Future Now
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Keep the Future Weird: The Age of Networked Matter
On May 16-17, our Technology Horizons Program will embark on a journey through three future time horizons— past the present era of Abundant Data, beyond the near future Internet of Things, and into the Age of Networked Matter—at our annual Technology Horizons conference, The Age of Networked Matter. Over the next decade, a confluence of breakthroughs will give us new lenses to observe the wondrous interconnections surrounding us and within us. The coming Age of Networked Matter is a world where everyday objects will blog, robots will have social networks, microbes will talk to kitchens, and forests will “friend” cities. We will look at the emerging technologies in computation, sensing and actuation, wireless, materials science, and even biology that will underpin this coming world, and interact with creators as they reimagine and reinvent the changing context and meaning of our lives.
At the conference, we will unveil our 2013 technology map and An Aura of Familiarity: Visions from the Coming Age of Networked Matter, plus a series of original short stories we commissioned from science fiction’s most visionary provocateurs: Cory Doctorow (@Doctorow), Warren Ellis (@WarrenEllis), Rudy Rucker (@RudytheElder), Bruce Sterling (@Bruces), Ramez Naam (@Ramez), and Madeline Ashby (@MadelineAshby). We’ll work with each other, and with the map and short stories, to understand this world of networked matter and the opportunities it presents to improve our organizations and communities over the next decade. Finally, we will preview next year’s Technology Horizons research theme, Maker Cities, which explores the intersection of the growing maker movement with the next decade of urban crucibles, networked matter, and massively participatory systems, markets, and companies. We’ll preview Maker Cities 2025, our new global early-signals mapping platform, and take a post-conference immersive tour of Maker Faire (@MakerFaire) on Saturday, May 18 in San Mateo.
This event is not open to the public; however, you may follow the conference and join the discussion on the IFTF Facebook page and on Twitter at @IFTF and #networkedmatter!
Conference Highlights
- Video trailers that bring to life An Aura of Familiarity: Visions from the Coming Age of Networked Matter, our original science fiction series.
- A keynote address from open manufacturing evangelist Dominic Muren (@dmuren), a technologist, gardener, and advocate for maker culture and open manufacturing, who will take us into the world of “Maker Cities”.
- A collaborative “Make the Future Weird” exercise, building on the IFTF forecasts and the provocative possibilities described by our science fiction authors to imagine new products, services, and scenarios that could improve our organizations and communities over the next ten years.
- A talk from Chris Noessel (@ChrisNoessel), the author of Make It So: Interface Lessons from Sci-Fi, on attempts to build interfaces from science fiction in the real world.
- A discussion with IFTF Executive Director Marina Gorbis (@mgorbis) about her new book, The Nature of The Future: Dispatches from the Socialstructed World, which is about how new technologies are giving individuals so much power to connect and share resources that networks of individuals—not big organizations—will solve a host of problems by reinventing business, education, medicine, banking, government, and scientific research.
Panel Discussions
- Technologies That Matter—a panel discussion on the emerging capacities and technological shifts that will move us toward the Age of Networked Matter—with founder and CEO of Vitality, David Rose (@DavidRose), Lisa Voss, Innovation Leadership and Capability Development at Cisco, MIT Auto-ID Center Founder Kevin Ashton (@Kevin_Ashton), who is credited with coining the term "Internet of Things.," and IFTF Research Director Devin Fidler (@DevinFidler).
- Living Networks—a panel discussion covering forecasts on interspecies communication, brain-to-brain interfaces, tools to steer social interactions, and new ways of managing complex, but fragmented tasks, with UC Davis Department of Entomology’s Brian Johnson, author Ramez Naam, Ari Gesher (@alephbass), Senior Software Engineer and blogger at Palantir Technologies, and IFTF Research Director Jake Dunagan (@Dunagan23).
- Sorcerer’s Apprentice—a panel discussion on the potential perils of giving up too much control to networks of devices and systems, including Carlos Olguin, head of Bio/Nano/Programmable Matter group at Autodesk Research, Corynne McSherry, Intellectual Property Director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and IFTF Research Director Brinda Dalal.
- Urban Crucibles—a discussion of cities as nested systems of connected people, objects, and microbes, before zooming back out to explore our planet’s big challenges as a network of connected cities, with Research Director Anthony Townsend (@AnthonyMobile) and Airsage Founder and CEO Cy Smith.
- Science Fiction and Art—in which authors Ramez Naam (@Ramez), and Madeline Ashby (@MadelineAshby), Rudy Rucker (@RudytheElder), artist Daniel Martin Diaz, and IFTF Research Director David Pescovitz will discuss how authors and artists bridge the gap between thought and expression when creating work at the intersection of science and fiction.
Join us on this journey to the future, to the Age of Networked Matter!