Institute For The Future

Future of Persuasion: Core research questions

Here are the core research questions we'll be asking over the next five months.  1. What are the new directions of change in persuasive tech?  In...

Future of Persuasion: Future As Persuasion

We're excited to begin collecting our thoughts--and yours, if you want to contribute--to the Future of Persuasion:Future as Persuasion project blog....

Applying Superstruct Design for an Augmented Reality Developers Camp

Recently a few colleagues and I organized an Augmented Reality Developers Camp - a perfect example of a "Superstruct" an idea introduced In 2008 by...

A Different Kind of Health Preview

At the Institute, we've spent a fair amount of time thinking about how visualization tools can help encourage people to improve their health by...

Leaders Make the Future Audiobook

Bob Johansen's book Leaders Make the Future is now available as an audiobook through audible.com. You can purchase the audiobook...

Biological Explanations of Everything

Miller McCune highlights a recent study suggesting that there may be some genetic basis for the intensity of a person's political...

Accepting Virtual House Calls

I usually try to avoid blogging about stories from the mainstream press, but this headline—"The Virtual Visit May Expand Access to Doctors"—in the New...

Gearing up for the Smart Brains Summit: An Interview with Michael Merzenich

Dr. Michael Merzenich, a pioneer in brain plasticity and co-founder of Posit Science, was a keynote speaker at our HC2020 Fall Conference.  He...

Designing for Self-Control

Via the Nudge Blog, I was reminded of a computer program called Self Control that allows a user to block his own access to email, Twitter and Facebook...

Designing the future of health care . . . or is it really about designing the future of health?

At IFTF, the Health Horizons Program is spending time looking at the latter and considering how design thinking may apply to the future of health. ...

Continuous glucose monitoring in the blink of an eye

Imagine a contact lens that could continually and non-invasively monitor your biomarkers and health indicators?  That is the potential of an...

FutureCast: Re-imagining the suburbs

IFTF will be hosting our second FutureCast on Thursday, December 17, at 11:00 am Pacific Time. Jerry Michalski will be in conversation with guests...

What's up Doc? Did you remember to wash your hands?

A couple of years ago, Atul Gawande described in the New Yorker a study designed by Dr. Peter Pronovost of Johns Hopkins in which he implimented a...

How did you sleep last night?

As my colleagues know, that I am blogging at this hour of the morning is an indication that I have had a bad night's sleep.  I am not alone....

IFTF Researcher Testifies at Senate Hearing on Research Parks and Job Creation

Yesterday, I traveled to Washington to testify at a hearing of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee on "Research Parks and Job...

The Future of Finding Nothing

Systems Biology has begun to gain attention as one of several new life sciences aimed at fundamentally reshaping the ways we understand how humans...

Neurocentric Retail

One of the questions I've begun to wonder about as we continue looking into the role of neuroscience in the future of health is where we'll start to...

Do We Have Mathematical Instincts?

At our Health Horizons conference earlier this week, we spent some time discussing the challenges of communicating future risks to every day people...

IFTF Comments on Senate Bill for Science Park Grants and Loans

Respectfully submitted by Anthony Townsend Research Director Institute for the Future

REMINDER: Join us for our first FutureCast

Guest expert: Arthur Brock on the future of alternative currency and open money...

FutureCast: Arthur Brock on Alternative Currencies

IFTF is happy to announce that we will be introducing a new FutureCast podcast series, starting Friday, November 20, at 11 am Pacific Time. Our first...

Betting on Risky Genes

A provocative feature in this month's Atlantic on a new way to think about genetic variations: Not as switches that confer or protect against disease...

IFTF announces new FutureCast series...starting November 20

IFTF is happy to announce that we will be introducing a new FutureCast podcast series, starting Friday, November 20, at 11 am Pacific Time. Our first...

Scratch and Computational Thinking

I've been thinking a lot about the growth in programming and computational skills that will be required in a world in which Everything is...