INSIDE:
- The Single Most Critical Skill for the 21st Century
- 7 Ways to Spot Tomorrow’s Trends Today
- How to Succeed
in
an Age of
Hyper-Change
- How Foresight
Built
a Fortune
Forecast #1:
Electric cars powered by fuel cells earn extra cash
for their owners—Your next car may help pay for itself by selling its excess electricity back to the power company.
Researchers in the Netherlands have developed electric cars using fuel
cells that convert biogas or hydrogen into electricity. Then, while the
car is parked, it generates extra electricity that you can sell to the
power company for extra cash.
Forecast #2:
Open-source robot blueprints cut the cost of robots
by 90%—Robot development may soon dramatically
accelerate thanks to new open-source hardware-sharing systems. Similar
to open-source software for computers, this new robot-development
platform allows participants to share their designs so that other
developers can adapt or improve on them. By sharing hardware and
software development, costs may plummet and innovation may skyrocket.
For example, a caregiving robot that used to cost more than $350,000 to
purchase may soon be available for under $25,000.
3-D Printing Revolutionizes
Manufacturing
Many
types of goods that are now produced in a factory may soon be created
via 3-D printing. These new three-dimensional printers create 3-D
objects by laying down successive layers of material.
New 3-D printers can use a wide range of materials—plastic,
glass, steel, even titanium. Industrial 3-D printers are being used to
make everything from lampshades and eyeglasses to custom-fitted
prosthetic limbs.
Eventually, everyone might have access to these 3-D printers,
just like we have access to inkjet printers today. You order the plans
from the company, but instead of waiting for FedEx to deliver it, you
just hit print and get it in minutes.
Get details in our new special report,
The Abundance Builders. It’s free, with your no-risk introductory membership
Forecast #3:
Smart phones help spur political reform in Africa—Web-accessible
mobile devices have proliferated in Africa, where text messaging and
social networking are giving low-income residents more opportunities to
watch their governments. Increased transparency and accountability, such
as improving public access to spending on expensive infrastructure
projects, could help reduce corruption and poverty.
Forecast #4:
The world’s oceans may face “mass extinction event.” By
2050, the scale of extinctions of ocean-dwelling plants and animals may
equal the five great global extinctions of the past 600 million years,
warns the International Programme on the State of the Ocean. Reasons: a
“deadly triad” of pollution, overfishing, and climate change impacting
the world’s ocean habitats.
Forecast #5:
The “cloud” will become more intelligent, not
just a place to store data—Cloud intelligence will evolve into
becoming an active resource in our daily lives, providing analysis and
contextual advice. Virtual agents could, for example, design your
family’s weekly menu based on everyone’s health profiles, fitness goals,
and taste preferences.
Dear Reader,
These are a few recent forecasts from members of the World Future Society and its magazine,
THE FUTURIST.
India may eclipse China in population and innovation
by 2028
With its population now growing at twice the rate of China,
India is projected to become the world’s most populous country by 2028.
India is also in the midst of a boom in technical innovation. The
number of patents filed in 2010 in India increased by 36.6% over the
prior year, greatly surpassing the worldwide average gain of 5.7%.
Thanks to this skyrocketing rate of entrepreneurial innovation, the
decades-long “brain drain” of university graduates leaving India has
begun to decline.
In this special report, you’ll discover many other trends and
forecasts that are likely to affect virtually all aspects of your life
in the years immediately ahead. You’ll see how you can forecast possible
future developments in your own life.
You’ll also get details on receiving a valuable guide to
important trends likely to impact your career, your business, or your
investments. It’s yours absolutely free with an introductory membership.
At the outset, let me say that futurists do not claim to
predict precisely what will happen in the future. If we could know the
future with certainty, it would mean that the future could not be
changed. Yet this is the main purpose of studying the future: to look at
what may happen if present trends continue, decide if this is
desirable, and, if it’s not, work to change it.
The main goal of studying the future is to make it better.
Trends, forecasts, and ideas about the future enable you to spot
opportunities and threats early, and position yourself, your business,
and your investments accordingly.
A “green” housing boom is under way
While overall home sales are increasing slightly, green
home sales are booming. U.S. consumers are increasingly demanding
energy efficiency and the use of sustainable materials both in new homes
and in remodeling projects.
“Green homes” will grow from 17% of the residential
construction market in 2011 to 38% by 2016, with a fivefold increase in
revenues, according to the National Association of Home Builders.
How You Can Succeed in
THE AGE OF HYPERCHANGE
Look how quickly our world is transforming around us.
Entire new industries and technologies unheard of 15 years ago are now
regular parts of our lives. Technology, globalization, and the recent
financial crisis have left many of us reeling. It’s increasingly
difficult to keep up with new developments—much less to understand their
implications.
And, if you think things are changing fast now, you haven’t seen anything yet.
The rate of change is accelerating. As inventor and
futurist Ray Kurzweil notes, “Because of the explosive nature of
exponential growth, the twenty-first century will be equivalent to
twenty thousand years of progress at today’s rate of progress; about one
thousand times greater than the twentieth century.”
Robots may become gentler caregivers in the next 10 years
Lifting
and transferring frail patients may be easier for robots than for human
caregivers, but robots’ strong arms typically lack sensitivity.
Japanese researchers are improving the functionality of the RIBA
II (Robot for Interactive Body Assistance), lining its arms and chest
with sensors so that the robot lifts and places patients more gently.
Get details on this and more than 60 other top forecasts for the
coming year and beyond in the World Future Society’s annual
OUTLOOK Report. It’s yours free with a no-risk introductory membership.
All of us are going to spend the rest of our lives in the future.
Therefore, if we want to be practical, we must focus our attention on
the trends and ideas that are shaping the future. What will these
changes mean for you, your family, your career, your community and your
investments?
Today, it’s as if we’re driving 200 miles an hour and only
looking out of the rear-view mirror. The Internet has given us access to
a vast wealth of information, but it hasn’t helped us make sense of it.
Politicians often can’t see past the next election. Many
business leaders seem focused only on the next quarter. The media spends
most of its time on trivia. Meanwhile, long-term problems and
opportunities are ignored.
My
name is Tim Mack. I’m president of the World Future Society, an
association of 25,000 forward-looking individuals and groups in 80
countries. Since 1966, when the World Future Society was founded, we’ve
worked diligently to share information on new developments,
possibilities, forecasts, trends, and scenarios. This information helps
individuals, governments, and businesses participate in creating a
better future for themselves and the world as a whole.
As a nonprofit organization, we’ve put all our effort into
sharing this information with everyone—not just governments or
corporations. The World Future Society is totally independent, offers no
official view of what the future will or should be like, embraces no
creed or ideology. Only in this way can we give you the unbiased
information you need about the most important subject there is: Your
Future.
A revolution in smart materials creates a new energy boom
We’re now in the early stages of a revolution in new synthetic
materials. These “smart materials” offer tremendous potential to save
energy, generate power, and create lightweight materials that are
stronger than steel.
For
example, carbon nanotubes are 100 times stronger than steel. They also
conduct electricity like copper and disperse heat like brass. Carbon
nanotubes could make a new kind of material that is lightweight,
incredibly strong, and even generates solar energy.
The material would have countless applications. For example, it
could enable a new generations of solar-powered blimps that would
generate their own electricity from solar cells on their outer shells.
Get details in our new special report,
Urgent Warnings, Breakthrough Solutions. It’s yours free with a no-risk, introductory membership.
“Whether we are on the threshold of a Golden Age or on the brink of a
global catastrophe that will extinguish our civilization is, I believe,
not only unknowable, but also undecided. The decision will emerge
through what we do in the years ahead, for each of us will create a
little piece of the common future of all mankind.
“We can do nothing to change the past, but we have enormous
power to shape the future. Once we grasp that essential insight, we
recognize our responsibility and capability for building our dreams of
tomorrow and avoiding our nightmares. Of course, we feel abysmally
ignorant of how to proceed, but as we join together, forming networks of
human concern about the future, we will find the strength and wisdom
needed to create a better future world.”
—Edward Cornish, Founder, World Future Society
This is some of the thinking that went into founding the World
Future Society more than 45 years ago. Its early founders and supporters
were people such as Nobel Prize winners Glenn T. Seaborg and Dennis
Gabor... comprehensive designer Buckminster Fuller... science writers
Arthur C. Clarke and Isaac Asimov... business and government leaders
such as HEW secretary John W. Gardner and members of the cabinets of
presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson. It was a unique
assembly of some of the world’s most forward-looking people. They shared
a common belief that a better tomorrow is built from wise decisions
today.
The World Future Society supports individuals and
organizations by acting as a neutral clearinghouse for forecasts,
trends, and ideas about the future. We serve as an early warning system
to help people spot problems and opportunities far enough in advance so
that they can prepare and make wise decisions.
“The Internet of Things” Creates a Revolution of
Wired Devices
We’ve witnessed a massive and ongoing revolution with
computers and smart phones connected to the Internet. The next phase is
the “Internet of Things.”
Trillions of devices— thermometers, cars, light switches,
appliances, homes, will also be connected to the Internet—each with its
own IP address. According to Internet pioneer, Vinton Cerf, this “holds
the promise for reinventing almost every industry... When the world
around us becomes plugged in and aware, it will drive efficiencies like
never before.”
Get details in our new special report,
The Abundance Builders. It’s free, with your no-risk introductory membership.
The Single Most Critical Skill
for the 21st Century
In this era of accelerating change, knowledge alone is no longer the key to a prosperous life. The critical skill is
foresight.
Knowledge quickly goes out of date, but foresight enables you to
navigate change, make good decisions, and take action now to create a
better future.
We often think people are successful because of luck, when
in fact it was their foresight that made them “lucky.” Foresight
prepared them so they were ready to act on their opportunities. If you
look at any successful person, organization, even a country, you will
find a high degree of foresight. That’s why foresight is...
The Secret Ingredient of Success
Foresight is critical to achievement in all areas of your
life, including your major life decisions. People who lack foresight are
likely to find themselves unemployed when jobs are unexpectedly lost to
new technologies, competition from overseas, or shifts in consumer
tastes. Foresight is the key to survival in a world of disruptive
innovation.
Foresight enables you to see opportunities, avoid threats,
and chart the fastest path to your goals. The key to success is seizing
opportunity when it arises. But you need to see the opportunity and be
prepared to take action. That’s why foresight gives you power and
agility to achieve any goal you want to achieve.
Shake-Up in the
“C Suite”
New corporate leaders with
new skills on the way
Corporate futures will be shaped by leaders adept in social networking, content management, data mining, and data meaning.
Look for such job titles as Earned Media Officer, Chief
Content Officer, Open-Source Manager, Chief Linguist, and Chief Data
Scientist.
Get details about other exciting new emerging careers in
70 Jobs for 2030. Yours free with an introductory membership.
7 Ways to Spot Tomorrow’s Trends Today
In the more than 45 years since the World Future Society
was founded, futurists have developed a range of techniques to study the
future. Here are a few techniques futurists use to spot new
opportunities and potential problems. These methods give individuals and
organizations an edge to help them succeed in a fast-changing world:
- Scan the Media to Identify Trends—Futurists often
conduct ongoing and systematic surveys of news media and research
institutes. These surveys help spot significant trends and technology
breakthroughs.
- Analyze and Extrapolate Trends—After the trends are
identified, the next step is to plot the trends to show their direction
and development into the future. Trend analysis and extrapolation can
show the nature, causes, speed, and potential impacts of trends.
- Develop Scenarios—Futurists often describe the future
development of a trend, a strategy, or a wild-card event in story form.
These scenarios can paint a vivid picture that can help you visualize
possible future developments and show how you can prepare effectively
for future risks and opportunities. Scenarios help you to blend what you
know about the future with imagination about the uncertain. Scenarios
help you move from dreaming to planning and then to accomplishment.
A handheld “breathalyzer” will diagnose diseases
in seconds
The Single Breath Disease Diagnostics Breathalyzer under
development at Stony Brook University would use sensor chips coated with
nanowires to detect chemical compounds that may indicate the presence
of diseases or infectious microbes.
In the future, a handheld device could let you detect a range of risks, from lung cancer to anthrax exposure.
For details, see the World Future Society’s annual
OUTLOOK Report. It’s yours free with an introductory membership.
- Ask Groups of Experts—Futurists also conduct “Delphi Polls”
which are carefully structured surveys of experts. Polling a wide range
of experts in a given field can yield accurate forecasts and suggestions
for action.
- Use Computer Modeling—Futurists often use computer
models to simulate the behavior of a complex system under a variety of
conditions. For example, a model of the U.S. economy might show the
effects of a 10 percent increase or decrease in taxes.
- Explore Possibilities with Simulations—Futurists
create simulations of real-world situations by means of humans playing
different roles. For example, in war games, generals test out tactics
they may later use on the battlefield, or corporate executives can
explore the possible results of competitive strategies.
- Create the Vision—Futurists help organizations and
individuals systematically develop visions of a desirable future.
Visioning creates the big picture of possibilities and prepares the way
for goal setting and planning.
Each issue of
THE FUTURIST brings you the results of the work of leading futurists from around the world.
You can also discover how to use these techniques yourself in
your career, your business, and your personal life. We’ve prepared a
special report that shows how to use these and other futurist
techniques. It’s called
The Art of Foresight: Preparing for a Changing World.
This report will show you how to use futurist techniques to prepare
realistically and creatively for success in your personal and
professional life. You can get a copy FREE with an introductory
membership in the World Future Society.
WFS Membership Entitles You
to These Exclusive Benefits
Find Exciting New High-Paying Careers
You or your children may soon hold jobs that don’t even exist
today. Tomorrow’s careers include job titles such as augmented reality
architect, bio-botic physician’s assistant, holodeck trainer, digital
identity planner, automated vehicle fleet manager, and many more.
Discover how you
can position yourself for the high-potential careers of the next decade,
70 Jobs for 2030. It’s yours free with an introductory membership.
Join the World Future Society today
and you’ll receive a wide range of exclusive benefits that will help
you understand trends, build foresight, and create a better future. As a
WFS member, you’ll receive:
THE FUTURIST: A Journal of Forecasts, Trends, and Ideas About the Future:
This bimonthly magazine focuses on innovation, creative thinking, and
emerging social, economic, environmental, and technological trends.
Spot Important Trends Years
Ahead of the Crowd
Each issue of
THE FUTURIST will brief you
on the most important trends that could affect your business, career,
family, investments, and the world in general. You’ll get the most
significant trends across the changing landscape, from technology, the
economy, public policy, education, resources, and the environment.
THE FUTURIST will help you:
“Lab-on-a-Chip” Technologies Revolutionize Health
New technologies are enabling smart phones to conduct
sophisticated lab tests for many different health conditions. These new
devices will enable you to know your health status for many different
tests day to day.
Plus, combining these lab tests with new computer diagnostics
programs using artificial intelligence will also give people in
developing countries accurate, low-cost, easy-to-use, point-of-care
diagnostics. People in the developed world can monitor their health in
real time. And it will help the 60% of the developing world who don’t
have access to hospitals and labs.
Get details in our new special report,
The Abundance Builders. It’s free, with your no-risk introductory membership.
- See the Latest Breakthrough Technologies—You’ll understand the impact of new technologies, innovations, discoveries, and new solutions on the horizon.
- Know the Economic and Business Outlook—You'll get vital updates on major economic, business, investment, and consumer trends.
- Get an Advance Look at Environment and Resource Issues—You’ll see the latest ideas and reports on natural resources, habitats, sustainable communities, and more.
- Identify Social Trends—You’ll spot important changes in values, lifestyles, religion, entertainment, sports, arts, language, sex, and family.
- Spot Demographic Shifts—You’ll get the latest changes in population, immigration, births, deaths, marriages, and other vital information.
- Understand Government and Regulatory Trends—You’ll get an overview of the impact of laws, regulations, taxes, politics, diplomacy, and war in the coming years.
Our
unique, multidisciplinary analysis of trends saves you time by
compressing a massive amount of information into engaging and
comprehensible reports. Each issue of
THE FUTURIST gives you a
careful selection of the most interesting and significant current
reports on trends, forecasts, and potentially important developments.
Drug-delivering nanorobots built from DNA could be approved for use in humans within
20 years
Medical nanorobots that identify and attack individual cancer
cells are being developed by researchers at Harvard University.
The nanorobots would be able to sense when they encounter a
cancer cell and then release its molecule-sized payload of
cancer-fighting antigen.
For details, see the World Future Society’s annual
OUTLOOK Report. It’s yours free with an introductory membership.
Recent World Trends and Forecasts reported in
THE FUTURIST Include:
- A Competition for Lunar Enterprise—How entrepreneurs are leading the race to develop the moon;
- Growing Pains Ahead for China and India—Demographic change will challenge the world’s two most populous countries;
- “Rateocracy” and Corporate Reputation—
How real-time ratings will raise stakeholders’ expectations of business;
- Nanobots to Fight Cancer—Built from DNA, robots may deliver medicine where no doctor has gone before;
You’ll get the complete versions of all the above articles in our new special report, Urgent Warnings, Breakthrough Solutions. It’s yours FREE when you join the World Future Society today.
THE FUTURIST
also features TOMORROW-IN-BRIEF, a quick update on unique and
remarkable breakthroughs you’re unlikely to find anywhere else. In each
issue, you’ll discover remarkable new developments such as:
- Electrified Highways Enable Electric Trucks: How Germany is developing an “eHighway” where electric trucks connect to overhead wires;
Longevity Revolution Creates Lifespan “Haves” and
“Have-Nots”
An explosion of medical technologies using gene therapies,
stem cells, and organ printing will soon greatly extend the average
lifespan.
Age 100 may soon become the new 60—for those who have
access. But the cost of these technologies may still be out of reach for
many poor people.
This will create vexing issues around the distribution of
health, wealth, and power. Today’s healthcare politics may seem tame by
comparison.
Get details on this and many other breakthroughs in
Urgent Warnings, Breakthrough Solutions. It’s yours free with a no-risk introductory membership.
- Surgeons Operate with Sound—How researchers are developing ultrasound as a non-invasive surgical tool;
- Robotic Aides for Children with Autism—How specially designed robots may offer a novel way to get autistic kids to interact and learn.
You’ll get more than 60 other forecasts like these in our
OUTLOOK special report. It’s yours FREE with an introductory membership.
THE FUTURIST also brings
you these features:
- FutureView—A thoughtful essay by a leading futurist;
- Visions—Exciting visual images of new designs; and...
- Book Reviews—The latest books on the future, especially selected for their impact or originality.
And, of course, feature articles you will find nowhere else. Each
issue features 4-7 feature articles written by leading thinkers,
scientists, researchers, economists, politicians, and experts from
virtually every field who know that the actions we take today create the
world of tomorrow. See the box at right for a small sampling of the
leading thinkers and doers who have appeared in
THE FUTURIST over the years.
A few of the Authors Who Have Appeared in THE FUTURIST
- Peter F. Drucker—business visionary
- B.F. Skinner—psychologist
- Ray Kurzweil—inventor
- Amitai Etzioni—sociologist
- Glenn Seaborg—Nobel Prize-winning chemist
- Gene Roddenberry—Star Trek creator
- John Challenger—employment expert
- Hazel Henderson—economist
- Anthony Fauci—NIH AIDS expert
- Nicholas Negroponte—MIT’s new media visionary
- Richard Lamm—former Colorado Governor
- Herman Kahn—defense analyst
- Fritjof Capra—physicist
- Alvin and Heidi Toffler—authors
- Julian Simon—economist
- Carl Sagan—astronomer
- Neil de Grasse Tyson—astronomer
- Frederik Pohl—science fiction writer
- E.F. Schumacher—economist
- John Naisbitt—author
- Harold Shane—educator
- Daniel Yankelovich—public opinion expert
- Gerard K. O’Neill—space exploration expert
- Vaclav Havel—statesman
- Sir John Templeton—famed investor
- David Walker—U.S. Comptroller General
- and far too many more to mention.
Recent feature articles in
THE FUTURIST include:
- Thriving in the Automated Economy—How workers’ race against automation can be won if we partner with our machines.
- Unlimiting Energy’s Growth—Exciting new smart materials, such as carbon nanotubes, may revolutionize power generation and energy efficiency.
- A Thousand Years Young—An anti-aging expert
identifies medical breakthroughs that could eventually eliminate the
wear and tear of our bodies and minds as we grow old.
- The Secret Life of Data in the Year 2020—A futurist from Intel Corp. shows how geotags, sensor outputs, and big data are changing the future;
- The New Age of Space Business—The end of the space shuttle era marks the beginning of a new generation of entrepreneurs and “adventure capitalists.”
You’ll receive all of the articles above in the special reports that you can receive free with an introductory membership.
WFS Membership Also Entitles You to These Benefits:
- Unique and Exciting Conferences—From presidential candidates
to prominent scientists, WFS conferences feature thought-leaders on the
cutting edge of change. These unique meetings have been described as “a
world's fair of ideas” and “the greatest intellectual show on earth.” No
other conference brings together so many original thinkers and doers
from so many fields. (See box at right for a few of the well-known
speakers.) You'll receive early invitations and members’ discounts for
these important events.
- Connect with Forward-Looking Experts and Organizations—Discover
ideas and innovations that will inspire and enhance your own work.
Knowing what others are doing—as they are doing it—enables you to make
breakthrough connections that otherwise would never be possible.
- Network with Other Forward-Looking People in Your Area—As
a member you can join local futurist groups throughout the United
States and in 117 cities and 39 countries worldwide. You'll be able make
important professional and personal contacts that can boost your work
and career. Many of our local groups sponsor seminars and lectures, take
field trips, publish newsletters, hold discussion groups and other
events. You’ll receive a complete listing of local and special-interest
futurist groups with your introductory membership.
How WFS Membership and THE FUTURIST Magazine Will
Help You
All of us will spend the rest of our lives in the
future. That’s why understanding coming developments and making wise
decisions is everyone’s business. WFS helps...
- Business Leaders—Gain an edge on the competition by
understanding trends in technologies, consumer lifestyles, customer
demographics, employee values, government regulations, and much more
- Investors—Get an advance look at emerging technologies and industries likely to capture market share in the years ahead.
- Educators—Look ahead to prepare students for the new careers and challenges they’ll face.
- Parents—Guide children into successful careers and help ensure they’ll succeed in the years ahead.
- Citizens—Help governments avoid management by crisis and make wise decisions for the future.
- Retirees—Find enjoyable new careers, better places to retire, and help ensure grandchildren inherit a better world.
- Students—Identify and prepare for rewarding new careers.
See how you’ll be able to make a difference in the world of tomorrow—a
world that you will help build youself!
- Government and Civic Leaders—Make wise long-term decisions and better understand the trends and big-picture issues facing your constituents.
- Stay Current on the Latest Futurist News —Your membership also entitles you to receive Futurist Update.
This e-mail newsletter keeps you in touch with late-breaking news.
You'll get up-to-the-minute breakthroughs, the latest research, news,
and links to futurist Web sites and other resources.
- Interact with Other Thought-Leaders Around the World—As
a member, you'll be able to participate in online forums exploring
vital topics on the future. You can post your ideas and get reactions
from others around the world. Current forums cover subjects such as
education, futurist methodologies, preventing terrorism, global
strategies, cyber society, future generations, and more.
- Save on the Best Future-Oriented Books, Tapes, DVDs, CDs and More—In
addition to reviews and summaries of the best future-related books,
you'll also be entitled to members-only discounts on hard-to-find books
and other resources on future-related topics.
A 45-Year Track Record of Successful Forecasts
In more than 45 years since its first issue,
THE FUTURIST has correctly forecast many of the major technological and social developments of our times. Some of these included:
- The energy crisis of the 1970s;
- The impact of communications technologies such as the Internet and cellular phones;
- The rise and fall of the Japanese economy
in the 1990s;
- Recycling;
- The impact of the Baby Boom generation on housing, schools, and retirement systems;
- Human organ transplants and the use of
artificial organs;
- The widespread use of automation, robotics,
and lasers;
- Commercial applications of genetic engineering;
- Telecommuting;
- The Dow Jones stock index at 10,000 by the end of the 20th Century;
- Increased terrorist attacks on U.S. soil and the World Trade Center as an attractive target.
Meet Leading Thinkers and Doers at WFS Conferences
Speakers at WFS conferences have included:
- Al Gore—Vice President
- Gerald Ford—President
- Walter Mondale—Vice President
- Sir Arthur C. Clarke—author
- Buckminster Fuller—visionary designer
- Gene Roddenberry—Star Trek creator
- Betty Friedan—author
- Fritjof Capra—physicist
- Isaac Asimov—writer
- Alvin Toffler—futurist
- Marilyn Ferguson—visionary
- Les Aspin—U.S. Senator
- Hazel Henderson—economist
- Lester Brown—environmentalist
- Hubert H. Humphrey—Vice President
- Marshall McLuhan—media guru
- B.F. Skinner—psychologist
- Timothy Leary—psychologist
- Doug Casey—investment author
- Ray Kurzweil—inventor
- John Naisbitt—author
- Glenn Seaborg—Nobel Prize-winning chemist
- Peter Senge—author, The Fifth Discipline
- Ellen Burstyn—actress
- Herman Kahn—defense analyst.
Plus many others prominent in their respective field or country.
As a WFS member, you’ll receive special invitations and can attend at special members-only rates.
- The role that subprime mortgage lending, which targeted
minorities and women, would soon play in the biggest economic
crisis of recent memory.
Shouldn’t you know the likely developments of the next 10-20
years of your future?
Of
course, the value of a forecast is not just in whether it comes true or
not. Forecasts can be useful for helping you think about the future.
Sometimes the most useful forecasts do not come true because people took
action to avoid a crisis. For example, forecasts about the Y2K computer
problem warned about the potential dangers of widespread
computer-related problems. But people took action to keep the forecast
from coming true.
Anticipating change is the first part. The second part is to actively
build
a better future for yourself, your family, your organization, and your
community by helping to realize a more-desirable possible future. You
see...
It’s Not Just What Your Future Will Be;
It’s What It Could Be!
All of us need exciting new visions of positive
possible futures to achieve. Just as John F. Kennedy’s call to put a
man on the moon inspired people to do something many thought impossible,
you can identify possible and preferable futures and work to achieve
them. WFS and
THE FUTURIST bring you realistic visionaries who have developed practical solutions for pressing world problems.
The Key to Building a Better Future
Many futurists believe that almost anything can
be done in 20 years. Consider that unleashing the power of the atom
took only four years and putting a man on the moon took only eight.
Just as a building can be built if people
believe it will be built, a desirable world might be created if people
can imagine what that world would be like and how it might be achieved.
Futurists believe that to develop such a consensus, ideas about the
future world should be systematically generated and studied. The study
of the future would thus become a major human activity.
What Type of World Will Your Grandchildren Inherit?
“Rateocracy” and augmented reality makes corporate reputation a key driver of profitability
Yelp.com and Angie’s List are just the beginning in a new wave of “rateocracy” where reputations rule.
Corporations will closely track the real-time rise and fall
of their reputational “credit ratings” as closely as they watch their
stock prices. Savvy corporations will know that their reputations are
key drivers of their growth, profitability, and employee retention.
For example, you might choose one restaurant over another
when your mobile augmented-reality app flashes warnings about
health-department citations or poor customer reviews. Customers,
suppliers, and employees will gain power as they exert more control over
corporate reputations.
Get details on this and many
other breakthroughs in
Urgent Warnings, Breakthrough Solutions. It’s yours free with a no-risk introductory membership.
We can do nothing to change the past, but we have
great power to shape the future. We can learn to avoid repeating past
mistakes and we can collaborate globally to create a better future
world. We’ve got to learn to be good ancestors and think of future
generations.
Now is the critical moment. The accelerating pace
of change is creating huge opportunities for individuals, organizations,
and countries that are prepared, and serious dangers for those who are
not.
The Key to Success
Successful people believe “I Create My Future.” Unsuccessful people believe, “The future happens to me.”
That’s why
successful
people look ahead. They know that every day they are making choices
that will affect the rest of their lives. They believe that they are
largely in control of their lives and they create their own
opportunities for success. Now, it’s time for you to decide...
You can be a passive victim of change OR you can discover the trends and use change to your advantage!
By looking ahead, you’ll make better decisions,
avoid threats, develop your entrepreneurial vision, and seize
opportunities that others never see.
That’s why leading companies such as Procter
& Gamble, Nokia, and the electronics group Philips use futures
thinking. The British government has set up a “horizon scanning center”
as part of its Foresight project. Notre Dame University now requires all
of its business students to complete a course in foresight.
How Shell Oil Foresaw the Energy Crisis
“Peak Water” may become a bigger problem than peak oil
As water tables around the world become depleted, and as
growing populations demand more water for personal as well as
agricultural use, supplies of sustainably managed water will continue to
fall.
The consequences could be dire for human health, as water-related diseases proliferate.
Get detail on this and more than 60 other top forecasts in the World Future Society’s annual
OUTLOOK Report. It’s yours free with an introductory membership.
Shell was one of the first companies to adopt
futures thinking, incorporating it into its planning in the 1970s.
Futurist Pierre Wack got Shell to see that oil production was not just
about economics and technology, but also about politics. Futurist
scenarios showed the possible outcomes and impact of interruptions in
oil supplies from the Mideast. Thus, Shell was ready for the severe oil
crisis of 1973, when OPEC countries cut off oil exports during the Yom
Kippur war.
Then in the early 1990s, scenarios written by Shell futurists foresaw the likelihood of a rapid and dramatic
decline
in the price of oil. This was the result of the discoveries of new
fields outside of the OPEC sphere of influence, in combination with
energy conservation. Positioning itself accordingly, Shell then rose
from fourteenth to second place among the oil multinationals during the
mid-1990s as prices fell and other heavily over-invested companies lost
billions.
How Foresight Prevented Civil War
Futurist techniques helped South Africa emerge
from its apartheid system without widespread violence or economic
upheavals. In 1991 (three years before the end of Apartheid) a diverse
group of 22 prominent South Africans met with a team of futurists. They
developed scenarios designed to “stimulate debate on how to shape the
next ten years” for South Africa.
The team presented the scenarios to
then-President De Klerk, and his Cabinet. They briefed Nelson Mandela in
his jail cell and leaders of the ANC and other associations. The
scenarios were published in a 14-page insert in
The Weekly Mail and
The Guardian Weekly,
major South African newspapers. Over the rest of the year, the team
presented the scenarios to more than 50 influential groups throughout
South Africa. As a result, the scenarios became widely discussed in
South Africa at all levels, from taxi drivers to talk radio shows.
Ultimately, South Africa was able to make a peaceful transition to
representative government and create a new future. It could have been
much different, and the widely disseminated scenarios are credited with
the peaceful outcome.
The fastest-growing religious group in the U.S. is the Amish. Their numbers will reach 1 million shortly after 2050.
While most other religions grow through conversions, Amish communities are growing on sheer family size.
A new Amish settlement is currently founded every three and a
half weeks, according to research by a sociologist at Ohio State
University.
The Widening Gap between
Technology and Wisdom
A great challenge of our time is that science
and technology are accelerating furiously, but our understanding and
wisdom are not. We need new perspectives to allow us to reflect on where
change is leading us. The issues become ever more complex. We need new
systems and institutions to help us understand the long-term
consequences of new developments. Our technology is evolving faster than
our capability to understand it and guide its development.
The World Future Society is a global network of
thoughtful people sharing a common interest in exploring the future and
working to make it better. You can be part of this tremendous
intellectual resource that can light the way for humanity as it moves
into a future filled with extraordinary potential, enormous risks, and
mysteries beyond our comprehension.
World Future Society membership and THE FUTURIST will help you:
Futuring Success Story
How Foresight
Built a Fortune
Alan Hald was a young Arizona banker when he attended his
first World Future Society conference in 1975. There he met the editor
of a new magazine for computer hobbyists. At the time, virtually no one
except governments and big businesses had computers. You couldn’t buy a
personal computer. The only way you could get one was to build your own
from a kit.
But Alan Hald caught a glimpse of the computer revolution at
the conference that day. He went home in great excitement and began
planning a business in the emerging personal computing industry. In the
following years, his business became MicroAge Corporation, which became a
multi-billion dollar enterprise and the largest computer distributor in
the United States. All from a burst of inspiration and foresight that
began at a WFS conference.
- Prepare for the Opportunities and Challenges of Tomorrow—You'll
be able to position your career, your business, your family, and your
investments to capitalize on trends and avoid threats.
- See the Big Picture—You'll understand the larger
forces shaping day-to-day events. You'll see how the sudden and random
events that make the headlines are part of larger patterns of change.
- Be First to Know of Breakthrough Technologies—
Chances are today's hot stock is based on technology THE FUTURIST covered
years earlier. You'll get advance notice of exciting new technologies
often years before they hit the news. Most importantly, you'll have a
context to evaluate the impact of new inventions.
- Save Time—With the Internet and 24/7 news it can seem
impossible to keep up with all the information you need to know. When
you know the trends, you can cut through the clutter and focus on the
news most relevant to your goals.
- Find New Solutions—You'll gain new vision, expand your
horizons, and be able to overcome mental roadblocks. You'll understand
the impact of changes outside your industry or area of expertise.
Futuring Success Story
The Wealth Secret
of the World’s
Richest Man
Mexico’s Carlos Slim is thought to be the world’s richest
man. His $60 billion net worth surpasses Bill Gates and Warren Buffett.
The 72-year-old tycoon controls more than 200 companies.
According to the
Wall Street Journal, Mr. Slim says
his success comes from spotting opportunity early. He learned this in
part from reading futurist writer Alvin Toffler, author of the
best-seller “Future Shock.” Toffler is a member of the World Future
Society’s Global Advisory Council and has appeared frequently in
THE FUTURIST and at WFS conferences.
- Make Better Decisions—You'll have a much better understanding of your opportunities, potential threats and the long-term impacts of your choices.
- Act with Confidence in an Uncertain World —You'll have unique tools, information and a network to help you succeed amidst complexity and rapid change.
World Future Society membership and
THE FUTURIST are
a total information system to help you succeed in a rapidly changing
world. You'll be able to position your career, your education, your
family, your investments, even where you choose to live—in ways that use
trends to your advantage.
Now here’s the most important part. Your
membership will give you the satisfaction of knowing that you make it
possible for leading thinkers and doers from all over the world to study
the future—helping to create a better tomorrow for all of us. The world
faces enormous challenges. We need to work collectively to develop the
wisdom and consensus to to build a world worth handing over to our
children. A better tomorrow truly depends on your support.
The next space age will launch after 2020, driven by competition and “adventure capitalists”
While the U.S. space shuttle program is put to rest,
entrepreneurs like Paul Allen, Elon Musk, Richard Branson, and Jeff
Bezos are planning commercial launches to access low-Earth orbit and to
ferry passengers to transcontinental destinations within hours.
Challenges
include perfecting new technologies, developing global operations,
building new infrastructure, and gaining regulatory approval.
Won’t You Join Us?
To sum up, your membership entitles you to:
- A one-year subscription to THE FUTURIST (six printed issues)
- A subscription to Futurist Update, the Society’s monthly e-mail newsletter
- The opportunity to join local chapters
- The ability to participate in online forums
- Special discounts on conferences and seminars
- Special discounts on books, CDs, DVDs and more
- The Annual Outlook Report of more than 70 top forecasts, a $5.00 value.
- The Art of Forecasting Report, a $5.00 value.
- Our New Special Report, Urgent Warnings, Breakthrough Solutions, a $9.95 value.
“Sparks for
Creative Minds”
THE FUTURIST is one of my main sources for retrieving
meaningful content and a springboard for further research. I discovered
it decades ago and instantly fell in love with it. It’s one of the few
publications that I read from beginning to end. The articles are well
written and inspiring. They are sparks for creative minds, taking the
reader into worlds waiting to be explored.
—Carmen-Maria Hetrea, director
of the Information Architecture
and Management team, Encyclopaedia Britannica.
- And the knowledge that you are helping to build a better tomorrow.
FREE with Your
One-Year Membership
Accept our invitation to join now and you’ll also receive these exclusive special reports:
Free Gift #1:
Urgent Warnings, Breakthrough Solutions—The
convergence of rapidly advancing technology, globalization, and
resource shortages creates enormous challenges for all of us in the
years ahead. But there are also exciting new solutions. This special
report explores some of the challenges and gives you details on
companies, organizations, and individuals developing at the forefront of
breakthrough solutions.
Articles in this all-new report include:
What Experts are Saying
“I have been an enthusiastic reader of
THE FUTURIST
for many years, and applaud you on an excellent publication. It is hard
to find people or publications that give serious consideration to what
the future will be like.”
—Ray Kurzweil, inventor, author, “The Age of Spiritual Machines”
“And what of the future of futurism? The World Future Society’s expanding membership suggests that it’s bright.”
—Michael Rogers, MSNBC’s Practical Futurist, former Futurist-in-Residence, The New York Times
- Thriving in the Automated Economy—How labor’s race against automation can be won if we partner with our machines;
- Unlimiting Energy’s Growth—Exciting
new smart materials, such as carbon nanotubes, may revolutionize power
generation and energy efficiency;
- A Thousand Years Young—An anti-aging
expert identifies medical breakthroughs that could eventually
eliminate the wear and tear of our bodies and minds as we grow old;
- The Secret Life of Data in the Year 2020—A futurist from Intel Corp. shows how geotags, sensor outputs, and big data are changing the future;
- The New Age of Space Business—The end
of the space shuttle era marks the beginning of a new generation of
entrepreneurs and “adventure capitalists”;
- A Competition for Lunar Enterprise—how entrepreneurs are leading the race to develop the moon;
- Growing Pains Ahead for China and India—Demographic change will challenge the world’s two most populous countries;
- “Rateocracy” and Corporate Reputation—How real-time ratings will raise stakeholders’ expectations of business;
- Nanobots to Fight Cancer—Built from DNA, robots may deliver medicine where no doctor has gone before.
Free Gift #2:
The Art of Foresight: Preparing for a Changing World
The best person to forecast your future is you.
Why? Because you can influence your future in ways no one else can. So
how can you put futurist techniques to work and improve your future?
This special report details some of the methods futurists use to
anticipate future developments. You’ll get details on trend analysis,
scanning, trend projection, scenario development, models, simulations
and gaming, visioning, and more.
This special report will help you:
- Spot opportunities...
- Chart potential courses of action...
- Identify future threats...
Develop vision for yourself and your organization...- Be ready to move quickly to seize new opportunities.
Plus Your FREE Quick-Reply Bonus:
The World Future Society's Annual OUTLOOK Report—65 Top Forecasts for the Coming Year and Beyond.
Save When You Join for Two Years—
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Join for two years and you’ll save a full 20% off your second year’s dues and get these valuable extra gifts:
Free Gift #3:
70 Jobs for 2030—Exciting new
high-paying careers are emerging for those prepared to seize the
opportunities. For anyone working now, or forstudents preparing for
their careers, this special report offers essential guidance for
understanding and preparing for the trends affecting work and careers
over the next 15 years. You’ll discover:
- 70 exciting new, high-paying emerging careers;
- How to adapt your current job to capitalize on trends for better pay and improved job security;
- The key skills for career success in the years ahead;
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- And much more.
A $9.95 value, it’s yours free with a two-year, no-risk introductory membership.
Free Gift #4:
2020 Visionaries—20 forward-thinking
innovators, experts, and creative minds share their hopes, fears, and
ideas for the years ahead. In their own words, you’ll get their new
approaches and solutions for the challenges we’re facing today and
exciting opportunities for tomorrow.
- Open-source geneticist Andrew Hessel;
- Nanomedicine pioneer Robert Freitas;
- Communications scholar Janna Anderson;
- Educator Mark Bauerlein;
- Sim City creator Cory Ondrejka;
- Media critic Andrew Keen;
- Humanist Roy Speckhardt;
- Religious leader Prem Suksawat
- NASA chief scientist Dennis Bushnell;
- Urban planners Pavlina Illieva and Kuo Pao Lian;
- Net guru Clay Shirky;
|
- Science fiction superstar author Cory Doctorow;
- Futurist Jamais Cascio;
- Geopolitical risk expert Ian Bremmer;
- Iranian dissident Azar Nafisi;
- Entrepreneur Jason P. Clark;
- MIT Media Lab designer Ryan Chin;
- Bestselling author Douglas Rushkoff;
- Stanford psychologist Philip Zimbardo;
- Anthropologist Helen Fisher.
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A $9.95 value, it’s yours free with a two-year, no-risk introductory membership.
Free Gift #5:
The Abundance Builders—Progress
occurs when inventive people solve problems and create opportunities.
Here are a few of the breakthroughs that offer the brightest prospects
for a future that leaves austerity and deprivation behind. Breakthroughs
in this report include:
- The Biotechnology Code Breakers—How new synthetic life forms could produce fuel and transform agriculture;
- The Internet of Things—The next
revolution of the Internet is when trillions of devices such as
appliances, sensors, and homes go online—each with their own IP
address;
- 3-D Printing and Digital Manufacturing—In
a few years, you may just order the plans for the things you want
to buy, then use your 3-D printer to make them yourself;
- “Lab-on-a-Chip” Revolutionizes Health: Newly enabled smart phones will allow anyone to have accurate lab tests and medical diagnoses.
Plus this EXTRA FREE GIFT When
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The World Future Society's Annual OUTLOOK Report.
Respond today
and download this bonus report immediately. This exclusive collection
presents the most thought-provoking forecasts from the past year
published in
THE FUTURIST, including the ones mentioned here such as:
- The Boom In Sustainable Housing
- Robots to Become Gentler Caregivers
- Handheld Breathalyzers Diagnose Disease in Seconds
- Drug-Delivering Nanorobots
- And Over 60 More!
The World Future Society's Annual OUTLOOK Report features 65 intriguing forecasts from leading futurists covering all these areas:
- Business
- Economics
- Education
- Energy
- Environment
|
- Government
- Health
- Lifestyles
- Resources
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- Technology
- Terrorism
- World affairs
- And more.
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World Future Society membership gives you all
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associations charge many times this amount.
Join Today at No Risk!
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asked. And you may keep everything we’ve sent you including your free
reports.
If you agree that the future consists of a
variety of alternatives, that choice is unavoidable, and that refusing
to choose is itself a choice, you have taken the first step toward a
more active role in your own future.
The World Future Society can make a major
contribution to creating a better future for all of us. Thanks to you,
we may be able to halt the present trends toward calamity, and move
human civilization toward the happy future that exists within our
imagination and capability. Please click below and get started today!
Sincerely,
Timothy Mack
President
P.S. Save when you join for two years and get THREE MORE FREE GIFTS. R.S.V.P. today!
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- The Art of Foresight: Preparing for a Changing World
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