The insurance industry exists as a tool for mitigating the costs and damage associated with a single incident occurring for an individual or organization.

But this is nothing new. The Babylonians developed an early form of insurance that was recorded in the famous Code of Hammurabi as early as 1750 BC.

Over time, the idea of risk pooling has evolved into the complex insurance industry we have today.

Disruptive entrepreneurs have methodically sought out the business world’s most lucrative revenue streams and begun chipping away at the edges. Insurance, fortified by an onerous regulatory environment, remains one of the last strongholds of profitability.

It is in this context that we see a new set of crosshairs coming into focus as the next generation of insurance begins to emerge. Here are some of the changes that lie ahead.

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Scarcity is defined as an economic condition that arises when people have far greater wants than the available resources. Most often we think about the limited supplies of natural resources, but it includes far more than that.

As an example, in September 2010 China decided to block shipments of rare earth minerals to Japan. Rare earth minerals are used in manufacturing everything from consumer electronics to batteries to defense systems. China only has about 30 percent of the known supply of rare earth deposits but accounts for about 95 percent of global production.

While momentarily shaken by this political posturing, Japan quickly reassessed its situation, launched a global search for new rare deposits, established recycling centers to extract the metals from old electronics gear, and cut a deal with Australia, who ramped up their supply of the minerals to meet Japan’s needs.

As a result, the demand for China’s rare earth minerals has since plummeted as they instantly branded themselves as the “untrusted supplier of last resort.”

The scarcity in this situation wasn’t the supply of minerals. Rather, it was a momentary shortage of creative problem solving, something the Japanese are very good at.

Even though the Internet has turned the world of scarcity on its head, there are tons if imbalances yet to be mined and turned into profitable businesses. These imbalances are what gives society it’s forward motion, turning problems into opportunities.

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For colleges and universities, the great age of experimentation is now upon us.

Last week, Harvard and MIT announced a new nonprofit partnership, known as edX, to offer free online courses from both universities.

The Minerva Project recently announced it will become the first elite American University to be launched in over a century, at the same time, transforming every aspect of the university-student relationship. The Ronin Institute is promising to reinvent academia, but without the academy.

The University of the People (UoPeople) is the world’s first tuition-free online university dedicated to the global advancement and democratization of higher education.

In addition, iTunesU, Khan Academy, Learnable, Udemy, Codecademy, Udacity, and a number of other online courseware providers are offering their own approach to next generation learning.

But somewhere, lost in the middle of this battle of the institutions, are the lowly professors upon whom these organizations were built.

That is about to change and here’s why.

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As a Futurist, people often ask me how many of my predictions have come true. I find this to be a rather uncomfortable question. It’s uncomfortable, not because my track record hasn’t been up to par (actually, a high percentage have come true), but because accuracy of predictions is a poor way of measuring the value of a Futurist.

In a world filled with MBAs and number crunchers, there is a constant push to reduce our analog world to digital analytics so we can accurately measure our return on investment.

But not everything is measurable in this way.

As an example, for several years I have been tracking when my best insights occur, and they happen with far greater frequency when I’m riding bike. Therefore, it’s easy to conclude that if I spent 8-10 hours a day riding bike, I could somehow unlock the secrets of the universe.

However, the world is far more complicated than the simple surface details we can measure. What’s the value of a new idea, a new strategy, or adding awareness to a previous blindspot?

Too often, our ability to focus on one all-consuming detail blinds us to the oncoming train that is about to destroy an entire industry.

For this reason I’ve put together a list of the Eight Critical Points of Value that a Futurist brings to the table.

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