Perspectives
Perspectives help us better understand how today’s accelerating and exponential technologies will impact us in the future. Get a new perspective on the future!
The Coming Creativity Explosion Belongs to the Machines
Does creativity make human intelligence special?
It may appear so at first glance. Though machines can calculate, analyze, and even perceive, creativity may seem far out of reach. Perhaps this is because we find it...
5 Mindsets to Bring Positive Change Across Society
To contribute to human progress, it is not enough to be intelligent, resourceful, or well-connected. Those are all factors that play a significant role but aren’t the true driving forces of disruptive innovation. Stimulating...
The Era of Human Gene Editing Is Here—What Happens Next Is Critical
Scientists in Portland, Ore., just succeeded in creating the first genetically modified human embryo in the United States, according to Technology Review. A team led by Shoukhrat Mitalipov of Oregon Health & Science University is reported to “have...
This Is Tesla’s Greatest Competitive Advantage
Tesla’s stock price recently took a hit because of concerns about its delivery capabilities and about increasing competition from carmakers who are switching their product lines to electric. With a market cap still exceeding...
This Is What Liberated the Power of the Internet, and Why It Matters
The earliest internet was built by the military, designed to help scientists around the nation gain access to those rare room-sized computers located at MIT, Stanford, and a few key institutions.
Use of the early...
6 Things Quantum Computers Will Be Incredibly Useful For
Computers don’t exist in a vacuum. They serve to solve problems, and the type of problems they can solve are influenced by their hardware. Graphics processors are specialized for rendering images; artificial intelligence processors...
New Virtual World Sansar Is Ready to Pick Up Where Second Life Left Off
On its 14th birthday, a reflection on Linden Lab’s groundbreaking Second Life, and how their next project Sansar hopes to go even further.
In May 2006, Bloomberg’s Businessweek ran a cover story detailing the business...
Why Interstellar Travel Will Be Possible Sooner Than You Think
The term “moonshot” is sometimes invoked to denote a project so outrageously ambitious that it can only be described by comparing it to the Apollo 11 mission to land the first human on the...
Beyond Politics: Innovating for a Sustainable Future
Singularity University is dismayed by the Trump administration’s choice to withdraw from the Paris Accord. Climate change is one of the greatest risks to humankind, and the decisions we make over the next few...
Society Is Destroying and Rebuilding Itself for the Networked Age
When the dust settled from last summer’s failed Turkish coup d’etat, where a faction of Turkey’s armed forces attempted an overthrow of the sitting government and President Recap Tayyip Erdogan, a bizarre—yet distinct—signature of...
What We’re Learning From a Big Universal Basic Income Experiment
Will artificial intelligence “destroy humanity?” Probably not.
But I am concerned that AI and robotics will massively impact the future of work.
McKinsey & Co. predicts that 45 percent of jobs today will be automated out...
4 New Human Rights for When Our Brains Are Hooked Up to Computers
The human-machine mind meld is just around the corner if you believe the buzz coming out of Silicon Valley these days. But neuroethicists worry the technology poses a threat to the last bastion of...
Here’s Why People Think Tesla Is the Most Innovative Company Today
I did a quick Twitter poll asking which technology companies you think are the most innovative today. The options were:
Amazon
Google
Facebook
Tesla
(Note: Twitter polls only allow four options... yes, there’s also Apple,...
How Leaders Can Make Innovation Everyone’s Day Job
This article is part of a new series exploring the skills leaders must learn to make the most of rapid change in an increasingly disruptive world. The first article in the series, “How the...
Science Has Outgrown the Human Mind and Its Limited Capacities
The duty of man who investigates the writings of scientists, if learning the truth is his goal, is to make himself an enemy of all that he reads and … attack it from every...
Gene Editing Might Change What Being Human Actually Means
Attempts to distill the essence of “selfhood” have occupied philosophers for centuries. Consensus has been fleeting at best, but is likely to get even harder as genetic tools allow us to tweak our bodies...
Will Tech-Driven Deflation Export Japan’s Economic Woes to the World?
In the post-war years and into the 80s, no economy could match Japan’s for sheer speed and growth. Since then, however, Japan has struggled to overcome slower growth and stubborn deflation.
The country’s struggling economy...
This Is What Makes Quantum Computers Powerful Problem Solvers
In a previous article, I introduced the recent open-sourcing of quantum computing software by DWave. DWave is the maker of a quantum computer being used and studied by a number of groups, including NASA...
Why the Rise of AI Makes Human Intelligence More Valuable Than Ever
In the popular TV show Sherlock, visual depictions of our hero’s deductive reasoning often look like machine algorithms. And probably not by accident, given that this version of Conan Doyle’s detective processes tremendous amounts...
Arianna Huffington’s 10 Ways to Make a Big Impact and Stay Sane While You Do
How do top CEOs lead during this exponential age? How do you manage the explosion of information and onslaught of increasing competition? How do you prevent yourself from getting burned out? How do you...
The Body Is the Missing Link for Truly Intelligent Machines
It’s tempting to think of the mind as a layer that sits on top of more primitive cognitive structures. We experience ourselves as conscious beings, after all, in a way that feels different to...
How All Leaders Can Make the World a Better Place
This article is part of a new series exploring the skills leaders must learn to make the most of rapid change in an increasingly disruptive world. The first article in the series, “How the...
You Can Ban a Person, But What About Their Hologram?
If you think augmented reality is only fun and games, consider that we’ve already witnessed the first known police action taken against hologram technology. During the summer of 2015, a performance by controversial gangster-rapper,...
If We Can See the Future We Want, We Can Shape It Too
Alida Draudt and Julia Rose West are not only co-authors, business partners, and best of friends, but most importantly, they have differing points of view—which is ideal for two budding Silicon Valley futurists.
Alida currently...
8 Principles for Leaders to Make the Most of the Exponential Age (Part 2)
How do top CEOs lead during this exponential age? How do you manage the explosion of information and onslaught of increasing competition? How do you sort through the abundance of opportunity and avoid getting...
8 Principles for Leaders to Make the Most of the Exponential Age
How do top CEOs lead during this exponential age?
How do you manage the explosion of information and onslaught of increasing competition?
How do you sort through the abundance of opportunity and prevent getting burned out?
How...
Hacking Our Smart Devices Is Way Too Easy—Here’s How to Fix That
Smart-television maker Vizio agreed to pay a penalty this month for spying on 11 million customers. According to the Federal Trade Commission, the company captured second-by-second information on what customers viewed, combined it with their gender, age...
How Leaders Dream Boldly to Bring New Futures to Life
This article is part of a new series exploring the skills leaders must learn to make the most of rapid change in an increasingly disruptive world. The first article in the series, “How the...
Connecting the Big Data Dots to Optimize Health and Manage Disease
The era of "Quantified Self" (a term coined in 2007 by US WIRED founding executive editor Kevin Kelly) is relatively new. The first Fitbit digital step counters launched in late 2009, and we've since seen an...
How to Experiment Like the Most Successful, Hyper-Growth Companies Do
Today’s most successful companies, the ones that are “crushing it,” started as a series of crazy ideas, followed by experiments to test just how viable those ideas might be.
Experimentation is a crucial mechanism for...
How the World Has Changed From 1917 to 2017
Over the last 100 years, the world has changed tremendously.
For perspective, this year at Abundance 360, I gave a few fun examples of what the world looked like in 1917.
This blog is a look...
Ready to Change the World? Apply Now for Singularity University’s 2017 Global Solutions Program
I’m putting out a call for brilliant entrepreneurs who want to enroll in Singularity University’s Global Solutions Program (GSP).
The GSP is where you’ll learn about exponentially growing technology, dig into humanity’s Global Grand Challenges...
Why the Best Innovators Ask the Most Beautiful Questions
Warren Berger believes questions are more important than answers. A best-selling author and self-proclaimed “questionologist,” Warren is on a mission to help all leaders learn how to use questioning to support innovative, resilient and...
Art in the Age of AI: How Tech Is Redefining Our Creativity
Technology has long been considered a resource-liberating mechanism, granting us better access to resources like information, food and energy. Yet what is often overlooked is the revolutionary impact technology can have on our ability...
The Surprisingly Simple Invention That Allows Robots to Make Clothes
Today, sewing relies on the low-tech power of human hands, but soon that may not be the case. Human workers are still needed for the final steps of making clothes, in order to align...
Quantum Computing Progress Will Speed Up Thanks to Open Sourcing
In the quest for ever more powerful computers, researchers are beginning to build quantum computers—machines that exploit the strange properties of physics on the smallest of scales.
The field has been making progress in recent...
India Is Building the Infrastructure for a Truly Digital Economy
Silicon Valley fancies itself the global leader in innovation. Its leaders hype technologies such as bitcoin and blockchain, which some claim are the greatest inventions since the Internet. They are so complex that only a few...
6 Tools Entrepreneurs Must Master to Succeed in an Accelerating World
Being an entrepreneur today is vastly different than it was 20 years ago.
Today, each of us has access to more capital, more technological tools, more information, more talent, and more computational power than the...
This Amazing Video Shows Just How Much Software Has Eaten the World
Software is a relatively recent invention in human history, but few things have had as much of an impact on the modern world. Things which used to be physical stuff are increasingly melting away...
Stem Cells Are Poised to Change Health and Medicine Forever
We are at the cusp of a stem cell revolution.
Understanding and harnessing these unique cells may unlock breakthroughs in longevity and therapeutic solutions to all kinds of chronic diseases and regenerative opportunities.
Last month, I...
How the Most Successful Leaders Will Thrive in an Exponential World
We live in challenging times. Geopolitical turmoil, local and national social unrest, cycles of deadly natural disasters, cyber hacks, rising distrust of media and tech companies—many recent disruptive events have taken us by surprise.
Nearly...
What You Need to See From CES 2017 in 6 Minutes [Video]
I just returned from Las Vegas, after walking 20,000 steps on the floor of the annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES).
It’s huge. For reference, CES showcases 2.47 million square feet of exhibit space, hosts 180,000...
One Third of Americans Prefer a Software Robot Over a Human Boss
Digitization and automation are ever-growing topics in relation to the workplace.
A famous Oxford study on the future of employment from 2013 estimated that up to 47% of American jobs may be automated by 2035;...
Love Your Bot, But Know It’s Always Listening
In the 2013 movie “Her,” Theodore Twombly, a lonely writer, falls in love with a digital assistant designed to meet his every need. She sorts emails, helps get a book published, provides personal advice...
10 Tech Trends That Made the World Better in 2016
2016 was an incredible year for technology, and for humanity.
Despite all the negative political-related news, there were 10 tech trends this year that positively transformed humanity.
For this “2017 Kick-Off” post, I reviewed 52 weeks...
Is Virtual Reality the Surprising Solution to the Fermi Paradox?
“If the transcension hypothesis is correct, inner space, not outer space, is the final frontier for universal intelligence. Our destiny is density.”
–John Smart
Only decades into our “age of cosmology” — the moment when we...
Exponential Growth Will Transform Humanity in the Next 30 Years
As we close out 2016, if you’ll allow me, I’d like to take a risk and venture into a topic I’m personally compelled to think about… a topic that will seem far out to...
This Bitcoin-Eating Plant Robot Hires Artists to Make Its Babies
This is a thing that exists in the world: a bitcoin-eating plant robot (called a plantoid), made of self-executing computer code which owns itself and hires artists to make its babies. If that sounds...
What Happens When Tech Takes Control of Evolution?
Over the span of a few billion years, diversity of life has flourished on Earth through the process of natural selection. Then, not long ago (relatively), human intelligence evolved.
For the first time one species,...
If Robots and AI Steal Our Jobs, a Universal Basic Income Could Help
Some fear that robots and AI will steal our jobs.
They probably will (in the near-term, at least half of them).
If that happens, what will we do for a living? How will we earn money?
In...
