FUTURE
NOW—The Inaugural Issue
by Ben Hamamoto
For a decade,
we’ve been talking about a future where we’ll have computers on our wrists, in
our eyeglasses, even implanted under our skin. Today, that future is here.
From
gold-plated Apple Watches to the much-mocked Google Glass to vibrating fitness
tracking wristbands available for $30 a piece in a 3-pack at Costco, wearables
have gone mainstream. We now have the technology to put computer power and
Internet-connectivity pretty much anywhere in, on or around our bodies. And
it’s clear that, in a decade, this technology will become exponentially more
powerful and accessible. But what’s less clear, is why we would want these body
area networks, how we’d arrange and configure them and what we’d use them for.
As part of our
2015 Technology Horizons research into Human+Machine Symbiosis, (the evolving
relationship between humans and machines), we set out to answer this question.
And the answer we found is the “New Body Language,” an exploration of
how technology in, on and around our bodies will help us express ourselves,
connect our communities, alter our anatomies, and help us fulfill our
longstanding and deeply human intentions and aspirations. We’re pleased to make
this body of research public in the inaugural issue of Future
Now, IFTF's new print magazine.
Most
pieces in this issue focus on the human side of Human+Machine Symbiosis—how
body area networks will augment the intentions and expressions that play out in
our everyday lives. Some pieces illuminate the subtle, even invisible
technologies that broker our outrageous level of connection—the machines that
feed off our passively generated data and varying motivations. Together, they
create a portrait of how and why we’ll express ourselves with this new body
language in the next decade.
About
Ben Hamamoto
As
a research manager at IFTF, Ben uses insights from his background in
journalism covering issues of race and inequality to explore how well-being is
shaped by social and environmental contexts. He has researched the future of
food technology, environments that enhance well-being, and the design of
healthy places, and he has an ongoing interest in narrative and health, the
meaning of place, and equity and social justice. In addition to his work at
IFTF, Ben contributes to the Nichi Bei Weekly and edits the
National Japanese American Historical Society’s official magazine, Nikkei
Heritage.
About Bob
Johansen:
Bob Johansen is a distinguished fellow with
the Institute
for the Future
in Silicon Valley. For more than 30 years, Bob has helped organizations around
the world prepare for and shape the future, including corporations such as
P&G, Walmart, McKinsey, United Rentals, and Syngenta, as well as major
universities and nonprofits.
The
author or co-author of ten books, Bob is a frequent keynote speaker. His
best-selling book Get There Early:
Sensing the Future to Compete in the Present
was selected as one of the top business books of 2007. His latest book is The
New Leadership Literacies:
Thriving
in a Future of Extreme Disruption and Distributed Everything discusses five new leadership
literacies—combinations of disciplines, practices, and worldviews—that will be
needed to thrive in a VUCA world of increasing volatility, uncertainty,
complexity, and ambiguity.
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