Futures Fellows, the Rise of Floating Nations, and When Uhura Met Martin

Vol. 3, No. 6 | April 2017 | AAI Foresight

WFSF Names 2017 Futures Fellows

The World Futures Studies Federation has named 15 new Futures Fellows, an honorary title that confers higher status of WFSF membership in recognition of significant contributions to the field and/or the organization. The 2017 honorees are:

- Guillermina Baena-Paz, IAPEM, Mexico
- Robert Burke, Futureware Consulting and Melbourne Business School, Australia
- Stuart Candy, Situation Lab, United States 
- Patrick Corsi, Cayak Innov, Belgium
- Natalie Dian, The Vision Centre, Sweden
- Ted Fuller, Futures, United Kingdom
- Dana Klisanin, Evolutionary Guidance Media, United States
- Tom Lombardo, Center for Future Consciousness, United States
- Pero Mićić, Future Management Group, Germany
- Victor Vahidi Motti, Vahid Think Tank, Iran
- Erik Øverland, Subito, Norway
- Mei-Mei Song, Tamkang University, Taiwan
- Maya Van Leemput, Agence Future, Belgium
- Verne Wheelwright, Personal Futures Network, United States
- David Lindsay Wright, Text-Tube Futures Studio, Australia

“All the new Fellows far exceeded the minimum requirements set out in the current WFSF Constitution,” the organization states on its website. The 2017 fellows join 30 previously recognized WFSF members who were selected on the basis of their professional futures activity and original contributions to the knowledge base of futures studies.

Source: World Futures Studies Federation.

Seasteading: A Blue Revolution or a Bluetopia?

Book Review by Randall Mayes

Seasteading: How Floating Nations Will Restore the Environment, Enrich the Poor,Cure the Sick, and Liberate Humanity from Politicians by Joe Quirk with Patri Friedman. Free Press/Simon and Schuster. March 2017. 384 pages. $27. ISBN 9781451699265.

In Seasteading, Joe Quirk and Patri Friedman of the Seasteading Institute [https://www.seasteading.org/] envision a new frontier—a future with homes and even cities located on the oceans. The idea of living on the ocean does not appeal to everyone, and many are skeptical.

Although it is not a novel idea, the authors have acted on their vision by developing The Floating City Project. Its three primary objectives are to provide evidence of market demand, produce designs and a feasibility study, and find host nations to harbor and offer political autonomy within their protected, territorial waters.

In the book, the authors provide interesting discussions of the feasibility study, which outlines a business model and proactively addresses the concerns of skeptics. The Dutch firm DeltaSync performed the study, which was funded by philanthropist Peter Thiel and crowdfunding and is posted on The Seasteading Institute’s website.

For those who are drawn to the concept, it is typically for two reasons. One is that 2050 is the estimated date when the Earth’s population reaches 8 billion. From a societal perspective, some people are interested because of the related issues with food, water, energy, and rising sea levels. Since we are running out of land, alternatives are appealing. Water covers over two-thirds of the Earth’s surface. On several occasions, the authors refer to the Earth as “Planet Ocean.”

The other reason is an increasing discontent with politics and government. Those who have given up on the idea of their government changing are intrigued by the possibility of living in an autonomous seasteading community.

Fortunately for the authors, they did not have to start engineering their seastead community from scratch. Research by oil and gas companies for platforms and by the cruise ship industry, along with maritime law, provided a framework upon which they could adapt seastead communities. Graphics from the design contest for seastead communities are also available on The Seasteading Institute’s website.

For platform structures, the construction companies will use three main materials--steel, composites, and concrete. Why concrete? It is durable, and since steel corrodes, the concrete can shield the steel from the harsh environment. With its low center of gravity, it also provides stability. For those concerned about hurricanes and tsunamis, Shell engineers have built what is the currently the largest floating structure that can withstand Category 5 weather conditions.

In certain parts of the world, pirates are a concern. While the authors cannot be responsible for crimes and acts of terror, they partner with countries with sites that are protected and advise others to avoid seasteads in areas such as the Somalia coast.

For the initial host country, the French Polynesian government has signed an agreement with The Seasteading Institute to create a legal framework for the development of The Floating Island Project. The Seasteading Institute has formed Blue Frontiers to construct the Floating Island Project, which will also advance French Polynesia’s Blue Economy initiative and provide a backup plan for countries such as Tahiti as sea levels rise.

While oil company platforms and cruise ships currently provide amenities such as medical services, other aspects of seastead living remain experimental. Seasteading could accelerate innovation in Silicon Valley for self-sufficient and sustainable food systems such as aquaculture and hydroponics. It could also speed up the development of bioengineered microbes to produce fuel, increase the yield of sea plants, and abate pollution. In the future, the authors expect seastead communities to power themselves almost entirely with renewables, such as solar, wind, and wave energy.

Similar to the settling of the western United States, thousands of individuals could potentially migrate to seasteading communities. Initially, the purchase of housing units could be relatively expensive, and banks would probably not be eager to provide financing. Rather than purchasing a unit, some communities could provide the option for modular and mobile platforms with living quarters for renting.

Each future seasteading community/city will have its own unique personality. For permanent seasteaders, citizenship is a complex legal issue. Depending on their home country’s laws, they could either retain their citizenship and pay taxes or renounce it. The authors do not discuss how employment, taxes, or public amenities that governments traditionally provide might work in seasteads. Attorneys and legal scholars have designed a portfolio of possible legal systems. Rather than assess these constitutions themselves, the authors will let seastead communities determine which ones attract immigrants.

Randall Mayes is a technology analyst and author of Revolutions: Paving the Way for the Bioeconomy (Logos Press, 2012). He may be contacted at randy.mayes@duke.edu.

Resources

The Floating City Project feasibility study.

Design contest graphics.

“Government of French Polynesia Signs Agreement with Seasteaders for Floating Island Project” (January 17, 2017).

New Future Fiction and Nonfiction

- The Future: A Very Short Introduction by Jennifer Gidley, president of the World Futures Studies Federation and adjunct professor at the Institute for Sustainable Futures at UTS Sydney. Oxford University Press, March 2017. An overview of how we came to view the linearity of time, extend it forward in order to predict or control it, and imagine a multiplicity of outcomes. Concludes with an exploration of “the grand global futures challenges.”

- New York 2140, a novel by Kim Stanley Robinson, multiple-award-winning and bestselling science-fiction author. Orbit/Hatchette Book Group, March 2017. Rising sea levels have turned the streets of New York into canals and its skyscrapers into islands.

- Walkaway, a novel by Cory Doctorow, co-editor of Boing Boing. Tor/Macmillan, April 2017. A science-fiction thriller envisioning the possibilities for a post-society utopia.

When Lt. Uhura Met MLK

Commentary by Cindy Wagner

Speaking of books, I highly recommend last year’s extraordinary Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly (William Morrow, 2016). Though it is a book about history—the role of African American women “computers” in the late days of Jim Crow and the early days of aerospace research—it is also an inspiring story about future-making on many levels.

One passage that surprised me touches on the impacts of science fiction and popular culture. Shetterly tells the story of Star Trek actress Nichelle Nichols (Lieutenant Uhura), who handed creator Gene Roddenberry her resignation in 1967 after only one season on the television series so she could return to her Broadway career.

Then she met Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. at an NAACP fundraiser. “You can’t leave the show,” King told the actress. “We are there because you are there.”

Shetterly writes: “Black people have been imagined in the future, [King] continued, emphasizing how important and groundbreaking a fact that was.... ‘This is not a black role, this is not a female role,’ he said to her. ‘This is a unique role that brings to life what we are marching for: equality.’ … Nichols returned to Gene Roddenberry’s office on Monday morning and asked him to tear up the resignation letter.”

And the rest is science and social future history. —CGW

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Send us your signals! News about your work and other tips are welcome, as is feedback on Foresight Signals. Contact Cynthia G. Wagner, consulting editor.

Want more signals from AAI Foresight? Check out the blog! Log in to add comments.

Feel free to share Foresight Signals with your networks and to submit any stories, tips, or “signals” of trends emerging on the horizon that we can share with other stakeholders and the foresight community.

__________

© 2016 AAI Foresight

Foresight Signals is a publication of AAI Foresight

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http://www.aaiforesight.com/

Managing Principal: Timothy C. Mack

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Consulting Editor: Cynthia G. Wagner

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Designer: Lisa Mathias

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Foresight Signals: Star Trek at 50, the Economics of the Singularity, and More

Vol. 2, No. 11 September 2016 AAI Foresight

From Science Fiction to Science Factualized: Star Trek at 50, the Economics of the Singularity, and More Star Trek at 50: The Future Is Human   Tom Simpson / Flickr Leonard Nimoy, Robert Wise, Gene Roddenberry, DeForest Kelley and William Shatner on the set of  Star Trek The Motion Picture in 1978.       On September 8, 1966,Gene Roddenberry’s television series Star Trekboldly led the human imagination where it had never gone before. Rather than enumerate the series’ many technological and social forecasts and inspirations, we’ll take a look at what stirred Roddenberry’s creative juices. (For the former angle, check out Fortune’s coverage, perhaps by accessing it on your as-predicted handheld computer.) In his presentation at the World Future Society’s 1984 conference, longtime member Roddenberry spoke on “the literary image of the future.” He said that as a dramatist his function was to create alternative realities, but that his concern always was with people. “It seems to me that futurists to often wander too far away from considerations of people, as if somehow assuming that science’s ‘realities’ represent the full horizon,” he said. Fiction and drama enable the creative artist to find new perspectives on the human reality; just as Lewis Carroll used a white rabbit, Roddenberry used aliens, such as the half-human, half-Vulcan Mr. Spock. To create this new character, Roddenberry began by interviewing him, letting the character evolve until Spock ultimately began asking his own questions and answering with the logic we came to know and love. Twenty years after so creating Spock, Roddenberry was visited by another new alien character, called Gaan, a marine-based life-form from a methane sea planet, whose profession was scholar. “It is in areas of futurism that dialogue with him has become so valuable to me that for almost a year now I have been attempting to bypass the dialogue level by practicing the trick of actually thinking like Gaan,” he told the 1984 conference attendees. “Those capable of using an extraterrestrial’s eyes as an exercise, as a challenge, as an exciting game, improve on their ability to estimate where today may be taking us.” The exercise of creating Gaan for a novel led Roddenberry to reflect on other “alien” questions humans needed to ask back in the mid-1980s — questions that yet need consideration today: - If automation puts half our workforce on the street (and we dare not call that impossible), what of the police? If they are overworked and outnumbered, how do we increase their numbers, their legal powers? … - If disorder threatens our cities, should we consider travel passes that limit which vehicles can travel through which areas? … - Can our political system survive television’s “Hollywood” method of casting candidates and presenting issues? - Is there a self-ordained “messiah” in our future? Are there indications of a public hunger for this? Is there a very obvious trend toward more and more simplistic answers to life’s problems? Gaan, and likely Roddenberry as well, was hopeful about humanity’s prospects: “I look forward to the day when these humans, who are so much more than they yet believe they are, will at last understand that the Cosmos outside and the Cosmos inside themselves are one and the same.” Reference: “Mr. Spock and Gaan: Alien Perspectives on the Future,” The Futurist,February 1985. Signals: extraterrestrial intelligence; Gene Roddenberry; science fiction; Star Trek:World Future Society A Singularity Economy — If Uploads Come First By Randall Mayes The Singularity — a point in time in the future where machine intelligence exceeds that of humans — is a popular topic of discussion among futurists. For uncertain reasons, the literature is dominated by discussions of the likelihood of artificial general intelligence (AGI) and it possibly functioning without humans in control. The Singularity could follow other paths, such as mind uploading. AI researchers are also investigating human-machine interfaces. The convergence of numerous technologies could produce a synthetic neocortex linked to a human brain and connected to the cloud. It is possible that artificial brains may actually develop first. However, this assumes that Moore’s law will continue at least several decades into the future and that algorithms can exceed human capabilities without researchers understanding completely how the brain works. After nine years as an AI researcher and programmer for Lockheed and NASA, Robin Hanson, now an economics professor at George Mason University, became skeptical of a master algorithm that will combine the speed of supercomputers with the cognitive skills of humans. As a result, in 1994, he wrote If Uploads Come First. In a culmination of over twenty years of research, Hanson’s new book, The Age of Em: Work, Love, and Life When Robots Rule the Earth (Oxford University Press, 2016), provides an unprecedented look into what the world may look like when run by uploaded minds. Whole-brain emulations, or ems, are fully functional models of human brains copied and stored in robots or, as Hanson visualizes, in android bodies in virtual reality. He envisions using the brains of several hundred hard-working and smart people with personalities that are likely to follow new norms. Instead of food, these ems would require plenty of electricity for cooling and power to run hardware. Ultimately, he projects ems could think a thousand times faster than a typical human. Hanson further envisions trillions of these ems in high-rise buildings, so productive they would create a fourth human era — an economy that doubles every month. For comparison purposes, he calculated that, in the first three human eras, the foraging economy doubled every quarter million years, the farming economy doubled every thousand years, and the current industrial economy has doubled every 15 years. Before the em scenario transcends sci-fi to reality, it will require the development of superfast computers, nondestructive brain scans, and models of human brain cells in order to process their features and connections. Mapping the brain is very complex, and it is uncertain at present how deep in the brain-signaling processes scientists will need to understand. Mind-loading researchers estimate that this path to the Singularity will take anywhere from two decades to a century to develop. Hanson’s economic model assumes the forces of supply and demand. So, current ethical standards could also delay the development of uploaded human minds. Em research on lab animals will not translate into results useful in humans. Unfortunately, em research will require that intelligent individuals be willing to sacrifice their earthly life, since human brains would not survive the current scanning processes. The Age of Em is imaginative and provides a thought-provoking discussion of the social implications of an em economy. For more insight on how ems may function in virtual reality and how the lack of understanding of consciousness will impact the development of uploaded minds, see my in depth discussion with Hanson for TechCast Global. Randall Mayes is a technology analyst and author of Revolutions: Paving the Way for the Bioeconomy (Logos Press, 2012). He may be contacted at randy.mayes@duke.edu. Signals: artificial general intelligence, economics, neuroscience, robotics Blog Report: Foresight in the Public Sector In the past five years, two groups of futurists working in the public sector have formed to share intelligence and experience in working with their respective agencies. In 2011 the Public Sector Foresight Network formed, open to anyone globally working in government, and in 2013 the Federal Foresight Community of Interest formed to unite those working in various branches of the U.S. federal government. These two networks agreed to join forces, meeting jointly on July 22, 2016, to facilitate the exchange of diverse views and best practices by U.S. and international foresight officials. Foresight Signals’ special correspondent Lane Jennings was on hand to report on the presentations by Clem Bezold, Nancy Donovan, James-Christian Blockwood, Jason Stiles, Joe Moore, John Basso, Joe Greenblott, Peter Padbury, Ibon Zugasti, M. Gotzone Sagardui, Juan Ibarreche, Tracey Wait, Chris Mihm, andCatarina Tully. “The meeting highlighted the extensive and evolving foresight efforts in Spain, Canada, U.S. federal agencies, and globally (particularly around the Sustainable Development Goals),” Jennings reports. Read “Sharing Foresight Knowledge and Experience” by Lane Jennings on the Foresight Signals blog (posted August 27, 2016). Mack Report: VR and AI Development In his latest post for the AAI Foresight blog, managing principalTimothy C. Mack writes that “science fiction and other popular media have so raised expectations” about virtual reality “that people are always disappointed, because they all think that fully functional VR is already here.” Mack notes that virtual reality is making an impact in storytelling, simulator games, and training, however. “Deep human impulses are released in gaming,” he writes. “Many experienced players even provoke their opponents to play more emotionally and thus make mistakes. While fun can be transformational — physically, emotionally, and cognitively — there is seldom complete transfer of skills in gaming or simulations. A good example is a firefighter simulation in a burning building, which does not adequately prepare one for the heat, choking gases, and real danger. And so outcomes and success levels are different for each person.” Read “VR and AI Development” by Timothy C. Mack, Foresight Signals blog (posted August 22, 2016).

Send us your signals! News about your work and other tips are welcome, as is feedback onForesight Signals. Contact Cynthia G. Wagner, consulting editor. Want more signals from AAI Foresight? Check out the blog! Log in to add comments. Feel free to share Foresight SIGNALS with your networks and to submit any stories, tips, or “signals” of trends emerging on the horizon that we can share with other stakeholders and the foresight community. Foresight Signals is a publication of AAI Foresight. AAI Foresight provides issues identification and tracking, strategic planning, organizational development, messaging, marketing, technological assessment, and strategic services for a broad range of clients. Managing Principal: Timothy C. Mack • tcmack333@gmail.com • 202-431-1652 Webmaster and IT Consultant: Tom Warner • tomwarner13@gmail.com Consulting Editor: Cynthia G. Wagner • CynthiaGWagner@gmail.com • Twitter: @CynWag1 Designer: Lisa Mathias • lisa@lisamathiasdesign.net http://aaiforesight.com Copyright © 2016 AAI Foresight, All rights reserved. You are receiving this e-newsletter because you subscribed on our Web site or replied "yes" to our e-mail. Our mailing address is: AAI Foresight 1619 Main Street #1172 Freeland, WA 98249

Signals: Predictionzzz ... Luddite Shaming ... Technolife 2035 ... and more

Vol. 2, No. 3 | January 13, 2016 | AAI Foresight

News for the Foresight Community

> Hot Topic: Predictionzzz

> Unnecessary Roughness: Luddite Shaming

> Publication: Technolife 2035

> Special Issue: Journal of Futures Studies and Science Fiction

> On the Move: Brian David Johnson

> Foresight Report: Digital Citizenship

> ICYMI: End of Year Report

> Feedback: On “How Technology Professionals Will Work”

Hot Topic: Predictionzzz

The beginning of a New Year was greeted with the usual popular media attention to “the future,” which means collections of ongoing and imminent trends disguised as click-attracting predictions. For futurists and other foresight professionals, it is an opportunity to capture the imaginations of those otherwise preoccupied by the present, even as we remind ourselves of our true purpose.

The usual futuristic subjects—artificial intelligence, virtual reality, and robotics—appeared in some lists, but a few twists on these topics caught our eye: In Ireland, a Future of Law and Legal Tech Conference, warned that lawyers could go extinct if they don’t reduce their fees and streamline their practices. “Eight out of ten U.S. law firms believe that robots will take over most low level and data- driven procedures within 10 years,” reports the Independent.

Writing on LinkedIn Pulse, Singapore futurist Harish Shah had a slightly different take on the annual predictions exercise: He offered a list of technologies that will be obsolete by 2030, including physical monitors, which will be replaced with holographic displays, and nearly all forms of computer we now rely on—PCs, laptops, tablets, and smartphones—which will be replaced by wearables.

Comment: I find the latter forecast a bit disconcerting, as I attempt to execute this newsletter on a five-year-old (no longer manufacturer-supported) laptop with a dead battery. Though I’ve achieved the paperless future, I’m not yet ready for the holographic one. —CGW

References: “Lawyers Told to Cut Fees or Face Future Led by Robots” by Dearbhail McDonald, Independent (December 17, 2015).

“Obsolete By 2030: A List of Tech Items We Cannot Imagine Life Without Today” by Harish Shah, LinkedIn Pulse (January 6, 2016).

Unnecessary Roughness: Luddite Shaming

The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation’s second annual Luddite of the Year Award is still taking nominations. The “honor,” ITIF says, “recognizes the year’s most egregious example of a government, organization, or individual stymieing the progress of technological innovation.”

Topping the not-in-any-particular-order list of nominees for 2015 are the duo “alarmists” Elon Musk and Stephen Hawking, nominated for their endorsement of last year’s open letter to their scientific peers warning of the danger of creating an artificial intelligence. (See the story in the April 2015 Foresight Signals.)

Comment: While we certainly admire ITIF’s work to encourage innovation, shaming respected scientific leaders for encouraging others to consider the potential negative consequences of their work strikes us as counter to the mission of foresight generally and technology assessment specifically. The real Luddite awards should be reserved for those who attempt to ban the research they fear,* which Musk and Hawking did not do; they asked for broader research, not no research. —CGW

*For example, see the North Carolina legislature’s 2012 ban of research on climate change. 

Source: ITIF Announces 2015 Luddite Award Nominees (press release).

Signals: artificial intelligence, innovation, Luddites, technology

Publication: Technolife 2035

The English-language version of Elina and Kari Hiltunen’s Technolife 2035: How Will Technology Change Our Future? has now been published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

In addition to providing a comprehensive overview of technology forecasting methodologies, the authors offer an insightful vision of where technologies may lead us into the future. The text concludes with three extended scenarios based on a reimagining of the Romeo and Juliet story, first presented in The Futurist magazine (July-August 2014).

In their preface, the authors invite readers to put the book away and leave it in a drawer for another 20 years, the open it again for a “burst of laughter” at how “silly were they back then.” For we no doubt will all predict a few silly things and miss quite obvious ones, the authors admit. But prediction, they point out, is not the point, but rather raising “discussion about what technology can bring with it—both the good and bad.”

Source: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

Signals: foresight, scenarios, society, technology

Special Issue: Journal of Futures Studies and Science Fiction

The December 2015 issue of the Journal of Futures Studies, co-edited by Thomas Lombardo and Jose Ramos, focused on the relationship between science fiction and foresight. In the lead article “Science Fiction: The Evolutionary Mythology of the Future,” Lombardo writes that those science fiction works that deal with the future may be viewed as narratives of tomorrow's possibilities.

“A good story about a possible future, with its drama, action, and sensory detail, is psychologically more compelling and realistic than an abstract theory, static image, depersonalized futurist scenario, or statistical prediction,” Lombardo writes. “Science fiction personally draws us into a rich vicarious experience of the future through its vivid and memorable characters. We live the story through the characters. All told, through science fiction narrative, we live and feel the future at a deep and intimate level.”

Reference: “Science Fiction: The Evolutionary Mythology of the Future” (PDF) by Tom Lombardo, Journal of Futures Studies (December 2015).

Signals: futurism, science fiction

On the Move: Brian David Johnson

Longtime Intel futurist Brian David Johnson has joined the faculty of Arizona State University as a “professor of practice” in the School for the Future of Innovation in Society and futurist in residence for the spring 2016 term. At ASU Johnson will lead two major projects: The Future of the American Dream and the 21st Century Robot.

“I’m so excited about the future and what we’ll be able to accomplish,” Johnson said. “ASU is one of the world’s most innovative and forward-looking institutions. It’s the perfect place to collaborate with a broad, diverse set of people and to explore the future in exciting, intellectually rigorous and surprising ways.”

Source: Arizona State University.

Signals: education, futurists, robotics

Foresight Report: Digital Citizenship

In AAI Foresight's latest Foresight Report, “Digital Citizenship,” futurist consultant Karl Albrecht describes many advantages of a national digital ID system, including what might be the “killer app”——immigration reform. The digital citizenship program he describes would tackle at least one fundamental issue: determining who is a citizen and who is a “guest.” What to do with guests determined to be where they shouldn't be has yet to be resolved.

Albrecht observes that the technical obstacles to creating a connected but secure and anonymous database system to establish national identity are not as daunting as are the political and social obstacles. Fears of government overreach match fears of hacking and terrorism, and as long as the supporters match the opponents of a national ID system, a satisfactory system is unlikely to come about soon.

Reference: “Digital Citizenship: The Case for a National ID Card” by Karl Albrecht (Foresight Report, Winter 2016). Contact Albrecht at www.karlalbrecht.com. “Digital Citizens” is AAI Foresight’s sixth Foresight Report and is available as a free PDF download. Access the series at www.aaiforesight.com/foresight-reports.

Signals: citizenship, digital society, information technology, privacy, security

ICYMI: Mack Report

In case you missed it: In his end-of-year report, Tim Mack reviews the activities and accomplishments of the first full year of operations for AAI Foresight Inc. In addition to a number of internal and external publishing projects, Mack participated in a new science-focused series, SciTech Voyager TV series for Turkish Radio Television. See AAI Foresight Year-End Report, Foresight Signals (December 2015).

Feedback: Technology Work and Technological Displacement

In response to Timothy Mack’s Foresight Report “How Technology Professionals Will Work” (Foresight Report, Fall 2015), Dennis Bushnell, chief scientist at NASA Langley Research Center, writes:

What is new this time with machines replacing humans is that … we are now producing a second intelligent species. The unanticipated huge and evolving success of the combination of deep learning, big data, and fast machines is producing greatly improved machine intelligence via soft computing long before brain emulation is slated to do so. Therefore, the machines taking the jobs, including the creative jobs, is now being accelerated.

Much of [Mack’s] piece is nearer term, as humans try to fight desperately to hang onto traditional thinking and functions. It is all going to have to be wholly reinvented, [as I discussed in] “Creating Problems and Enabling Solutions” (Foresight Report, Summer 2015). “We reinvented humans … twice before: the agricultural age and the industrial age. In each there was a major change in what humans did and [in] their social fabric. This new “Machine Revolution” [will] have essentially all of the human capabilities for economic activities, including creativity, only far greater and far more than humans. If anything this is even more of a sea change to the human existence theorem than the Agricultural and Industrial [revolutions].

Humans have simply been too successful and have invented themselves out of their jobs. Humans 3.0 is now “our” horizon. Much of what you cover in this present piece is rapidly being transcended.

Contact: Dennis M. Bushnell, dennis.m.bushnell@nasa.gov.

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Send us your signals! News about your work and other tips are welcome, as is feedback on Foresight Signals. Contact Cynthia G. Wagner, consulting editor. mailto:CynthiaGWagner@gmail.com

Want more signals from AAI Foresight? Check out the blog! Log in to add comments.

Feel free to share Foresight Signals with your networks and to submit any stories, tips, or “signals” of trends emerging on the horizon that we can share with other stakeholders and the foresight community.

__________

© 2016 AAI Foresight

Foresight Signals is a publication of AAI Foresight

1619 Main Street, #1172

Freeland, WA 98249

http://www.aaiforesight.com/

Managing Principal: Timothy C. Mack

tcmack333@gmail.com | 202-431-1652

Webmaster and IT Consultant: Tom Warner

tomwarner13@gmail.com

Consulting Editor: Cynthia G. Wagner

CynthiaGWagner@gmail.com | Twitter: @CynWag1

Designer: Lisa Mathias

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