World-Leading Futurist Identifies 10 Key Trends that Will Define the 2010s, including Collective Intelligence, Culture Jamming, Exponential Bio Technology, and Augmented Humans

 “We are on the verge of the most exciting decade in human history”, says Ross Dawson, chairman of international future consulting group Future Exploration Network. “The degree of change over the next 10 years will exceed that of the last 25 years. One of the most important uncertainties is how well we as individuals and a society cope with the extraordinary pace of change ahead.”

Future Exploration Network taps an extraordinary global futurist network to help organizations understand the future and build better strategies today. Research by Ross Dawson and Future Exploration Network’s global team has crystallized top 10 trends of the coming decade.

1. Information Intensity
"We will soon consume more media than there are waking hours, by virtue of multi-channeling at most times. Billions of people and places will be media producers, including video streaming from most points of view on the world. We are just at the dawn of an incomprehensible daily onslaught of news and information – some valuable, much useless."

2. Collective Intelligence
"Yes we are swamped by information. But we are now creating a collective intelligence that will filter and respond to what is worthwhile. Reputation measures will drive who we meet, do business with, and date. Machine translation will enable the people of the planet to communicate. A key question is: If human society is now a global brain, how do we cure our schizophrenia?"

3. From Organizations to Networks
"The pace of growth of virtual work is phenomenal. By the end of the decade close to half the workforce will be working independently, often across national boundaries. Companies will function on social networks and gaming platforms, professionals will work for many firms or clients. Traditional organizations will be gradually supplanted by shifting networks of expertise and resources."

4. Energy Shift
"We don’t know what the climate of the 2010s holds for us. But we do know that the way we use energy will change faster than ever before in human history. Renewable energy sources, electric cars, and strict energy accounting, driven in part by carbon taxes on fossil fuels, will transform large chunks of the economy and how we move about."

5. Culture Jamming
"Remix culture will surge, with everybody taking and jamming up slices of everything and anything to express themselves, while intellectual property law fails to keep pace. Every culture on the planet will reach everywhere – the only culture we will know is a global mashed-up emergent culture that changes by the minute."

6. Global Economic Shift
"The sheer weight of China’s burgeoning economy together with India’s rise will change the business world’s center of gravity. The Far East will fund the continued profligate spending of the West. The weightless economy based on innovation, media, and professional services will dominate growth."

7. Exponential Bio Technologies
"Now that biological and genomic technologies are largely driven by information technologies, they are on the same exponential trajectory. Medicines personalized to the individual, genetic modification of our children, drugs to increase intelligence, and life extension will all become commonplace."

8. Robotic intelligence
"Many decades of predictions will finally be matched by technological developments in fields such as language recognition and spatial navigation to create a world in which physical robots and virtual agents interact with us and do our bidding. Household robots, voice conversation bots, and emotional robots that we bond with will be part of our everyday lives."

9. Augmented Humans
"More than ever before, we can transcend our human abilities. Traditional memory aids are supplemented by augmented reality glasses or contact lenses, thought interfaces allow us to control machines, exoskeletons give us superhuman power. Machines will not take over humanity… because they will be us."

10. Haves and Have Nots
"Across communities, nations, and the world, there is a keen risk of increasing separation between those who have access to technology, tools, and basic needs, and those who do not. This is not inevitable. However it will require concerted action around the world to avoid an increasing schism between us."

About Future Exploration Network
Future Exploration Network is a leading international consulting and research group that helps major organizations to understand the future and develop effective strategies for success. It uses scenario planning, technology landscapes, game theory, custom visual frameworks, future provocation workshops, and a variety of other tools to anticipate and take advantage of key trends.

Ross Dawson available for interview - Ross Dawson, Chairman of Future Exploration Network, is globally recognized as a leading futurist, keynote speaker, and best-selling author. He is a frequently quoted in the world's leading business media as an authority on future trends.

Source: PRWEB