Articles by Richard Worzel
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Topics: Biosciences, Business, Economy, Environment, Society, Technology, Geopolitics, General
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Here are some of the key trends that are going to shape the year ahead.
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Topics: Business, Demographics, Economy, Environment, Technology, General
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The year ahead holds significant risks and opportunities for the utility industries.
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Topics: Business, Demographics, Economy, Education, Geopolitics, Society, Technology, General
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Is America still the greatest? And, if so, can it remain the greatest?
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Topics: Business, Demographics, Economy, Education, Geopolitics, Society, Technology, General
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I don’t often give my blog over to guests, but this essay gave me pause. I commissioned Chris Ritchie to research certain aspects of social developments, and what you’re about to read was part of his report.
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Topics: Business, Economy, Society, Technology, General
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We grew up with robots, but the robots in our future are both much closer than we realize, and will be very different from what we expect. The implications of the robots in your future are profound.
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Topics: Business, Biosciences, General, Economy, Technology, Society
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Change is happening faster than we believe, and it is about to shake up the corporate world in ways that will catch us by surprise. The innovation revolution is entering an entirely new phase.
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Topics: Biosciences, Business, Demographics, Economy, Environment, Geopolitics, General, Society, Technology
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Although there are more than 12 things going on in the world, I believe these are the most significant trends for the year ahead.
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Topics: Business, Demographics, Economy, Education, Geopolitics, Society, Technology, General
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The Occupy movement is most significant not for what the protestors say, but rather that the movement is happening at all. It demonstrates significant unrest, and the greatest dissatisfaction with the capitalist system that we've witnessed since the fall of the Soviet Union. But where is it headed? That's a much more worrisome question.
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Topics: Business, Economy, Society, Technology, General
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We are entering the Second Era of Technology, and it is being ushered in by software available on the new iPhone 4S.
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Topics: Education, Business, Society, Technology, General, Geopolitics
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Our school systems are not good enough for the 21st century. Comparing schools with libraries reveals part of the reason why.
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Topics: Business, Economy, Technology, General
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There are innovations even in the field of innovation. Here are 9 trends in innovation that you should be aware of.
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Topics: Business, Economy, Society, General, Technology, Geopolitics
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Inflation is back, and we won't be happy about it, especially as it's not going to go away any time soon.
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Topics: Business, Biosciences, General, Economy, Technology, Society
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Southwest Airlines' in-flight magazine recently contacted me with an interesting question: What things, of the everyday items we use today, are most likely to disappear? They wanted to ask me 'about a few technologies or tools that are popular today, and are on their way out.' It sounded like a different, but useful, way to think about the future, which I always appreciate, so I took a swing at a small number of things that I think are likely to disappear. Here's what I told them:
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Topics: Biosciences, Economy, Business, Demographics, Environment, Technology, General
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Like all years, there will be good news and bad in 2011. Because of the bad planning, bad judgment, and bad behavior of previous years and decades, some of the potential bad news is very scary indeed, as I'll get to in a moment. The odds are that 2011 will be a not bad year, but the risks are higher than normal for economies emerging from a recession. I'm going to deal with the scarier parts first, and then move on to happier things, so bear with me.
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Topics: Business, Education, Demographics, General, Society, Technology
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The world has been transformed, and is remarkably different than it was 20, 50, or 100 years ago. But our education system is fundamentally unchanged in the last century – we still teach facts, which are now a cheap commodity. If education is to be useful to today's and tomorrow's students, it, too, must change radically. Here's why.
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Topics: Biosciences, Business, Demographics, Economy, Environment, Society, Technology, General
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This is a summary of a presentation I delivered to the World Education Congress of Meeting Planners International in Vancouver, Canada at the end of July, 2010. It was part of a series of “Flash” presentations, each limited to 15 minutes, which didn’t leave a lot of time to elaborate. I’ve fleshed some of the points out here, but the most important reason for approaching the future in this way is that it is never shaped by just one thing, but rather by a confluence of forces, many of which are conflicting.
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Topics: Biosciences, Demographics, Society, Technology, General
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What will health care look like in 25 years' time? Here's one possibility
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Topics: Business, Economy, Environment, Geopolitics, Society, Technology, General
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The next 10 years will effectively settle the climate change debate, but not much else. What's more, we may be making policy in precisely the wrong way. Here's why.
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Topics: Business, Economy, Society, Technology, General
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In the last article I examined the field of risk management, and did a partial environmental scan to assess some of the current risks that are out there. In this conclusion to the set on risk management and foresight, I look at some tools that can help you ask the right questions, and assess the importance of the answers, then come up with plans to prepare for them.
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Topics: Education, General, Society, Technology
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Technology allows us to support learners with the people and techniques that work best for them. This second part of the discussion explores how we might do that.
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Topics: Education, Society, General, Technology
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With the opening of the school year, I'm re-publishing an article I wrote for the January issue of Teach magazine about the way education could develop from here. I'll reproduce the second part of the article in my next blog.
Meanwhile, please feel free to forward it to anyone you think might find it of interest. They are also welcome to sign up for future Futuresearch articles on my website at
Best regards,
Richard
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Topics: Education, Technology, Society, General
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The future of education is a matter of survival, both for those directly involved in it, and for the rest of us as well. Here's why.
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Topics: Biosciences, Business, Economy, Environment, Technology, General
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What follows is a summary of a presentation that I made for the international “Pulp and Paper Strategies” conference in Miami, Florida, in mid-February of 2008. In it, I outline the major changes in our society’s use of paper, and the very positive forces at work that can benefit pulp & paper producers, particularly the emergence of the green economy.
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Topics: Business, Economy, Education, Society, Technology, General
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In June of 2000 I wrote an article called “Hi, robot!” in which I said, among other things, that a robot vacuum cleaner for households would be among the first robots available, that a general-purpose robot housekeeper might be available within 7-10 years, and that human-like commercial robots would be generally available within 20 years, and probably sooner. Roomba and Scooba have proven the first prognostication, and Toyota’s work on a household robot, to be brought to market sometime in 2010, looks likely to make the second come true. Accordingly, I thought it was time I revisited the subject, and wrote the following article on a recent plane ride.
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Topics: Business, Technology, General, Economy
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Technology is changing all the rules for the future of media and audience measurement – but that's not the important part.
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Topics: General, Technology, Geopolitics, Economy
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What's ahead for 2007?
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Topics: Biosciences, Economy, Society, Technology
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This is a summary of a presentation I recently made for the “2006 Life Sciences Industry Summit,” co-hosted by the Long Island Life Sciences Initiative, and the Center for Biotechnology.
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Topics: Business, Economy, Society, Technology, General
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The implications of technology often go far beyond the immediate or the obvious. Although much has been made of the Apple iPod, the implications are even more far reaching than most commentators realize.
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Topics: Biosciences, General, Demographics, Economy, Technology
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The American health care system is about to experience enormous changes, fraught with both possibilities and dangers. Here's a summary.
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Topics: General, Geopolitics, Technology, Business, Demographics, Economy
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What's ahead for 2006?
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Topics: Education, Society, General, Economy, Technology
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The way students think, and the tools that they use are changing much faster than our education system can adapt. This will result in a clash of cultures between parents and teachers on the one hand, and students and Netizens on the other.
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Topics: Biosciences, Economy, Technology, Society, General
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What are some of the potential problems and obstacles biotechnology must overcome if it is to fulfill its promise?
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Topics: Biosciences, Technology, Economy, Society, General
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A look at how biotechnology will change business and society over the next 20 years.
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Topics: Biosciences, Technology, Business, Economy, General
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Biotechnology is getting a great deal of press, but it's not always clear to people outside the field why it is important.
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Topics: Biosciences, Economy, Geopolitics, General, Technology
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The outlook for 2005 in a range of areas.
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Topics: Business, Biosciences, Demographics, Technology
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This occasional feature is a 'gossip column' of the future, highlighting developments and trends that I believe may become significant over time.
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Topics: Biosciences, Business, Technology, General
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The biosciences revolution of the 21st century promises to be even more dramatic than the IT revolution of the last half of the 20th century. Accordingly, there's money to be made by investors - if they can avoid investing in fool's gold instead.
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Topics: Biosciences, Business, Economy, Geopolitics, General, Technology
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The outlook for 2004 is generally very good. However, there are some really nasty land mines ahead of us that could produce disaster.
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Topics: Biosciences, Technology, General
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The cries that our health care system is deteriorating are deafening. But do we want to fix the blame, or fix the problem? If the latter, than here are some things we can do.
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Topics: Business, Economy, Technology
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The changes that technology will impose on retailing have only just begun, and the most astonishing ones are yet to come.
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Topics: Technology
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The technological changes we've experienced so far have been profound, but also impersonal and distant. That's about to change, and the changes we are about to experience will be even more revolutionary.
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Topics: Technology
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I get out of the cab at the Toronto International Airport and walk up to the Star Alliance reception gate. The reception camera looks me over as I walk up to the gate, recognizes me, and checks my frequent flyer profile and current reservations. An arrow lights up, directing me to the Star Alliance Gold line to deposit my checked luggage.
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Topics: Technology
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Just for some summer fun, I thought I’d answer some of the questions I get along the lines of: 'What happened to the glorious future we were promised 25 years ago?'
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Topics: Technology
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Articles about robots are starting to appear that make prognostications about what robots can do, and how soon they’ll do it. The appearance of robot toys – such as Sony’s robot dog, AIBO, or Lego’s Mindstorms build-it-and-program-it-yourself robot, are terribly primitive, and are miles from George Jetson’s Rosie the robot housekeeper, or Isaac Asimov’s positronic robots.
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Topics: Technology
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Major manufacturers of home appliances are betting that there’s an Internet refrigerator in your future. Companies involved in the Internet are betting that there’s a crossover coming between the Internet and your living room television. And Microsoft is betting that the Internet will find its way into all aspects of your home and home life.
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Topics: Technology
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The astounding changes of the last 100 years – the greatest in history – are going to pale in comparison to the changes of the next 100 in just about every area of human experience.
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Topics: Technology
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How small can we make personal computers? There are two major barriers to shrinking them beyond the hand-held and palm-top computers emerging right now: your fingers and your eyes. A keyboard that is much smaller than your fingers would be unusable, as would a smaller monitor...
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Topics: Technology
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The first major computer revolution occurred when computers shrank to room size from filling entire buildings. With that change, coupled with a dramatic decline in cost and increase in power, the kinds of problems they were used for broadened from problems in astrophysics to mundane corporate accounting and payroll processing.
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