THE FUTURISTS
What’s next in robotics with Marc Theermann, the Chief Strategy Officer of Boston Dynamics. Known as “the Bell Labs of robotics”, this firm is famous for its mechanical menagerie of legged robots that includes Spot, Atlas, Stretch. These autonomous robots can go anywhere a human can go, and to many places humans cannot, including mine fields. And now they are equipped with artificial intelligence. Autonomous robots are beginning to develop a semantic model of the world.
This week hosts Brett King and Katie “Miss Metaverse” Schultz join a returning guest Thomas Frey to talk about the state of the future. In our last session Thomas gave an excellent demonstration of futurist thinking in real time. But in this week’s show we get Thomas talks about how AI, climate and conflict are already impacting us. He also opines on the likelihood that if you are not working with AI you’ll likely be replaced by someone who is. Once again he shows us why he’s Google’s highest rated futurist speaker.
Josh Bernoff’s entire career as an analyst and author has been focused on the future. In this episode The Futurists discuss forecasting: What is the difference between strategic insight and tactical decisions? Why is it so difficult to predict the timing of forecasts? Why organizations have a bias towards the status quo, and why futurists have a bias towards change. Josh explains how summarizing “What It Means” can bring a liberating clarity to forecasts and strategic plans.
On this weeks episode of The Futurists we engage with Metaverse futurist Dr. Martha Boeckenfeld all the way from Switzerland. Robert and Martha get deep into the debate of what is the Metaverse, and where do we go after lackluster performance from the likes of Meta. Brett tries to play referee.
This week Marc Buckley joins Brett for a fireside chat on the role regenerative techniques hold for the future of the planet. As a member of the World Economic Forum and the UN advisory panel, trained by Al Gore on climate response, Marc has a big role globally in policy setting for the emerging future. But Marc also emphasizes the role that each of us has in creating a sustainable world.
Mark Pesce returns to The Futurists with a report about weird and wonderful discoveries at the 2024 Consumer Electronics Show. Every year, 200,000 people converge at CES in Las Vegas to get a glimpse of the near future. Mark pushes far beyond mainstream press coverage to tell us about bleeding-edge progress in memristor chips, brain-computer interfaces, long-range drones, olfactory sensors, and the emerging category of “age-tech”. If you are interested in knowing where the puck is going next, this episode is for you!
In this episode, Australian author, speaker and futurist Ross Dawson joins Robert and Brett to talk the path to the future. From tackling the qualities that make a strong futurist, to the tactical application of forecasting at a organizational level. Dawson is Australia’s leading futurist, but a globally relevant voice.
Thomas Frey is who you will undoubtedly find when you do a Google search on “futurist speaker”. Having shared the stage with many A-listers, Frey has earned that moniker. But his true skill demonstrated repeatedly in this week’s episode is taking an event or innovation and the extrapolating the future. In this episode we see him do that in real time. It’s a unique glimpse into the futurist process.
In this episode our resident futurists make bold forecasts for 2023. Joined by Miss Metaverse, Katie King, the trio discuss what to expect in the global economy, defense and military, health care, climate change, extreme weather and the hottest summer in human history. A special focus on Open AI, ChatGPT, DallE2, Microsoft, Stable Diffusion, Metaverse, VR/AR/XR, gaming and media, software automation, artificial intelligence and robotics. Which industries are ripe for disruption? Plus a bold forecast about Elon Musk’s tenure as CEO of Tesla and looming competition from the electric vehicle industry.
Chief Futurist for one of the largest consulting practices on the planet, Kasey Lobaugh joins the futurists this week to talk about the building blocks for the worlds of tomorrow. While at Deloitte, Kasey has spearheaded research into the next level of disruptive innovations and technologies that are reshaping business. When talking AI Kasey maintains that this is unlike any other innovation wave we’ve ever faced and that large scale technounemployment is a real possibility.
Theo Priestley is a Futurist based in Scotland and he's mentored Silicon Valley startups, has written hundreds of articles on AI, IoT, Web3, Metaverse, Fintech and he's the author of "The Future Starts Now". He has a habit of making some big bets on the future, but also he's not afraid to put out his thoughts on the future as they develop. Priestley is a contrarian at heart though, and his futurist lens comes from the conflict between technological advancements, policy development and human nature. It's not always clear which of these will win out as the future unfolds, and Priestley is not afraid to play off this uncertainty.
In this week's episode of the Futurists, top-ranked Female Futurist (Forbes), science fiction author and TV presenter Elina Hiltunen joins us to talk her unique brand of futurism from Finland. Elina takes us through some of her more concerning forecasts on potential climate collapse, and the role that futurists have to play in setting policy responses, galvanizing public opinion, and helping us navigate the unknowns of the future.
The future of healthcare and machine intelligence, featuring Dr Phillip Alvelda, the founder and chairman of Medio Labs. The pandemic accelerated the introduction of direct-to-consumer healthcare with clinical grade accuracy. Phillip explains how AI will amplify this process by reducing cost to scale. But the prospect of constant surveillance raises other concerns, and that leads to a lively Futurists debate about China’s advances in AI and a new round of US export controls.
This week on The Futurists our hosts interview Charlie Melcher, the founder of The Future of Storytelling. Charlie recounts the many ways that the ancient practice of storytelling is evolving in an era of immersive and interactive media. He is also a book publisher who uses innovations in printing technology to reinvent the 5000-year-old medium for contemporary audiences and he speculates about the future evolution of the craft of meaning-making. Web site: Www.thefutureofstorytelling.Org
Anders Sorman-Nilsson is a Swedish futurist living in Australia, but he believes that humanity is on the cusp of a new renaissance where humanity finds purpose beyond consumption and market profit. He calls out human systems that are coming to a natural conclusion due to this emerging thinking, including the damage that fossil fuel companies and others have done to our ecosystem in the name of profits. Ultimately, Anders is an optimist but he thinks that human behavior and technological leaps and bounds don't necessarily align, but it's navigating the conflict between our long-held traditions, global conflicts, and climate disasters, along with our rapidly advancing technical capabilities that will define humanity for centuries to come. We get deep on this one...
Julian Bleecker of the Near Future Laboratory has developed a novel way to forecast: he constructs prototypes, products and artifacts from future scenarios. Then he designs the marketing material, including ad campaigns and brochures and catalogs, to interrogate the wider impact on consumer society and human behavior. These techniques are set forth in Julian’s book, The Manual of Design Fiction: A Practical Guide to Exploring The Near Future. https://www.nearfuturelaboratory.com/
On this week's show hosts Brett King, Katie King, and Brian Solis are joined by the dynamic duo of Robert Scoble and Brian Roemmele, both highly regarded futurists as we dive into the implications of Apple’s Vision Pro. What it means for computing, experiences, and what the experience of wearing the VisionPro is like. We discuss the breakthroughs Apple had to make to get this far, and what likely comes next.
This week on The Futurists we are joined by renowned journalist and a true renaissance man, Monty Munford. Monty has appeared on the BBC, written for Forbes, The Telegraph and contributed to TechCrunch, Mashable, Fast Company, Huffington Post, Wired, MIT Technology Review, The Independent, The Guardian, Financial Times, and The Times of India. He explains why he's had to become a futurist to do his day job better, and why tech continues to be so disruptive to our social order.
Recording artist Imogen Heap incorporates advanced technology in her music and live performances. On this episode of The Futurists, Imogen describes her creative process and explains how she improvises with emerging tech to achieve spontaneous artistic breakthroughs in composition, collaboration and live shows, including her digital twin “Mogen”, an AI-personality. Topics discussed in this episode: haptics, generative AI music, the future of live interaction and participatory media, procrastination and inspiration, geolocating songs, blockchain for music metadata, how fans and artists can collaborate with artificial intelligence.
Michael Margolis, founder and CEO of Storied, is an expert in constructing intentional narratives about the future. The stories Michael tells are not about people but, rather, about products and technology. He has developed a unique approach to navigating digital transformation and change management. This inspiring and provocative episode covers a broad range of topics including the fundamental human need for narrative structure in industry, politics, technology, mass media, machine intelligence, and more. Michael reveals the hidden dynamics of narrative structure that frame our understanding of the world and our shared perception of reality.
Tracey Follows, the author and podcaster of The Future of You, explains how your digital identity will evolve. Custodial or self-sovereign? Centralized or Web3? Big Brother-style surveillance capitalism or liberty? What do we mean by digital identity when there is no government-issued credential?
July 31, 2022 was the fictional birthdate of George Jetson, so we thought we’d take a look this week at how The Jetsons has stood up over time in respect to its vision of the future. It’s just Robert and Brett comparing notes and debating what the Jetsons got right and what they got wrong. From smart watches and flying cars to household robots and 3D printers.
In the digital domain, marketing is technology. Glenn White builds advertising systems for brand managers inside game worlds. In this episode of The Futurists, Glenn explains the complex strategic decisions that govern how brand advertising will evolve in the Metaverse.
In this week’s show futurist, digital analyst and anthropologist, along with being a Global Innovation Evangelist for Salesforce, Brian Solis joins us to talk adapting to life in the future. As a renowned specialist on engagement, CX and digital transformation, Brian discusses what it’s like to be a futurist at one of the worlds largest tech companies that is increasingly mission focused. And we get into the implications of his book Lifescale as we emerge from the pandemic.
Who owns your streaming TV service? A computer maker, a retailer, or a search engine? This week on The Futurists we learn about the never-ending cyclone of disruption that has been tormenting the media industry for years. Our guest is Jeffrey Cole of the Center for the Digital Future, a longtime advisor to the major motion picture studios. https://www.digitalcenter.org/jeffrey-cole-director/
Gerd Leonhard, renowned Futurist and Humanist, bestselling author and thought leader joins The Futurists this week to talk a positive future. Like many of our previous guests Gerd is an optimist, but warns us that we need a new mission for humanity writ large. One that is inclusive, sustainable and purpose driven. We dive into his new “Good Future” project as well as talking his books, the future of capitalism and the planet.
Australia’s foremost trainer of futurist leaders, Zoe Routh, shares practical insight into her business. She explains how senior executives can improve the entire organization when they master the skill of foresight. Zoe is the author of five books about futurism and leadership. https://www.zoerouth.com
This week we interview the phenomenal Aubrey De Grey, the world’s foremost authority on longevity and developing strategies to slow or eliminate aging altogether. The author of The Mitochondrial Free Radical Theory of Aging (1999) and Ending Aging (2007), De Grey is probably best known for the concept of Longevity Escape Velocity, a view that soon medical technology will enable human beings to prevent age-related deterioration, and eventually eliminated aging entirely.
This week on the Futurists our four hosts, Brett King, Robert Tercek, Katie King, and Brian Solis join a live stream with a bunch of listeners and at least one surprise guest to get into the first year of our world beating podcast. We discuss our favorite guests, what we learned and some of the recurring themes. A fantastic look back at a phenomenal year on The Futurists.
AI researcher Monica Anderson guides the Futurists beyond first principles to the zeroth level of science, which is epistemology. Monica argues that science suffers from a kind of cognitive dissonance, relying upon a reductionist approach instead of holistic principles. In this episode, Monica explains why: AI alignment is trivial; malevolent behavior must be intentionally programmed; all problem-solving methodologies break down into two categories; complex problems differ from complicated problems; small syntax models outperform large language models; AI may be more impartial than a jury in court; AI will be required for licensed professions; home-schooled AI will be trained on your home computer; and a lot more.
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