My wife Deb and I recently got back from a 10-day Princess Cruise through the Panama Canal, a fabulous experience, but one that could have been greatly enhanced with better technology on the part of the cruise line. To illustrate this point, on the 2nd day of the cruise we ran into some people who t…Read More
I started writing this column while I was in Manila, Philippines for a talk with UnionBank, one of the most innovative banks I’ve ever come across. Driving across Manila is often a painful experience with far too many cars locking up all possible arterials, and nowhere near enough money to redesig…Read More
There’s a big difference between what a person wants and what they need. On one hand we need healthy food, a good night’s rest, and decent medical care. But a little voice inside our heads has us craving dinner at Gordon Ramsay’s, an overnight stay at the Ritz Carlton, and a spa weekend at the…Read More
Over the coming months the DaVinci Institute will be unveiling the world’s first Futurist Hall of Fame. As with other “hall of fame” efforts, this one will be dedicated to drawing attention to those who have contributed the most to our thinking about the future. To be sure, the first iteration…Read More
It was a monumental event that no one noticed. Just before 1800 the number of people on earth had climbed to what was then believed to be an astronomically large number – 1 billion. While this was indeed a landmark event, the occasion passed without fanfare. The combination of too few demographers…Read More
Will humans soon be battling for their survival against robots? Even though this has become a favorite Hollywood theme, the likelihood of that happening is nearly zero. Yes, we will have many clashes with human-controlled robots doing battle with other humans or human-controlled robots, but not with…Read More
In his famous poem, William Shakespeare begins with the lines, “All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players.” But what if that were true in more than just an allegorical sense? No, I’m not talking about the philosophical underpinnings of divine intervention or manifest …Read More
In 1901, Dr. Duncan MacDougall set out to discover if the human soul weighed anything. Working in the local old age home, he conducted a series of experiments where he weighed six patients on a precision scale both before and after they breathed their last breath. Comparing variations in the patient…Read More
In the early 1990s, psychologist Robin Dunbar studied the social connections within groups of monkeys and apes. He theorized that the maximum size of their overall social group was limited by the size of their neocortex. Based on our neocortex size, Dunbar calculated that humans should be able to ma…Read More
2015 saw 42 new unicorn companies ($1B+ valuation) take center stage, the most ever, and a clear indication that the scalability of Internet will redefine the business landscape for generations to come. For this reason, no industries are safe, nor should they be. Many are anxiously awaiting drone de…Read More
