James Canton - Future Smart: Managing the Game-Changing Trends That Will Transform Your World

Advance Praise for FUTURE SMART

The next 30 years will usher in more change than in the previous three centuries. Future Smart is your guide to this extraordinary future. Cantons enthusiastic, prescient vision will captivate you.

Andrew Sobel, international bestselling author of Power Relationships and Power Questions

There are so many great ideas for growing your business that Future Smart really should really be called an idea manual.

Robbin Phillips, Courageous President, Brains on Fire and co-author of Brains on Fire and The Passion Conversation

Book smart, people smart, street smartnow James Canton shows us why, with the world changing at warp speed, we all had better get future smart. Whatever youre planning in business or in life, this book will give you pause and a sense of promise.

Bill Schley, bestselling author of The UnStoppables and The Micro-Script Rules

What separates great innovators from the rest is that they operate from a bold vision of the future. In Future Smart , Canton arms you with this critical advantage.

Kaihan Krippendorff, CEO, Outthinker and author of Outthink the Competition

Also by James Canton

The Extreme Future

Technofutures

Copyright 2015 by James Canton

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Printed in the United States of America. For information, address Da Capo Press, 44 Farnsworth Street, 3rd Floor, Boston, MA 02210.

Designed by Pauline Brown

Set in 11 point Adobe Caslon Pro by the Perseus Books Group

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Canton, James, author.

Future smart: managing the game-changing trends that will transform your world / James Canton.

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-306-82286-5 (hardback) ISBN 978-0-306-82287-2 (e-book) 1. Strategic planning. 2. Technological forecasting. 3. Economic forecasting. 4. Social changeForecasting. 5. Technological innovationsSocial aspects. 6. Twenty-first centuryForecasts. I. Title.

HD30.28.C358 2015

650.1dc23

2014035366

First Da Capo Press edition 2015

Published by Da Capo Press

A Member of the Perseus Books Group

www.dacapopress.com

Note: The information in this book is true and complete to the best of our knowledge. This book is intended only as an informative guide for those wishing to know more about health issues. In no way is this book intended to replace, countermand, or conflict with the advice given to you by your own physician. The ultimate decision concerning care should be made between you and your doctor. We strongly recommend you follow his or her advice. Information in this book is general and is offered with no guarantees on the part of the authors or Da Capo Press. The authors and publisher disclaim all liability in connection with the use of this book.

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10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

For Gayle, Mariah, Sofia, and Trevor,
who make my journey miraculous

Contents

What Is Future Smart?

Imagine for a moment you have a unique smartphone, a type of portal, an innovative fantastic device with which you could look into the future to 2030. This would be your personal YouTube of the future. You might see strange new lifestyles, marvelous inventions, radical technologies, entirely new jobs, dynamic businesses, and even new societies on this device. This YouTube of the future would give you a new awareness of risks, opportunities, and challenges that would change your thinking about today in fundamental ways.

The images and streaming videos of future events, peoples lives, and innovations would give you valuable insights into today. You might change your present business strategy, start a new career, or even consider a new life mission based on the insights learned from this experience of looking forward in time.

This glimpse of the future, what life would be like in 2030, might give you answers to important questions that would be invaluable today, such as: What if you could predict how climate change would create a huge new marketplace? How might the emergence of new innovations in technology transform society? Which alternative energy types will radically change the future of transportation? How could you make a huge difference on the planet? When is a good time to start that new space venture or the organ bioengineering farm that millions of customers will need? What will the future hold for emerging markets in Africa?

Are you ready to become a Game Changer of the Future?

Now imagine for a minute how you could benefit from this ahead of time, well before the general population or the media, if you gain this essential knowledge. Consider if you were able to answer just one of these questions and the awareness that might come from building a new career, business, or organization around this insight into tomorrow.

Perhaps you can.

Welcome to Future Smart .

This book will give you insight into how the future may unfold. Future Smart may enable you to compete in your business or career smarter and faster. This book may also disrupt your thinking and catalyze your actions so you might have an advantage in becoming aware of not just specific trends that will shape the future but also how to see emerging signals, change drivers, and early warnings that come before trends emerge. You could become Future Smart: be able to see the changes and signals that will create a trend or alter the future before that future emerges.

I can promise you that the trends in this book may give you an inside track, an insight that may transform your life, work, and, of course, transform your future for the better. Reading Future Smart will grow your awareness to consider new possibilities for you and our world. Getting an early warning of whats coming next in markets, innovation, workforces, health care, climate, or energy might be invaluable to you.

Now, not every forecast here will pan out. In fact, these forecasts may be too tame, and some may be wrong. Reading this book is an experiment in learning and speculation about what may come tomorrow. But I can promise you that an early warning of trends will better prepare you for the challenges of an accelerating future that is coming now. Future Smart could make you a Game Changer of the Future.

Past Forecasts That Missed

Computers would be of little use.

Airplanes will never be a mode of transportation.

People dont want to know about their DNA.

Consumers will not watch much television.

There is no value in the Internet.

Running Futures

This is not the usual type of book. Future Smart is designed to disrupt your thinking to create new ideas that are actionable and may actually change how you thinkit may inspire you to be predictive, to challenge you to think and look ahead. I forecast that some readers will take this seriously, this challenge I am suggesting about learning to Run Futures and look for and embrace trends, paying attention to the early warning signals of change and exploiting these opportunities to make their future and the planets future a better future.