by senior futurist Richard Worzel, C.F.A. ➢ Within the next 5 years, self-driving cars will expand rapidly into those commercial sectors where the economic case is overwhelming, but will only replace privately-owned cars more gradually, say over 20 years. Some economic consequences will be profound. ➢ The benefits to cities are so remarkable that urban […] Read more

by senior futurist Richard Worzel, C.F.A. This is the second half of a complete report on the future of infrastructure in Ontario, commissioned by the Residential and Civil Construction Alliance of Ontario. The first half can be found here, and provided the conclusions, along with dealing with demographics and technology. This half will deal with climate […] Read more

by senior futurist Richard Worzel, C.F.A. I was commissioned by the Residential and Civil Construction Alliance of Ontario to produce a report by September, 2015 on the future infrastructure needs of the Province of Ontario, Canada. The conclusions of my report really apply to the United States as well as Canada, and, indeed, to most of the […] Read more

by futurist Kit Arrow The United Nations report on world population estimates a total of 9.6 billion people on the planet by 2050. That’s an increase of more than 2 billion in the next thirty-five years. There have been discussions on how to feed such a large population, but many of those discussions fall short […] Read more

by senior futurist Richard Worzel, C.F.A. Suppose you were a high school teacher who had just taken a job at a new school, and that you agreed to take over as the coach of the basketball team. You look at your new school’s team record, and find that it’s pretty mediocre, so decide you want […] Read more

by senior futurist Richard Worzel, C.F.A. This is the third blog about water. The first two can be found here and here, plus a blog about California’s water situation can be found here. —————- Fresh water is vital, and we’re running out of it. Water shortages will disrupt economic plans, sap economic vitality, increase costs, and cause friction and disruptions that […] Read more

This is the second of three posts about the future of water. The first can be found here. by senior futurist Richard Worzel, C.F.A. Water scarcity has several causes, all of which compound each other. First is that of the freshwater available above ground or from precipitation, most of it is either located far from where […] Read more

by senior futurist Richard Worzel, C.F.A. Water is not the new oil; it’s much more important than that. There are substitutes for oil, but there are no substitutes for water, and we are running dry. As that happens (and it will happen at different rates in different places), the conflicts over water will rise, as […] Read more

by senior futurist Richard Worzel, C.F.A. California is exceptional. We all know that. Unfortunately, California has become exceptional in a particularly unpleasant way: it’s running out of water. According to NASA, California’s current four-year drought is the worst in 1,200 years, and the state’s reservoirs have only about a one year supply of water left […] Read more

by Kit Arrow, futurist In 2014, Canada ranked #10 in lack of corruption worldwide, the UK ranked #14, and the US ranked #17. In comparison, Denmark scored as the least corrupt country in the world, India was in the middle of the pack at #85, and North Korea and Somalia tied for last, at #174, […] Read more

by Senior Futurist Richard Worzel, C.F.A. Cloud computing is now a widespread computing commodity, useful, ubiquitous, and powerful. But Cloud computing is fundamentally a 1970s concept, as it amounts to little more than an adaptation of timesharing, which IBM pushed hard in that era. Moreover, Cloud computing – indeed, any centralized computing network that requires backhauling […] Read more

by futurist Kit Arrow Just about everyone is familiar with the Internet (if you aren’t, how are you reading this?), but the concept of the Internet of Things throws people. One way of looking at it is giving objects the ability to communicate and interact with and through the Internet. A simple example of this is […] Read more

by futurists Richard Worzel & Kit Arrow What kind of a year are we headed into? Well, some things are obvious, like continued conflict between Russia and the West, and the importance of technology. Others are less certain. So, what should you watch for in 2015? What are the unexpected things you might want to […] Read more

by senior futurist Richard Worzel, C.F.A.   “All I know is that first, you’ve got to get mad. “You’ve gotta say, ‘I’m a human being, goddammit! My life has value!’ “So, I want you to get up now. I want all of you to get up out of your chairs. I want you to get […] Read more

by senior futurist Richard Worzel, C.F.A. The future of health care in North America is going to be difficult, full of arguments, budget controversies, regrettable patient outcomes, and political interference. Yet, contained within this problematic outlook is a surprising fact: nurses may be in a crucial, pivotal position to affect the health care system for […] Read more

by futurist Kit Arrow 3D printers are a big fad these days. Tech geeks go on and about what they can do with them, and how neat they are, but how close are we to being able to do anything worthwhile with these machines? Furthermore, what will we be able to do with them a […] Read more

by senior futurist, Richard Worzel, C.F.A. A few months ago, I was asked to speak to REBNY – the Real Estate Brokers of New York – about how technology might affect their industry. What follows is an adaptation of my remarks. When dealing with the future. I’ve found that describing the future in technical terms usually […] Read more

by futurist Kit Arrow In my last blog post, I wrote about prosthetics, cybernetics and bionics, and how the state of these systems was not only amazing now, but will be almost impossible to differentiate from flesh-and-blood in two decades. Personally, I think that’s amazing. But most people don’t need prosthetics, so it’s really not […] Read more

by futurist Kit Arrow Two hundred years ago, a significant injury to an extremity meant you would lose it, and have to deal with a rudimentary prosthetic like a peg-leg or hook hand. Fifty years ago, the same injury might not cost you the limb, but if it did, you at least had the option […] Read more