Jump The Curve Archives: 10/2009

A Walk into the Future with Robotics

To get a glimpse of where the future of robotics may be headed, I encourage you to watch this one-minute video from Boston Dynamics:

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Robots: A Major Game Changer?Our Robotic Future
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Jump the Curve Strategy #11: Park n’ Save with Robots

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The Future of Social Networking & Genetic Testing

Last month, I explained why social networking was the future of health care. One reason I feel strongly about this trend is because of the accelerating pace of technological change. More specifically, I don’t think doctors and other health care professionals can possible stay abreast of the latest developments. Nowhere is this more true than in the field of the genomic sciences.

To this end, it was recently reported that genetic tests puzzle most doctors. One possible solution is for patients with rare genetic profiles to begin communicating with knowledgable individuals who suffer from the same genetic disorder. Social networking offers the best medium for finding these individuals; communicating with them; and, ultimately, compiling a database of information which will be useful to both future patients and healthcare professionals.

Related Post

Personalized Medicine’s Accelerating Future

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The Future of Aging is About to Get Easier

I speak frequently to aging services associations around the country and I always like to show them the latest videos of where various technologies might be headed. To this end, I invite you to watch this two-minute video on the future direction of robotic technology. Be forewarned, however, the idea of a robotic bed that turns into wheelchair sounds cool (and it is) but, as this article explaining how a man recently got arrested for drinking-and-driving in his motorized Lazy-Boy lounge chair demonstrates, the concept is not without some risk. 

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A Walk into the Future
Long-Term Care’s Robotic Future
The Future of Aging
iPhone + RFID Technology: A Practical Tool for the Elderly
Healthcare is the “Verge” of Something Big

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To Be Persuasive, Unlearn

Writing in the Philadelphia Inquirer, Mark Bowden has an excellent commentary entitled ”The lost art of influence.” At one point he writes, ”Being persuasive is hard, because it demands you consider that you might be wrong. To refute opposing points of view capably (and winningly) you must first really hear opposing points of view.”

Admitting that you might be wrong and really listening—the two traits (or skills) are also integral components of unlearning. Therefore, I’d argue, that if you want to enhance your skills of persuasion it would also behoove you to enhance your unlearning skills. 

Of course, I’m open to your ideas and I promise I’ll really listen if you disagree with me.

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How Can Businesses (and People) Unlearn?

Unlearning Cable TV

The World is Changing, Unlearn

Take a Course in Unlearning

Learning to Unlearn

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The Future Can Be Viewed With Augmented Reality

I have always been impressed with the work being done at Georgia Tech and recently I had the opportunity to conduct an all-day workshop on emerging technologies with IT officials from around the state of Georgia. I spent a good deal of time discussing augmented reality but I wish I would have known about the video from Georgia Tech which I have posted below. Better than a verbal explanation, it vividly shows how augmented reality might be used to enhance the flow of traffic in the near future.

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The CIA Jumps the Curve—Again

Last year, I explained how the CIA was using a Wikipedia-like device to improve the work of it’s intelligence analysts. Well, the spy agency has once again “jumped the curve.” It was recently reported that the CIA has taken an equity stake in a Visible Technologies, a software company which specializes in monitoring social media. There is a wealth of valuable knowledge floating around in all the digital data that is now being created. Those organizations that can figure out how to convert this data into knowledge—and even better, wisdom—are the most likely to succeed.

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The CIA Jumps the Curve
Questioning Intuition, Jack Uldrich, unlearn, futurist

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Black Swans & The Future of Energy

The Wall Street Journal, yesterday, had a nice article on ”Five technologies that could change everything” for the energy industry. I’m in general agreement that the five technologies mentioned—advanced car batteries, carbon capture and storage, space-based solar power, utility storage and next-generation biofuels—all hold great promise.

Nevertheless, as a professional futurist who is also an avid student of history, it pays to be humble when handicapping the future. Specifically, I remind investors and interested parties in the energy sector to beware of “Black Swans”—low probability events (or technology breakthroughs) which, if they occur, could have a huge impact. In the energy sector, I would include such things as synthetic biology; cold fusion; solar paint; and “sustainable" carbon technologies.

If you have possibilities that should be included in my “black swan” list, I’d love to hear from you.

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A Future of Black Swans—Or Unlearning the Future
The Future of Energy--A Sustainable Carbon Economy
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Synthetic Biology--Creating a New Form of Life
Grand Plan for Solar Energy
Unlearning Science

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To “Walk the Escalator” It Helps to Have a Sense of Humor

A while back, one of those all-too-common articles stating what is already patently obvious to most people (e.g. “Study confirms exercise bolsters health,” etc.) appeared in BusinessWeek. The gist of the article was that humor increases work place productivity. No shit!

In that spirit then I’d like to share with you this hilarious article from The Onion, entitled, ”Study Finds Working at Work Improves Productivity.”

I’d also encourage you to watch this short commercial. Better than any of the past articles I have written on ”walking the escalator,” it demonstrates in vivid fashion what I mean by the phrase. Enjoy and have a great weekend!

Broken Escalator - These bloopers are hilarious

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Future Headline: Teenager Controls Mars Rover from Home

Yesterday, on the front page of the Minneapolis Star Tribune, there was this article: Flying deep into the Middle East, from a cockpit in Fargo. The piece, which documented how Air Force personnel are controlling drones over Iraq and Afghanistan, was likely met with a collective yawn by most of the reading public. However, if you stop and think about it for a moment, the idea would probably have been dismissed as preposterous as recently as a few years ago. I mean think about it: Kids in North Dakota using their computer to control flying robots half a world away.

Alas, such is the nature of technological progress. To get your creative futuristic juices flowing let me offer another possible headline from the future: Teenager Controls Mars Rover from Home. As NASA gets more serious about using robots to explore space, I think the agency may some day have a glut of robotic devices on the “Red Planet” and it won’t know what to do with them all. In an effort to tap into the “open-source” ethos as well as get kids excited about science, technology and space exploration, NASA will then allow students (thorough a secure satellite connection) to conduct their own exploration using older robots.

Impossible? No. Unlikely? Perhaps, but then again how many people would have dismissed the idea of North Dakota teenagers using a video game-like joy stick to control and drop and bombs in Afghanistan as recently as a decade ago?

Interested in other headlines from the future? Check out this old post:

Worldwide Solar Farm Construction Forces Coal Plants to Shutter

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The Future is on the Back Pages of the Newspaper

In my 2008 book, Jump the Curve: 50 Essential Strategies to Help Your Company Stay Ahead of Emerging Technologies, one strategy I encourage people to employ from time to time is that of reading the newspaper backwards. Why? Because it can help you more clearly see where the future is headed.

Yesterday, for example, as I was returning from Dallas where I delivered a keynote presentation on the future of travel and tourism to the Texas Travel Industry Association, I began by reading the marketing section of the Wall Street Journal from back-to-front. Here’s what I noticed. On Page 8, it was revealed that Sarah Palin’s new book won’t be released in an E-book until after Christmas. This is noteworthy for the simple fact that it wouldn’t have been noteworthy as recently as last year. In other words, E-books have now become so popular that when a new book isn’t released in electronic format at the same time as the print version it qualifies as news. It’s clear from this news that e-book sales will only continue to rise at the expense of traditional hardcover books and that the publishing industry must adapt.

On Page B7 there was a similar story, only this one related to the advertising industry: Web Ad Sales in Britain Overtake TV. On Page B6, it was announced that Lemmis Lighting is releasing a 20-year lightbulb. (Imagine this: In the future your kid or grandchild might not be able to change a lightbulb because it is something they only have to do once every two decades!)

And then on Page B5 there were two articles of note. First, there was a small article announcing that Princeton University was testing Amazon Kindle’s DX e-book as part of a national pilot program; and, second, there was a larger article explaining that the airline industry is finally getting serious about employing RFID tags to track baggage. Both news stories reinforce the growing prevalence of e-books and RFID technology.

My friends, the future is here. To learn more about it all you need to do is read the back of the newspaper!

P.S. If you keep reading the 9/30/09 edition of the WSJ, on Page 3, there is article explaining why biobutanol might soon replace ethanol as America’s biofuel of choice.

Related Posts by America’s leading futurist, Jack Uldrich

A Future of Black Swans
The Future Requires Unlearning
Sur-Prize: The Future Can Be 10% Better

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