Future Now
The IFTF Blog
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The Coming Age of Networked Matter
Today, we live in a highly networked world. An astounding array of everyday objects—from food to furniture, buildings to bodies, cars to cities—are becoming connected and interconnected across scales. But imagine moving beyond even the most grandiose visions of an "Internet of Things” toward a tapestry of networked matter: systems of networks that communicate seamlessly, from connected microbes inside our bodies to an internet that stretches across planets.
Welcome to the Age of Networked Matter, where robots will form their own social networks, chairs are digitally-rights managed, microbes talk to kitchens, and every object is six degrees away from the rest of the world. The IFTF Technology Horizons team is at work forecasting the emerging technologies driving this Age and their potential to reshape our companies, cities, and communities.
And to help us see the potential of this wild and woolly future, we’ve enlisted science-fiction’s most visionary provocateurs—Cory Doctorow, Warren Ellis, Rudy Rucker, Bruce Sterling, Ramez Naam, and Madeline Ashby—to explore the superheroic capabilities and messy social dilemmas we might face in the next decade and beyond. These creative storytellers will paint high-resolution views through six original stories commissioned for the Age of Networked Matter. But these stories aren’t final. Over the next three months we’ll get inside these scenarios, build on their ideas, and design real products and services to address some of humanity’s biggest challenges.
For More Information
For more information on the Age of Networked Matter research contact Sean Ness. And follow @IFTF #networkedmatter for more information on how you can be a part of this immersive experience to make the future.