As a futurist, it is imperative to be a student of history.  The macro trends, rhythms, and forces of the past can be of great assistance when trying to see ahead clearly.  In the case of the Massachusetts Senate Election I found myself understanding it within the context of American history.  So, Thomas Jefferson a […]

This new decade, 2010-2020, will be known as the Transformation Decade. The definitions of transformation are several: the act or process of transforming, the state of being transformed, change in form, appearance, nature, or character. Don’t those definitions feel like what has been already going on in your life and the world?  Many of us […]

As someone who writes and speaks about alternative and renewable energy, I often get asked about climate change.  What do I think about it?  What is true?  Who to believe? There is so much noise about it.  The media knows it is an important topic to many and they know that controversy prompts viewership so […]

In the early 1970s, when I was first really getting into jazz, I heard one of those glib statements that stuck with me.  “The history of the jazz trumpet can be written in four words:  Louis Armstrong Miles Davis”  Now this obviously is not true as there have been dozens of great jazz trumpeters, but […]

It was twenty years ago last week that the Berlin wall ceased to be a barrier.  The wall of Berlin came down, starting several years of collapse and turmoil in what used to be called Eastern Europe.  This was one of the most remarkable, deeply moving events in my lifetime My entire life up to […]

To many, the absolute collapse of the magazine industry in 2009 may seem stunning.  What is stunning to me is that the industry didn’t see it coming and take steps to avert this collapse.  Once again, another industry can only see a year ahead and thinks that a down year – 2008 – would be […]

“The chances further down the road seem to me better on the fuel-cell side than on the battery-electric side” There are a number of readers of this blog and members of the audiences when I speak that just seem to think that hydrogen fuel cell autos are a pipe dream that has no chance of […]

The Rio Olympics are the first true Shift Age Olympics.  While the Beijing Olympics were the first of this new age, the Rio Olympics were the first selected in the Shift Age.  The Rio Olympics point to the fact that we are not only in the global stage of human evolution, but that the major […]

The recent election in Japan is extremely significant.  It indicates that the country is beginning to catch up to the rest of the world.  In my book “The Shift Age” and my speech with the same title I speak about the “Threshold Decades”, a 20 year period from 1985-2005 when the developed countries of the […]

As a futurist I write and speak about long term trends.  As an advisor and speaker to CEOs, I am looked to for more short term trends and forecasts.  Last September, when the growing recession went into a global financial meltdown after the collapse of Lehman Brothers, I was constantly being asked about what was […]