What happened to the future? Weren't things supposed to be cooler by now, smarter, safer? Raised on a steady diet of science fiction, overzealous politicians and corporate hype, Americans expected to be living in The Jetsons -- but instead find themselves stuck in a scarier version of The Waltons.
The truth is that people simply aren't very good at predicting the future. It was only two centuries ago that we began to think we could do it at all, and we're still learning. Hindsight may be 20/20, but foresight remains largely blind.
We've never had it better than today, or felt worse about tomorrow.
Want to make your mark on the future? It helps to be incredibly smart--or incredibly wealthy.
Experts are terrible at forecasting the future, but crowds of amateurs turn out to be pretty good.
After I wrote a novel about an incompetent futurist, members of the profession wanted blood.
Snake oil salesmen, geopolitical visionaries or just overpriced corporate consultants?
Random tinkering is the path to innovation. We need more of it.
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