It's that time of year again when we sum up the progress of the old year and speculate the future events of the next. As a futurist who spend my time gazing at the youngest generation I can't let this opportunity pass me by. So...
I keep turning back to a scenario project I did with a group of 1st graders in 2011. This was a regular class at a public school in Austin where the goal was to inspire the children to think creatively about their own future and...
Future graduation attire?[/caption]
Appealing to the hearts and minds of the Homelander kids (post-millennials) happens by addressing their taste for technology and modern communication devices. Growing up with touchscreens as the main window to the world, these kids are seriously steeped in a lifestyle and educational agenda that revolves around digital - where technologies are used as learning devices (educational platforms), often through gamified experiences, as well as study objects (coding, programming). For-profit university Ashford University does a good job at mining this sentiment in a commercial featuring children caressing their devices like they did their teddy bears a few years earlier. The message is clear: To be relevant and effective with the class of 2025 education needs to live in the tablets and smart phones, or soon bionic lens projections. The commercial revolves around catchwords like "smart" and "bright", words recent surveys show cling well in the ears of kid today. So much in fact, that smart as an aspirational goal is overpowering any other superhero power that previous generations of kids used to idolize.
“We may never have our flying cars, but the future is here.”
No we don't have flying cars, but perhaps Volkswagon have engaged enough interest to literally get something off the ground in a not so distant future?
Anyway, let’s have a look at the 27 other breakthroughs Buzzfeed mentions. Are these inventions scientific one hit wonders receiving accolades only in the nerdiest of the techie circles, or do they actually have the potential to change the lives of Generation Z’ers and beyond in ways we never dreamed could happen?
Yesterday I had the opportunity to attend a speech by legendary, mother-of-all feminists Gloria Steinem at the AT&T Executive Education and Conference Center here in Austin. As a mother of three daughters I am anxious to learn if feminism is an ongoing movement that will continue to grow roots into the younger generations or if it is subjected to cyclical patterns where in which the expected roles of women ebb and flow with cultural and political currents. Strauss and Howe's in The Fourth Turning suggest that some cyclicality is at work and note fluctuations between eras dominated by traditional gender roles and other eras when women take on more androgynous fashions and social roles. Cyclical theories will typically emphasize these undulations in social trends, but there is clearly a progressive "upward" movement at least in modern age. During her speech Steinem counteracted the myth of declining feminism, but she also touched on the backlash and the "feminazi"-accusations from extreme anti-feminists like Rush Limbaugh.
I enjoyed the speech, but I must say I was hoping to hear more about her thoughts about the future.
For a child born today, what will the world look like in 2100? This is the topic of a special section of The Futurist, September- October issue. Via scenarios and forecasts from some of the leading expert within foresight, we get a glimpse into what it will mean to be 88 at the dawn of the next century. This is the future of the Homeland generation. Millennials will be 96 to 120 if they are alive and some of them will. Some scenarios make me infer that some Generation X members are still with us as "post-centenarians". Others take the the transhumanist/singulitarian view that we have passed the point where we will be able to live forever.
The trends and emerging issues covered range from energy, climate changes, economic systems, space travel, scientific breakthroughs - particularly in biology and computing – and of course, aging.
Extreme longevity seems to show up in many of the narratives, reflecting long anticipated breakthroughs in medicine, computing and biotechnology. Resource depletion combined with resource scarcity, governmental issues and dwelling patterns are other issues.
The “mood” of these forecasts, or the level of pessimism vs. optimism, seems to be in line with most futurist projections: If and when we can manage to reform ourselves before we totally ruin the planet, it’s going to worse only until it gets better. Similar to cycle theories like the Kondratiev long waves or Strauss and Howe’s generational predictions, we will most likely go through a period of crisis - a period we have already entered - before we enter a new “high period”.
Dr. William Halal and Laura B Huhn from TechCast believe a new high tech era will occur around 2020. This view is similar to that of Olli Hietanen and Marko Ahvenainen, Finland Futures Research Centre, who forecast a Sixth Kondratieff wave (2010 – 2050) based on new innovation and technologies within biotechnology. The Sixth wave differs from the Fifth because of the increasingly rising prices on raw materials and energy. The new paradigm in innovation and production is likely to be within molecular, or synthetic, biology, which will allow us to grow and change structures from raw biological materials. Just think about all the experiments happening with stem cells and organ scaffolding in the labs today! Not to mention biological 3-D printing. Tissue engineering will enable us to grow new organs and artificial meats, even biodegradable polymers to be used in manufacturing. These prospects might be frightening to some, conjuring up 19th and 20th century sci-fi dystopias like Frankenstein and Brave New World. But for most futurists, the unsustainable alternative of status quo is often much scarier!
In the future will we go to the doctor as much as we do now? Will pregnant women of the New Silents still have to schedule visits with ultrasound technicians to see their growing fetus? Maybe not. The latest fad in smart phone apps seems to be within...
The file sharing police is doomed to lose against a generation of smug pirates. This is what Swedish research group Cybernorms concludes with after measuring social norms in the file sharing community. The researchers found that 75 percent of 15 - 25 year olds feel...
