Institute For The Future

Back in the heady days of the mid 1990s, when we were first starting to understand the linkages between the online world of the Web and the offline...

As a part of the Future of Making research task—which will culminate in a conference in San Mateo, CA May 4—5, 2008—David Pescovitz and Marina Gorbis...

Marina Gorbis guest blogs for BoingBoing.net: Kids on Bluegrass

In today's BoingBoing guest blog, Marina discusses bluegrass festivals, and the young and old musicians who gather, teach, learn, and play at them....

Trust Me. We Need a Gullibility Index

In a recently posted article at the Social Science Research Network, University of Minnesota Mathematics Professor Andrew Odlyzko adds to the growing...

How Simplicity Can Improve Well-Being

My life has been shaped by stories of people who have transformed their lifestyles to embrace simplicity. They dare to do radically less and have...

Ladies, get the mobile health app designed just for you! It's pink!

[img_assist|nid=3575|title=|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=200|height=288]...

To your health (data)—may it someday be integrated!

[img_assist|nid=3571|title=|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=312|height=274]

5 Links For A Longer, Healthier Life

Daily supplements? Check. Walking 3 miles a day? Check. Aversion to physical risk? Definitely. Signing up for cryonics? In process.Yes, I think it's...

What if you could make the invisible visible?

[img_assist|nid=3557|title=|desc=|link=url|url=http://www.iftf.org/HC2020Map|align=center|width=337|height=224]...

Give Me a McStatin with Cheese

In what really is not a joke (though is likely a provocation), a group of British physicians published an article in the American Journal of...

69 Design Ideas For Our Future Health

.Design ideas are pouring in. People from over 15 countries around the world have entered BodyShock. Themes range from novel visualizations and...

I'm sorry, Dave. I'm afraid I can't let you send that email

Suppose you manage a sales team. Of course you don't want them coming across as angry or anxious or pushy. Now suppose, instead, that you could screen...

Science—coming soon to a garage near you

Here in Silicon Valley, the lore—and allure—of the garage model for innovation is strong.  I've heard it said, "It has been successful for IT and...

How to Program Your Immune System

He's at it again. Kary Mullis, the winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the invention of the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR), is on a quest. He...

FutureCast: Cesar Harada on Open_Sailing (Aug 12, 11am PT)

Developing the International Ocean Station August 12 at 11:00 am Pacific TimeJoin Jerry Michalski in conversation with Cesar Harada to discuss...

Contagion health continues to spread

Over the last couple of years, we've been interested in the idea that health spreads—for better or worse—through our social networks, and the...

IFTF on GOOD

This past month Jake Dunagan and I started a series of posts over on GOOD magazine's website. The posts focus on both explaining what Futures thinking...

How To Grow A New Joint Inside Your Body

Say you have arthritis, as 80 million Americans do. Your hip has degenerated to the point that you have trouble walking, or standing for too long, or...

Crowd-Tracking Noise and Air Pollution

A new noise/ozone sensor watch being tested in Europe.

The Geneticist Will Skype you Now

One of the more startling statistics I learned last year came from something by geneticist and science writer Misha Angrist: At least as of a couple...

What If Your Genetics Defined Your Community?

[img_assist|nid=3537|title=|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=425|height=246]...

Filtering Out Temptations

When was the last time you looked into the refrigerator or at a store shelf with every intention of grabbing a healthy snack--only to wind up with...

On Governance

Mathias Crawford and I have begun a series on "Futures Thinking" over at GOOD. My first post went up this week--on the need for re-designing our...

Can I Have a Featherless Chicken and a Side of Healthy Bacon?

The New Scientist has a great round-up of the various efforts geneticists are undertaking to modify farm animals. The story doesn't break any new...