I call a customer service line and have to sit through a torturous series of non-human interactions — “If you are calling x, press y,” “sorry...

Exploring Social VR

Negotiating trust and what's real in the new world of Social VR: From thinking about data in three dimensions to re-inventing audience experience,...

Fill in the Blanks

When was the last time you traveled to the future? If you’re like most people, the answer is: just a few minutes ago. That’s because the average...

The Fleet / Car and Rider

What happens when fleets of autonomous cars battle it out for the same street corner? As fleets of autonomous cars make their way into messy, crowded...

The Caregiver / The Artificial Caregiver

What happens when your health is dependent on an upgrade you can't afford? As intelligent autonomous objects proliferate, they can be seen as...

The Ruse / The Roshki Ruse

What happens when products can lie to their owners? Advances in multi-material 3D printing render intricately designed objects called “roshkis” into...

The Pass / I Shouldn't Have Done It

What happens when infrastructure enforces the law? As public spaces become increasingly reconfigurable, and infrastructure becomes capable of...

Scenes From 2027

What kind of 2027 can you imagine?

A Wearable MRI Machine

The path to telepathy is coming indirectly, through Jepsen’s exploration of a more costeffective medical diagnosis tool: essentially an affordable...

Don't Fear The Black Box

In 2013, hackers installed malware onto servers belonging to the retailer Target, eventually stealing the credit and debit card information of 40...

Make It Just So

Clea and her 8-year-old son Alex are in a coffee shop before school. It’s Alex’s birthday. While waiting for their latte and hot chocolate, they play...

In tomorrow’s ‘work-and-learn’ world, new tools must measure progress

Lumina Foundation's Holly Zanville reports on IFTF Future of Assessment convening.

Kill Decision

South Korea has robot snipers at the North Korean border that can recognize and kill a person from a mile away. They can shoot them dead in their...

Billions and Billions Transacted

In 1994 a journalist named Josh Quittner registered the domain name mcdonalds.com. On assignment for Wired, Quittner called McDonald’s corporate...

Wetware-Hardware Hybrids

All life as we know it is made of cells that are squishy and full of salt water. That’s why animals’ control systems (networks of neurons and glial...

Homegrown Governance

Around the world, governments are the least trusted institution in half of the 28 countries surveyed for the Edelman Trust Barometer. In the United...

Signaling Work and Learning Readiness in 2030: The Future of Assessment

Re-envision the ways that learners in the future will signal their skills and competencies for...

Future-proof your strategies: Partner with IFTF

For most organizations, global turbulence today means big challenges for tomorrow. The smartest move? Team up with the world’s top foresight experts....

Simulacra and Simulations

Imagine taking a video stream of someone—Vladimir Putin, for example, or Lady Gaga, or your spouse—and changing what they say onscreen to whatever you...

NEW Public Release: Blockchain Map + Perspectives 2017-2027

These foresight materials were created to quickly get you up to speed on this powerful new technology, to help you understand how blockchains are...