This is the fiftieth anniversary of the 1964 New York World’s Fair. What I loved most about it were the pavilions that offered views of the future. Most of those predictions turned out to be wrong. We humans are not very good at predicting the future. Sometimes we leave things out. Many early Twentieth Century » Read More
Category: future
The Net and Grocery Shopping
I felt like I’d stepped into a timewarp. First, I saw the Fortune article: “Next up for disruption: the grocery business.” Then it was “Webvan’s Founder is Back And He’s Building A Grocery Delivery Business” on Re/code. I remembered the time when Webvan was going to transform the grocery » Read More
Some Things We Know about the Future of Big Data
“Big Data” is one of today’s hot topics. If you’re having a conference, you want something about “Big Data” on the agenda. If you’re concerned about the future of your business, that term is bouncing around in your brain. Prepare to be surprised. We really don’t know what » Read More
Robots
Once, robots were the stuff of science fiction. No more. The Economist has released a Special Report on Robots. The Guardian reports that since Ray Kurzweil joined Google, that company has been snapping up artificial intelligence and robotics companies. Robots have already generated major changes in manufacturing. Roomba » Read More
Is this any way to run a railroad?
Frederick Taylor was late to the party. Taylor and his “scientific management” get credit for creating many of the management practices that we call “traditional” or “command and control.” But the roots of the modern corporation and those “traditional” practices date to more » Read More