Institute For The Future

Explore the Automated World with us June 16-17

We’re about to enter an automated world, where everyday people, organizations, and cities use previously-unimagined machine power, where algorithms make art and diagnose illness, and where humans+machines redefine how we live, work, and play. In this future, billions of things in our material world get networked and take on unprecedented capabilities. They’ll have on-demand intelligence and be capable of continuous capture and sensemaking as well as simulating complex decisions. And these ‘things’ won’t be static, but instead adapt as evolvable hardware and encoded judgments reshape the outcomes of their actions. In short, we are approaching a world of unfathomable and transformative automation.

On June 16-17, IFTF's Tech Horizons program will explore these issues and opportunities in The Automated World: Toward Human+Machine Symbiosis. While this event isn't open to the public, you can still follow along on Facebook and on Twitter with @IFTF and #automatedworld.

Guest Speakers

We're excited to have an amazing group of guests joining us for the two days! Here's a sneak peek:

PANEL: Early Innovators of an Automated World
We see glimpses of the Automated World today, from IBM’s Watson in children’s toys to nearly human-free food production processes. In this panel, IFTF will introduce the early innovators who are building the technologies that will automate our cities, organizations and home lives.

• DJ Kleinbaum, Co-Founder, Emerald Therapeutics
• Donald Coolidge, CogniToys
• Ashley Fidler, Context Relevant

KEYNOTE: Christopher Steiner—Author of Automate This: How Algorithms Came to Rule our World

PANEL: Future of Work
IFTF’s Technology Horizons and Workable Futures team have gathered leading experts to think about the real-world ramifications of automation in the workplace and how automation will improve (and challenge) the lives of workers.

• Kris Hammond, Narrative Science
• David Cope, UC Santa Cruz
• John Nave, Cortana Features Lead, Microsoft

PANEL: Dilemmas of Automation
The world of automation presents a number of pressing dilemmas. As opposed to problems—which demand speed, analysis and elimination of uncertainty to solve—dilemmas demand patience, sense-making and an engagement with uncertainty.

• Kashmir Hill, Senior Editor, Fusion
• John Markoff, Author of Machines of Loving Grace and Senior Writer, NYT
• Jerry Kaplan, Fellow, The Stanford Center for Legal Informatics (CODEX)

PRESENTATION: Lauren McCarthy—Faculty, NYU Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP)

Research Launch

As part of our 2015 Technology Horizons research, we’ll launch our new map, The Automated World: Toward Human+Machine Symbiosis, exploring automation on the individual, organizational, and urban scales at this event. Attendees will also receive a new foresight toolkit—a deck of cards stacked with exercises geared to help organizations develop strategies for an automated world.

For a taste of our recent Tech Horizons research, check out our forecast map, Human+Machine Futures in Full Color: Extending Our Senses and Ourselves.