Futuring with The Futurist Society

Founded in 1966, the Futurist Society is a nonprofit educational and scientific organization with members in over 80 countries. This Society of futuristic thinkers investigate how social, economic, and technological developments are shaping the future.

Forecast #3 Nanotechnology

Nanotechnology or Nanotech for short has emerged as a new and exciting medical research field. I can remember a movie in the 60’s with a nanotech theme called the Fantastic Voyage. Anyone else remember this show? I never thought this type of medical treatment would be possible in my lifetime. With Nanotechnology, the possibilities are endless. Repairing eyesight as mentioned by the Futurist Magazine in forecast #3, or repairing neurons in the brain to essential wipeout Alzheimer’s disease . Nanotechnology offers unique opportunities for diagnosing, treating, and preventing all types of diseases. Nanotechnology could in fact lead to cell repair machines directed by computers to repair damaged cells or eradicate tumors or viruses. These medical advancements all lead to a better quality of life for all of us in less evasive procedures.

http://www.wfs.org/Forecasts_From_The_Futurist_Magazine

Transition to a Sustainable World

Organic farming in Technology

After reading William Halal’s book “Technology’s Promise,” I marveled at the hundred or so experts that worked together around the globe in forecasting technology using the TechCast Method. The TechCast Project itself forecasts futuristic predictions in all fields of social or economic impact. This forcasting is based in scientific method by gathering the best background data available and orgainzing into a careful analysis of each technology.
One Chapter I found of interest was the chapter on the Transition to a Sustainable World. As I read, I found myself thinking of self sustaining technologies and what I would do if there ever came a time when I could no longer just walk down to the grocery store and buy whatever food I wanted. Could that ever happen? This chapter also brought to mind a reminder of the world’s population growth and the issues we face in the future(30+ years). I particularly found the section on organic farming interesting as anyone can be an organic farmer. With the growing population, we are expected to see some depletion of reliable food sources when the earths population reaches 10 billion. When that happens, we all need to know a little about organic farming.
We already know the use of chemicals in farming isn’t good for the soil or for human consumption. The Organic farming area is expected to be the highest growth sector in the food business. Studies find that organic farming uses less resources , maintains higher crop yields, improves the soil, produces higher profits reduces drought and erosion, and protects the environment. Organic farming is a win/win situation and TechCast studies estimate 30% of farmland will be using organic methods by the year 2022 (Halal, 2008)

References
Halal, W. (2008). Technology’s Promise: Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire, UK, and New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

The New Agora

The Agora was considered as the birthplace of democracy where citizens came together to discuss in a group decision making structure. In today's world, it's difficult to reach consensus in a democratic society. If the future of a worldwide democratic government should ever come to be; How should we govern on a worldwide basis? The answer could very well lie in Internet Technology. Internet Technology has dramatically changed the way in which we live, communicate, educate, and function as groups. The idea of the global village using internet technology to construct the new agora is quite interesting as a futuristic prediction of how the world may govern many years from now. In reviewing the New Agoara article, my attentions were immediately drawn towards the similarities both the NGT and Delphi methods of group decision-making where all group members contributed to the discussion. A quick look at the processes with the SDP model such as the Steps in the Definition Stage of Inquiry (SITDSOI), and I am reminded of the Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC) where once a problem has been identified, a systematic method is defined and leads to an outcome. An analysis of a feature within the SDP process steps in the definition stage of inquiry. The SDLC, like the steps in the SITDSOI, the first issue is the need to facilitate a meaningful dialogue (problem identified). The SDP supports planning and Innovation through a procedural step based process, which leads to a problem solving solution. Like innovative ideas, a problem needs to be present to trigger the question to improve the process.

References: Schreibman, V., Christakis, A. (n.d.). New Agora. Retrieved from http://www.harnessingcollectivewisdom.com/pdf/newagora.pdf

Innovative ideas

Ever wonder how to innovate in a group environment? There are a few techniques i'll discuss here which may assist in business and educational environment decision making. The Delphi and Nominal Group Technique(NGT) are the most common types of group decision methods. Both are considered consensus methods and offer a structured and transparent method for reaching decisions. The Delphi method's objective is to gather a consensus of opinions, and attitudes about a selected topic from a panel of experts. The Delphi Method helps keep groups on task by structuring the information flow. I prefer the NGT method as a group decision-making model. First of all, NGT works well with groups of all sizes. That is important to me as I often work in many different size groups. One of the most attractive attributes of the NGT method is everyone in the group has a voice and will have their opinions heard. This differs from the traditional group voting method where only the majority decision taken. My preference is the the Nominal Group Technique to use in a collaborative environment to explore my innovative ideas. The different live experiences and skills available in a group atmosphere where all have a voice seems to be an environment in which I prefer to create and innovate. References http://www.enotes.com/group-decision-making-reference/group-decision-making

Do schools really kill creativity?

     While browsing some of the most popular TED talks I found the talk titled, "Schools Kill Creativity." I found this title to be quite interesting as I too believe we should take a hard look at our school systems and future intelligence needs of man kind. What are we actually preparing students for in the future? We have many degreed people without jobs. Were pushing even more out of our academic institutions on a yearly basis with promises of a degree will get you a job somewhere. It's not the same old job system anymore.
     Two points I found interesting are the academic inflation of degree needs for jobs in the future and the degrees of intelligence usage of we prepare students for. I found the idea we are all born as creative artists however, we stifle our creativity and teach ourselves out of being artists. We need to rethink the educational systems we are relying on to build the future.

Here's the link:

http://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html

Tablets of the Future in Higher Education

      Tablet computing hardware is one form factor which is still in its infancy. Flexible touch screens are in under development which will allow tablets to take on different textures and shapes. One day we may be wearing our computing devices much like accessories to our clothing; imagine a hat or scarf made of flexible computing display material. O.k., that’s may be a bit much but I believe we will see form factors we never expected in the near future. 

     Key trends in higher education textbook offerings include digital textbooks and freely available apps written specifically to take advantage of tablet computing devices. The textbook publishers finally get it! Many are now offering online textbooks and far superior to the .PDF versions of the past.  Textbooks with supplements and interactivity through web linking is adding value for students who own these devices.