Archive for the 'Futurist Posts' Category
Shall we go skiing with robots tomorrow?
This seems to be the moment for robot research for me. At least that’s the topic I picked for this month’s version of my column over at Futurismic, Today’s Tomorrows. Since I don’t like to let my column over there get to be longer than about 1,000 words, I couldn’t include everything. So for the [...]
Good Science News
I’m not really surprised so many people are skeptical about science. After all, what do often hear? Food A or Food B causes cancer. The glaciers are melting faster than we thought possible. Species (your favorite) is now endangered. Drug A which was supposed to be good for you just caused organ B to fail. [...]
How is publishing like the tech industry?
Yesterday, I listened to the Sofanauts podcast #30 while I was pulling out spent daises and mushed iris leaves and planting crocus and narcissus. The conversation is an hour and half long argument where everybody is right. The moderator was Tony C. Smith of Starship Sofa, guests lined up as Jeff Vandermeer and Jeremy Tolbert [...]
FireGlobal 2009: The Hottest Spot in Seattle?
We may have a new in place to be seen in Seattle. At the least, we have a new must-see conference, FiRe Global. Put together by Mark Anderson, FiRe Global has a clear mission: use technology to help save the world. Mark has impressive strengths. For one, he thinks well. For years he has produced [...]
Futurist Event: FiRE Global
Earlier this year, I attended the FiRE conference in San Diego. It felt like half an almost-typical technology conference (yes, there was a cloud computing session), half a “making the world a better place with technology” and in total, was the best three days I’ve ever spent on either topic. Largely, the value was [...]
Two Very Cool Futurist Events
I have been wearing my author hat lately because of book releases, but there are two very excellent futurist events worth discussing: one in the recent past and one in the recent future. I’ll start with the recent past. The Seattle Times did a very nice article about futurists in the Sunday Magazine last week. [...]
What’s Green, exciting, and then (hopefully) unnoticed?
In science fiction, we’ve long assumed that distance would disappear. We do it with FTL travel so we can take our characters between planets the way we now travel between cities, we do it with instant communication devices, and we use teleportation. We wave our science fictional hands at the challenges of communicating over great [...]
We Need Healthcare Reform Now
As a futurist, I’m often asked what I think we should focus on. I typically say health care, education, broadband, and saving the world (ecology/alternate energy and lifestyle). We have a good chance at one of them right now. We can do health care better for millions of Americans. We can help our businesses, our [...]
3D Printing: Are we moving into a design economy?
My latest futurismic column explores 3D printing. I’m convinced this is a wild card technology. That is, most people don’t actually see it coming, or understand its potential to change our world. Yet the current uses and capabilities are growing exponentially. If “fabbing” (as some aficionados call it) grows as fast as PC capability grew, and the [...]
Musings on the Lunar Landing Anniversary
I hope that people all over the world will stop and reflect – for at least for a moment – on the 40th anniversary of the lunar landing. It was history. For context, I’m forty-eight this year. I was an eight-year-old girl whose dad worked in aerospace in 1969 (for McDonnell Douglas Space Systems Corporation). [...]
Land.”
