Future Smart

Joining Richard Syrett, futurist James Canton discussed how to become 'future smart.' He illuminated the pivotal forces and global dynamics that everyone must understand today to thrive in a rapidly shifting landscape, including game-changing trends that are coming in business and technology. According to Canton, we are living in times defined by a new metric "beyond Moore's Law," where accelerated exponential changes in various technologies (nano, bio, neuro, quantum, and IT) are going to make for a different civilization. He envisions robots cleaning our homes, computers trading stock, and artificial intelligence (AI) driving telecom and financial services. Canton revealed that some existing technology is so advanced it defies language, pointing to quantum computer developer D-Wave. The next ten years of advancements on the planet will be like the past 100,000 years, he forecast.

Canton lauded benefits of AI, such as the ability to more effectively manage energy production, food distribution, geopolitical conflict, and, ultimately, interstellar travel. The challenge we face at present is learning to control the development of AI and robotics to serve humanity, he suggested. If done correctly, the next decade will be filled with prosperity and peace, he predicted, warning that old jobs and ways of thinking would vanish. "We need to learn at a faster pace, integrate at a faster pace, to catch up with this accelerating juggernaut of emerging technologies that are creating almost two civilizations side by side," he cautioned. Canton also spoke about standardizing online technology and education, 3-D printers that can print electronics, and how nanotech may one day be used to reverse ecologically disasters.

Deja Vu

In the first hour, author Marie Jones talked about deja vu and the strange case of man who suffered with chronic deja vu. "It seems like extreme anxiety may have been triggering the part of [his] brain that was creating this ongoing deja vu," she explained. Deja vu happens more to young people and some research points to increased episodes of deja vu during leisure time, Jones added. That feeling of remembering something that never occurred can actually be triggered in a clinical setting, she continued, noting that the trigger for spontaneous deja vu remains a mystery. Jones also suggested deja vu is a gateway experience that may one day lead to answers for various paranormal phenomena.

Deja Vu

In the first hour, author Marie Jones talked about deja vu and the strange case of man who suffered with chronic deja vu. "It seems like extreme anxiety may have been triggering the part of [his] brain that was creating this ongoing deja vu," she explained. Deja vu happens more to young people and some research points to increased episodes of deja vu during leisure time, Jones added. That feeling of remembering something that never occurred can actually be triggered in a clinical setting, she continued, noting that the trigger for spontaneous deja vu remains a mystery. Jones also suggested deja vu is a gateway experience that may one day lead to answers for various paranormal phenomena.