The Road Ahead

terrywfrazier@gmail.com — Tue, 18 Oct 2005 19:31:49 GMT

A group discussion on what trends will most shape our lives in the future. Participants include the usual suspects - Tim O'Reilly, Esther Dyson, Moby, Malcolm Gladwell, Mark Dery, Clay Shirky, David Brooks - but it's still interesting. Some excepts (out of context):

TIME Magazine - The Road Ahead
We assembled some of the smartest people we know to identify the trends that are most likely to affect our future. What we got was a fascinating discussion about religion, technology and politics and why no one's golf scores seem to be getting any better.

[...] MOBY: I know a guy in Barcelona who has started a company to develop algorithms to determine whether a song is going to be a hit. It analyzes music to figure it out--and they're selling it to the record companies, and it's quite effective. If you expand on that, there's no reason you couldn't have your own personal search engine that understands your taste and can instantly analyze music based on a whole bunch of different, very subjective criteria to determine whether you might like it. [...]

[...] GLADWELL: One of the big trends in American society is the transformation of the evangelical movement and the rise of a more mature, sophisticated, culturally open evangelical church. Ten years from now, I don't think we're going to have the kinds of arguments about religion that we have today. [...]

[...] DERY: The democratization of available avenues of possibility is always phrased in market-friendly terms. It's about purchasing power--the cornucopia of options available to those who can stuff their shopping carts and proceed to checkout. How many options were available to those who were marooned in New Orleans? [...]

b.cognosco

The Road Ahead

TIME Magazine - The Road Ahead