I have been deeply interested in Zen since my late teens. When I moved to Japan in my late 20s, ultimately spending 3 ½ years there, the reasons included my fascination with Zen.
Soon after I arrived in Tokyo I found a Zen master, Nishijima-Sensei, who held weekly meditation sessions followed by lectures in English on Shobogenzo, the foundation text of Soto Zen.
Later I lived for a year in his Zen Dojo, commuting to my day job as a financial journalist, following the center’s principles of meditating twice a day and doing the daily chores that sustained the community, and taking the Soto Zen Buddhist precepts.
This time helped me resolve one of the issues I had grappled with since I had entered the workforce. Zen teaches us that the only thing that exists is the present. Yet if there is only the present, how and why should we work in the present to create the outcomes we desire in the future?
The answer is simple, though it took a long time for me to truly understand it.
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The future of dating: VR dates, AI wingmen, DNA compatibility, facial recognition
By Ross DawsonThis morning on the occasion of Valentine’s Day I appeared on the Today Extra TV show to talk about the future of dating.
Watch the segment below.
Some of the highlights from our conversation (plus some more detail):
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The best futurists ever: How Isaac Asimov shaped robotics and space exploration and predicted the Internet
By Jenna OwsianikSome futurists try to foresee the future. Others attempt to shape it. Yet prolific science-fiction author and biochemist Isaac Asimov did both.
Asimov not only invented the word “robotics,” his “Three Laws of Robotics,” first written as part of a short story in 1942, have had a massive impact on framing how people think about the development of artificial intelligence and the field of robotics itself.
Outside scientific domains, Asimov’s many writings have also inspired several popular movies including Bicentennial Man and I, Robot. His IMDb page shows contributions to various televisions series throughout his life, as well as a number of posthumous writing credits.
Perhaps most amazing are Asimov’s many accurate predictions on the Internet and what the world would look like in this decade. Several were in made a famous article published in The New York Times in 1964, which envisioned life in 2014.
Below are some of Isaac Asimov’s most accurate predictions.
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It is time to share more of myself
By Ross DawsonI have recently substantially changed my activities so I am far more focused.
I have for too long had too many ventures. I desperately needed to limit the scope of what I was doing, which I have done. (More on that in another blog post soon.)
Focus on the future
This allows me to focus on being the futurist, thinking and communicating in multiple formats about the future and what we need to do now to create the future we want.
It also gives me that modicum of space to come back to the path of self-discovery that is at the heart of all our lives.
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Mapping the adoption curve of brain implants
By Ross DawsonA new study has demonstrated that people who have brain implants (the research used epileptics who already have implants to control their ailment) can have their memory improved using electrical impulses controlled by AI.
Brain implants to help the disabled
Brain implants have for years now been used to assist those with neurological disease to control their environment, for example the groundbreaking Braingate project shown in the video below.
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How the Future of Retail will drive the Future of Travel
By Jenna OwsianikThe travel industry is poised to expand in incredible ways, not the least of which will be due to rapid technological progress. The future of retail, in particular, and how top performing companies embrace such advances will play a significant role in shaping the sector.
At Travelport LIVE 2017, world-renowned futurist Ross Dawson’s keynote homed in on this point. There he shared his EPIC framework which identifies the four domains of value in retail and applied it to the world of travel. You can watch a video of the full keynote with slides here.
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What you can do today to prepare for the future of work: Individuals, Families and Organizations
By Ross DawsonThe Commonwealth Bank Jobs and Skills of the Future Report that I prepared late last year delved into how the world of work is changing, the new jobs that are emerging, the skills that will be required, and how education needs to evolve to meet our changing needs.
To conclude I provided summary advice to individuals, families, and organizations on how to prepare for the future of work. Below is this section of the report. Click here to read the full report (12.4MB).
What you can do today
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Why there will ALWAYS be work for humans
By Ross DawsonThere is massive uncertainty on the future impact of artificial intelligence.
Among those who we can consider the ‘experts’ – the most qualified on the planet to judge – there are deep disagreements on the potential for general artificial intelligence, the evolution of work, whether AI is an existential threat to humanity, and almost every other aspect of the impact of AI.
Let us leave aside for now the full scope of the future relationship between humans and machines.
On the subject of work, I have frequently found myself bemused by the many people who appear to believe that machines will before long do all work, leaving nothing for humans to do other than hopefully bask in the leisure we have.
While it is possible that fewer people will be in gainful employment (which is not a given, more on that in another post), I don’t believe we will ever have a world of no human work, for many reasons.
What is ‘work’?
Our views on what work is clearly need to evolve for a changing world.
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Engineering serendipity is the future of associations
By Ross DawsonLast week I gave a keynote on The Future of Associations at the annual Board of Directors Retreat for one of the world’s largest professional associations, held in the delightful venue of Panama City.
Having been involved in the events, thought leadership initiatives and awards of a wide variety of associations over the years, I have long thought that there is massive untapped potential value in many associations’ member networks.
The disruption of associations
Over the last 5-10 years many associations have been challenged by a confluence of powerful forces undermining their established positions.
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Zen and the Art of Creating the Future
By Ross DawsonI have been deeply interested in Zen since my late teens. When I moved to Japan in my late 20s, ultimately spending 3 ½ years there, the reasons included my fascination with Zen.
Soon after I arrived in Tokyo I found a Zen master, Nishijima-Sensei, who held weekly meditation sessions followed by lectures in English on Shobogenzo, the foundation text of Soto Zen.
Later I lived for a year in his Zen Dojo, commuting to my day job as a financial journalist, following the center’s principles of meditating twice a day and doing the daily chores that sustained the community, and taking the Soto Zen Buddhist precepts.
This time helped me resolve one of the issues I had grappled with since I had entered the workforce. Zen teaches us that the only thing that exists is the present. Yet if there is only the present, how and why should we work in the present to create the outcomes we desire in the future?
The answer is simple, though it took a long time for me to truly understand it.
Read more →
About getting predictions wrong as a futurist (and how to create the future you want)
By Ross DawsonOver the years I have created a lot of content – books, reports, visual frameworks and far more – that has been very widely seen. From all this undoubtedly the one piece that has been the most visible globally is my Newspaper Extinction Timeline launched in October 2010, that predicted for each country in which year newspapers in their then-current form would become “insignificant”.
Coverage in over 100 major publications from more than 30 countries helped to garner many, many millions of views, attract critics galore, and generate substantial debate.
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