Posted: August 3rd, 2010 | Author: Steve | Filed under: Cars, Technology | Tags: brt, busbrt, Cars, china, future, interstate, Technology | View Comments
A bus straddling the road, with cars driving underit sounds crazy, at first, but actually looks like a pretty reasonable idea.
As a matter of fact, it’s very easy to see how you could use several of these, in tandem to quickly implement a high-capacity rapid-bus system nationwide, on our existing interstate highway system.
This actually makes sense, because most of the Interstate system is build to the same specifications, as to road and lane width, overpass height, etc.
Posted: February 25th, 2009 | Author: Steve | Filed under: Sustainability | Tags: Business, forecasting, future, IFTF, linkedin, marketing, Sustainability | View Comments
The Institute for the Future has published its Map of Future Forces Affecting Sustainability. This is a really interesting document outlining their research and forecasts on what the future will be for sustainability in six areas: People, Regions, Built Environments, Nature, Markets, Business and Energy. These six areas are matched against the following five forces affecting sustainability:
- An Imperative for Looking Long: “The 21st century will test our ability to grasp the future impacts of present choices, but even as we struggle to incorporate future knowledge into our day-to-day decisions, we’re tuning up our bodies and minds and even our cultural frameworks for a much longer view.”
Posted: September 8th, 2008 | Author: Steve | Filed under: Sustainability | Tags: forecasting, future, Games, linkedin, scenario planning, Sustainability | View Comments
This Discover Magazine article introduces SuperStruct, the the alternative-reality forecasting game sponsored by The Institute for The Future (a Bay Area-based think tank that uses scenario planning for forecasting).
SuperStruct is basically a scenario planning exercise, which will be conducted by thousands of participants over a 6-week period. The “game” seeks to explore what type of soutions we can develop to several major “SuperThreats”, or global crises “predicted” to occur in 2019. The name SuperStruct refers to the human ability to build social structures, one top of another.
Posted: June 18th, 2008 | Author: Steve | Filed under: Technology | Tags: CognitiveOverload, future, Information, Information Overload, internet, rss, Technology, web | View Comments
This research paper from the Institute for the Future discusses information overload and the future of various technologies to overcome it. It is a really interesting read.
Sensory Transformation: New Tools & Practices for Overcoming Cognitive Overload [SR-1057] | The Institute For The Future
My favorite part is where they discuss the social web, especially social bookmarking services like del.icio.us. I love del.icio.us, and I use it quite a bit. The problem, for me, is that I haven’t yet figured out a way to discover those perfect gems of the internet which are ripe for blogging. What I need to find are relevant stories, research, ideas, products which are just coming onto the scene, and before the mainstream blogs pick up on them.
Posted: June 4th, 2008 | Author: Steve | Filed under: Technology | Tags: Computing, DIY, future, Information, Makers, Making, Rapid Prototyping, Science | View Comments
There has recently been a confluence of extremely interesting news floating about in the past week, leading to some really mind-blowing conclusions:
• Scientist and inventor Ray Kurzweil has been everywhere in the past few weeks, speaking about how the exponential compounding of information will lead to an explosion of new technologies, covering all spectrums from medicine to computing, and it’s going to happen much sooner than most people think. What he is saying is very profound when you combine it with the next two bits…
Posted: March 31st, 2008 | Author: Steve | Filed under: Technology | Tags: 3D printing, consumption, dematerialization, future, Rapid Prototyping, stereolithography | View Comments
This week, during our class discussion of prototypes, the text barely touched on the subject of “rapid prototyping”, another name for 3D printing. I am fascinated by the implications that this technology has for manufacturing and for sustainability. As a matter of fact, the confluence of several different ideas and technologies are making it possible to reverse the trend of mass-production and mass consumption and turn it on its head, where soon we will be able to make what we need, only when we need it, and exactly to our specifications. Forget mass customization: think Star Trek.
Posted: February 14th, 2007 | Author: Steve | Filed under: Business, Sustainability | Tags: Business, consumption, corporations, future, global warming, Green, Management, renewable energy, Sustainability | View Comments
In the book ” Collapse“, Jared Diamond outlines 12 major problems which threaten human civilization: destruction of natural habitats, depletion of wild foods (fish, etc), loss of genetic diversity, soil erosion, fossil fuel depletion, shortage of fresh water, the photosynthetic ceiling (100% use of the sun’s energy for human purposes), pollution from toxic chemicals, species transfer, global warming due to human activity, population growth and the rising per-capita impact of population. He goes on to state that “our world society is on a non-sustainable course, and any of our 12 problems of non-sustainability…would suffice to limit our lifestyle within the next several decades. They are like time bombs with fuses of less than 50 years.” No one problem stands out as greater than all of the rest. “If we solved 11 of the problems, but not the 12th, we would still be in trouble, whichever was the problem that remained unsolved. We have to solve them all.”
