Futurology - any recommendations?

[DS23]

kesten green and scott armstrong spring to mind.

armstrong is a bit of an arse in his approach to communicating with people but you can't fault the dedication.

http://www.kestencgreen.com/

greens website on advertising might contain something useful for you hackers.

[Clippy]

How about Wired magazine or Trendwatching

[realityhack]

Thanks for the replies.

It's not an easy one to call... There's the sociological/environmental/technological/financial factors research, where people have made trend maps and so on...

...then there's the purist, tech R&D stuff - that can lead in all sorts of directions...

...and then there are the latest investments/plans of tech/telcoms companies...

...and there's so much David Ickeish rubbish out there it's hard to tell the loonies from the proper commentators.

Yep - some wise comments around change being the only constant, repackaging the same old tat, and validated predictions.

Thanks for the links DS.

If anyone knows the names of any reliable industry/technology commentators who talk around trends, I'd appreciate it.

[Not So Wise]

As others have said, does not work like that*. Most sites/consultancies are really just pushing their own products/their clients products or just hyping whatever they personally like.

You just have to just make up your own mind and expect to get it wrong regularly

*One exception, whatever Gartner says will be the next big thing follows one of these two simple rules

• It has already been the "big thing for last 12 months and is now the norm"
• If the rule rule is not true, it will never make it past the starting gate, so best avoid it

[xchaotic]

The only constant is change.

And since change is inevitable and people still need to do the old things, a lot of things are reinvented over and over again...
So just time it right give it a catchy name like Agile, market it right and you're set for a decade or so....

[NickFitz]

Authoritative sources to tell you what the future will be?

Try http://www.psychics.co.uk/

Also, to gain some perspective on the value of any sources you may find, look at the predictions they made ten years ago - all of them, not just the lucky guesses they publicise - and work out what proportion turned out to be correct. I reckon you'll find that nobody did any better than chance.

Now, where's my flying car - the robot butler ought to have finished cleaning it by now...

[DS23]

here's a few to start with.

http://www.forecasters.org/

http://www.forecastingprinciples.com...index.php/home

http://www.pmindustry.org/

http://www.askmarkets.com/

http://www.midasoracle.org/predictions/timeline/

http://inklingmarkets.com/

[DS23]

i've been meaning to collate this kind of stuff and put it up on my website. too busy posting in tpd though. i'll have a look through my sources and see if there is something there to assist.

[Tingles]

Watch the original series of Star Trek.

[Sysman]

I wouldn't put too much faith in Gartner.

[DaveB]

Have you asked Threaded? He has a Time Machine you know

On a more serious note dont bother looking to much as the current technology site, go take a look at the science related stuff, thats where the R&D is happening. New discoveries now = new tech tommorow.

Example.

Ok, so I directed tyou to a tech site, but you get the idea. Give New Scientist a try.

[DaveB]

Serious question here - I'm trying to find resources that speculate around emerging technologies and trends that will play a big part in society over the next 10 years.

I'm fishing through Gartner, have revisited the old BT timeline, found nowandnext.com, and am running out of inspiration. Does anyone know of any authoritative sources that could help in my research? The remit is initially technology, but wider trends that may affect our attitudes towards technology would also be useful.

Much appreciated.

RH

Have you asked Threaded? He has a Time Machine you know

[HairyArsedBloke]

Have you learned nothing? The market doesn't work like that.

[realityhack]

Serious question here - I'm trying to find resources that speculate around emerging technologies and trends that will play a big part in society over the next 10 years.

I'm fishing through Gartner, have revisited the old BT timeline, found nowandnext.com, and am running out of inspiration. Does anyone know of any authoritative sources that could help in my research? The remit is initially technology, but wider trends that may affect our attitudes towards technology would also be useful.

Much appreciated.

RH