This paper projects potential futures and their implications on the present. Title: Preparing for higher education futures: From market-driven universities to the Technological Singularity John Moravec University of Minnesota © 2004 John Moravec (This article may be reproduced for noncommercial purposes if it is copied in its entirety, including this notice and a link to [...]

Article link: The media in 2004 Cut-and-pasted from Slashdot: Alexandre Van de Sande writes “Robin Sloan made a flash video as a “documentary” of how big enterprises like google and amazon converged medias and changed the way we see news by 2014. It’s a vision of what could be (or will be) the world with [...]

Article link: Sharper minds The LA Times is running an article today on new drugs that will change the way we think. By extension, the Times speculates, they may change who we are. Largely funded by the U.S. military, new drugs are being developed to dramatically increase mental acuity. Among the military’s goals: a drug [...]

Article link: How U.S. should commit to technological innovation Jim Puzzanghera at the San Jose Mercury News writes, “a high-powered panel of business, academic and government leaders Wednesday [in a report] warned that without a major commitment to technological innovation, the United States risks abdicating its position as the world’s leading economic power.” Furthermore, “some [...]

Article link: Anti-outsourcing legislation unlikely as global outsourcing of IT jobs gains momentum The German Innovations Report published a summary of an analysis on IT outsourcing by the consulting company Frost & Sullivan. The trend of outsourcing IT jobs from developed countries to less developed states cannot be stopped through legislation. If a country were [...]

Article link: Top EU countries outperform US in education survey EurActiv reports that a “the latest PISA survey has revealed a widening gap between student performances in OECD countries.” The Programme for International Student Assessment‘s tests of 15-year-olds’ mathematics, science, literacy and problem-solving skills show that EU students outperform US students, particularly in areas of [...]

Article link: Innovation and disruption still going hand in hand The New York Times reports that “the cutthroat environment of ever increasing competition could actually hinder future technological advances.” The drive for innovative business models in an increasingly deregulated and globalized environment creates rapid continuous change in the global economy. An American school textbook publisher, [...]

Van der Heijden, K. A. (2002). Sixth sense: accelerating organizational learning with scenarios. Chichester ; New York: Wiley. Van der Heijden builds upon the ideas in Scenarios and delves into more modern approaches to scenario planning. He argues, scenario-based continuous learning is the best approach for organizations to identify and plan for external environmental inputs [...]

Article link: Ackerman launches academy for entrepreneurs A new University of Capetown Graduate School of Business academy offers school dropouts a second chance at education. “Known as the Raymond Ackerman Academy of Entrepreneurial Development, the academy will focus on developing business skills and life skills in equal measure among young people between the ages of [...]

The best element of this picture is not the steering wheel. It is the man in the suit — he worked for RAND, which is a pioneering organization in projecting scenarios and forecasting techniques. In his position, he knew his vision of the future was probably wrong… but, he appears fearless. And, that is what [...]