Reporting from Tomorrow, pt 3

I commented yesterday on some overarching themes that seemed to run throughout the World Future Society Conference. Supporting those themes were some good examples and cited sources, so to wrap up conference reporting, today's post will be a sampling of what I heard.

adafruit

Product sales + open source invention...buy a cool electronics kit (this photo is for the MintyBoost, an iPod battery charger made from an Altoids gum tin) or look at the photos and instructions and try it yourself. The site gives credit to other inventions who were inspiration as well as posts others' iterations of the original idea.

iRobot Create
iRobot bills itself as being in the "practical robot" business (every knows about the Roomba auto vacuum cleaner) iRobot also sells what's basically an idea starter. Its an iRobot that anyone from kids to roboticists can plug into the computer and being to program. Its open access design lets users add on other electronics or modifications without blowing the whole thing up. The company also paired up with Instructables and Tom's Hardware for the iRobot Create Challenge--you can guess its premise. Not sure if this one is an entry, but here is the Adverbot, which uses the iRobot as a base for mobile advertising delivery. If you've got an idea, entries due August 31, 2007.


Maker Faire

"build, craft, hack, play, MAKE" Sponsored by MAKE magazine, this is a two-day festival that encourages people from all skill sets to display their DIY-ness. This sounds like an improved version of the craft fair--nothing's for sale, so you don't walk around saying, "300 bucks for THAT?! I could make that myself at home!"

Reporting from Tomorrow, pt 2

I realized that I'd neglected some important facts to give proper bearings about the World Future Conference. Like what it was for and who was there.

So first, Wikipedia summarizes futures thinking as "three Ps and a W": possible, probable or preferable futures, plus wild card events (unlikely to occur but would have a great impact).

And the World Future Society acts as a clearinghouse for all of these ideas. It's a massive international network (started in MN!) who describes its reason for being as such:

By studying the future, people can better anticipate what lies ahead. More importantly, they can actively decide how they will live in the future, by making choices today and realizing the consequences of their decisions.

The future doesn't just happen: People create it through their action -- or inaction -- today.

My experience attending speaker sessions yesterday lived up to this description: we heard lots of compelling information, statistics, and trends, but rarely did speakers try to guide their audience toward the One Right Answer. We were each left to make of it what we liked. As I worked through my day's schedule of speakers, a few macro themes emerged:

--We are in a time of massive power shift, economically, socially, sexually, even biologically.

--Futurists see great potential in using current systems (ex monetary, legal, information) in innovative ways to create substantial near-term solutions.

--One question that future thinkers seem to grapple with, probably on a day-to-day basis, is: are we coping instead of living? (Subsequently, what is causing it? And, how do we change it?)

The conference has so far proven itself both highly informative, and also refreshing. For once, trends aren't being discussed in terms of the goods and services associated with them. I'm not dogging on that trend vantage point (we do a lot of it here) but the WFS is certainly providing a different perspective on the world and its people.

More thoughts tomorrow.

World Future Conference: Reporting from Tomorrow

Sunday kicked off the World Future Conference, an annual gathering of future thinkers from around the world. I'll report in based on my experiences (only a tiny slice of the whole conference) over the next few days.

We were welcomed to the conference by a pair of keynote speakers, Helen Fisher (professor at Rutgers University and author) and Gregory Stock (president of Signum Biosciences and author) .

I am excitedly anticipating the meat of the conference after these keynotes. While Fisher focused on her area of expertise, love and attachment, and Stock on his, the cutting edge of biotechnology, one theme ran constant. I think Stock himself summed it up nicely: "we are here to change our vision of who we are as human beings." Both spoke about their areas of development as they related to us as people. What it means to prescribe Zoloft, which lowers sex drive, and thus reduces the body's ability to produce dopamine? Does that mean people love less? Or what will happen when there is a pill created that will control aging (Stock thinks that the first person to live to be 150 is alive today)? These are big questions that could affect any of us, or all of us. I didn't have an extensive knowledge of the World Future Society before deciding to attend the conference, so I'll admit that a little part of me was afraid of three days of hyperfuture geeks speak that I wouldn't be able to make actionable for our clients or Fallon, but after the kickoff, I'm no longer concerned.

Commercial Interruption:"You Will"

AT&T's classic visions of "the future" circa 1993. How much came true?