Garry Golden

I just posted on Memebox FutureBlogger about a recent CERA forecast on the potential plateauing of US gasoline demand inthe next 10-15 years - possibly in 2010.
How can demand peak so soon?
Because sustained high energy prices are forcing the auto industry to increase efficiencies and move beyond the combustion engine as we electrify the industry […]

A personal/professional update since this blog has not been an accurate mirror of my freelance work world.
The spring and early summer have been quite fantastic (and busy) with several collaborative projects on the:

future of transportation infrastructure (TxDOT/University of Houston Futures Studies program)
future of financial services (Citigroup/FutureThink)
association leadership in 21st century (ASAE/ UK-based FastFuture)
future of […]

My resource notes for a radio interview on WORT (in beautiful Madison, WI) - looking at strategies to counter Peak Oil scenarios through the use of biologically derived energy. e.g. Algae/bacteria that produce biofuels or hydrogen
[First, an important question: Which is more likely to happen first - The ‘end’ of oil? Or the end […]

It is easy to set up a blog, but not easy to maintain an accurate web presence that reflects, or better yet - balances, one’s personal interests and professional services.
I have struggled to post on a regular basis, and to make those posts accessible to wider audiences. One of the downsides of working […]

What is the future of energy? The future of energy is about Asia, electrons, biology, nanoscale materials science and inter-dependence.  The great challenge for the energy industry seems to be meeting global demand while trying to overcome production and distribution challenges suitable for a planet of 6 to 9 billion […]

Of course I laughed at the quick exchanges and ‘ego’ jokes while Stephen Colbert interviewed Craig Venter (of human genome sequencing fame) on the Colbert Report. But my mouth dropped when Venter spoke very confidently about ‘microorganisms that produce hydrogen or biofuels’, and Colbert played right into this big, powerful idea that could […]

[Update on 1/21/08 -  Since writing this post, General Motors declared  that commercial autonomous vehicles are ‘closer than most people assume’; India won cheers and jeers with its $2,500 Nano ‘people’s car‘, and the web has been active in software oriented transportation solutions that tap GPS devices jumping off the shelf at Best Buy;  Peer […]

An Association of Professional Futurists colleague Kaipo Lum (CEO Vision Foresight Strategy) has turned me back onto presentations by Thomas Barnett - author of the Pentagon’s New Map and Blueprint for Action.
I remembered Barnett’s 2005 TED Conference presentation quite well - but it always struck me as a specific look at the Iraq war […]

Last week Nokia, the world’s largest mobile phone maker, spent $8 billion to acquire Navteq, the world’s second largest maker of maps used in car-navigation devices and handhelds.
Is it time for us to reconsider the economic value of maps? Or, better yet, the value created in map-making?!
Read more below…

“The seemingly impossible is possible” - and then watch me shock the audience in the end… Hans Rosling is back!
TED 2007 has released its latest video of Hans Rosling’s (of Gapminder.org) visual journey / talk on global health and economic development. Nearly one year after his web-famous TED 2006 talk which highlighted […]

Understanding the future of technology is not about seeing ‘trends’ and fads. It is about comprehending real disruption around fundamental shifts in infrastructure and software architecture. That is where we expose and exploit the opportunities and uncertainties of transformational change. The semiconductor industry is poised for several ‘shifts’ – […]

While ‘user generated’ videos are getting all the buzz today— keep your eye on the digital map-making community and the growth around geolocation services. Someday soon (1-3 years) ‘map-making’ might be the next big thing!
In recent months the NY Times and Wall Street Journal have been running articles about the growing relevance of […]

Watch this clip from the TED Conference of Blaise Aguera y Arcas - Architect of PhotoSynth
Or go directly to: http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/129

I’ve been following Photosynth for a while now… and that demonstration just launched the product into the geek/design world blogosphere. It is buzzing on the web! Blaise and crew are doing […]

Interface is a hot topic in conversations related to the future of technology. The vision is often a world of technologies with more intuitive interfaces that create a more ‘human’ experience for the user.
Go deeper and the vision is to break down the barrier between the physical and digital (virtual) world- setting […]

The Coming Social Space of Video
In less than five years we could see the convergence of a potent combination of digital technologies that could disrupt the video web. There are many ingredients to this mixed reality web – here are a few to consider…

Terahertz chips in desktop computers,
Thin […]

We should remember that web pages, as we know it, are only ten years old – and have been built around first generation web programming languages, network architecture and the dominance of the desktop/laptop web experience. There is no shortage of visions about where the web is headed – but what seems […]

Professional futurists often say that one of the most common mistakes made in forecasting change is to overestimate change in the short term, or underestimate change in the long term. Too often change is hyped in the beginning; and ignored as a real long term disruptive force.
We use a […]

Things are shifting again on the ‘internet’ – the first area deals with the emergence of the ‘geo web’ and location based delivery of information/services; the second shift is the rapid rise of video (which is a mixture of forms of broadcast, user generated content, and using video as a social space itself…) (More […]

More on terahertz…carbon transistors, Google’s ‘geo’ push, video telepresence, online video tools, WiMAX, OLEDs, MEMs, ‘chain link’ clothing (!), ‘black hole’ optical coatings, ultrahydrophobic coatings, etc…

I just ‘Stumbled upon’ another Google Earth ‘gliding’ interface called M3D Glider (also here) designed by a Netherlands based software firm – Medality (no current link available). This is only a few days after seeing Microsoft Vista’s embedded fly-through feature through Live Search. Thought it was worth a short post on […]

 
Bio-energy (protein electron transfer), Purdue’s biomass energy appliance, solid hydrogen storage, rapid nanotube assessment, ‘ultimate microscope’, nano ‘rachet’, microfluidics, bio-computing, nanoparticle coatings, RFIDs, mesh networks, India’s R&D workforce, micro-payments…

(Older post from Jan 30, 2007)
Time to make this blog an open book on my thinking– rather than wait and gather my thoughts into stories– I am going to include some of my scanning results each day so you can see the ingredients that go into my forecasts…

(Older post from Jan. 2007 - could use an update- but I need to migrate all my posts from the old Wordpress first!!)
As the YouTube led video revolution fades as the novel story of this digital age, we can see quite clearly that virtual worlds such as Second Life are ready for their mainstream media […]