When someone asks me what I do, and I tell them that I’m a futurist, the first thing they ask “what is a futurist?” The short answer that I give is “I use current scientific research in emerging technologies to…
The red flags and marching songs of Syriza during the Greek crisis, plus the expectation that the banks would be nationalised, revived briefly a 20th-century dream: the forced destruction of the market from above. For much of the 20th century…
What is it about the faces on these pages that we find so intriguing? Is it simply that their features disrupt our expectations, that we’re not used to seeing those eyes with that hair, that nose above those lips? Our…
In a multitude of books, TV shows, and films dedicated to post-apocalyptic fiction, humanity loves to fantasize about its ultimate demise. But back in the real world, the actual apocalypse may be a little bit closer than we all would…
In 1880 a Bavarian priest created a language that he hoped the whole world could use. He mixed words from French, German and English and gave his creation the name Volapük, which didn’t do it any favors. Worse, Volapük was…
We are living in an extremely exciting time in terms of science and technology. Things that have always been considered science fiction are becoming normal day-to-day components of our lives. And while we have been seeing invention after breakthrough over…
More than any other tribe in North America, the Hopi Indians have developed according to the dictates and demands of what may be called a legacy of prophecy. The predictions of the life to come do not merely pertain to…
Autism is characterized by many different symptoms: difficulty interacting with others, repetitive behaviors, and hypersensitivity to sound and other stimuli. MIT neuroscientists have put forth a new hypothesis that accounts for these behaviors and may provide a neurological foundation for…
It used to be that if you asked an astronomer if there was intelligent life elsewhere in the universe, you’d get some sort of hedged response involving the vastness of the universe and statistical probabilities that you’d expect from a…
In 1994, telecommunications giant AT&T ran a series of television ads in the US created by N. W. Ayer and directed by David Fincher (!) with the tagline “You Will.” The ads started with a voiceover by Mr. Tom “Magnum…
Ukrainian astronomers have discovered a large asteroid heading for Earth which could strike our planet on 26 August 2032, impacting with a force 50 times greater than the biggest ever nuclear bomb. Its existence has been verified by teams around…
How close are we to the end? How close are we to being among the last humans to ever live? Depending on who you are — your religion, politics, relative degree of pessimism or optimism — that question is bound…
It might be impossible to predict the future, but that isn’t stopping the National Intelligence Council in the United States from imagining what the future world might be like. In a new report, “Global Trends 2030: Alternative Worlds,” the NIC…
Forty years from now, how much will energy cost? What will happen with the climate? Most importantly, will you be richer? Let me answer some of your likely questions about the next 40 years as I expect them to unfold.…
The first truly Earth-like alien planet is likely to be spotted next year, an epic discovery that would cause humanity to reassess its place in the universe. While astronomers have found a number of exoplanets over the last few years…
The world has made huge progress fighting killer infectious diseases, but as a result we now lead longer and sicker lives, with health problems that cause us years of pain, disability and mental distress. This "devastating irony", as researchers describe…
Are you curious what the future will look like? According to movie directors, casting their lens towards the future of humanity, it’s quite a mixed bag. Check out this infographic timeline to check out the next 300,000 years of human…
Pre-cognition might really exist, at least in some limited fashion, according to a new study of studies. Humans can anticipate near-future events even without any evidence presaging the event--and apparently without realizing it. One researcher even hints that quantum behavior…
Think it takes thousands or even millions of years for animals to evolve significantly new traits? Think again. New research lends just a touch of credibility to the idea behind the popular sci-fi TV series Heroes, which portrays certain humans…
File this one under "Sometimes futurists actually get stuff right." OpenCulture.com has unearthed a remarkably prescient short film from 1967 that shows a family using an Internet-like technology on their home and work computers to buy goods and bank remotely…