04-10-2007, 01:05 PM
By Paul Dickson
The worldââ¬â¢s largest corporations, including Procter & Gamble, Siemens, Motorola and Time Warner, may be planning to port our individual consciousnesses over to machine-generated alternate realities (think Second Life).
The companies will use embedded sensors and displays, RFID tags and other tracking devices, and brain implants as the real-to-virtual gateway through which humans will either jump, or be pushed.
That is, of course, if you believe that think tanks not only predict the future, but actually shape it (link and excerpt, below).
The Institute for the Future predicts ââ¬Åa culture of layered realitiesââ¬Â marked by the ââ¬Åintermingling of alternate-reality games and real-life interactions in physicalââ¬âdigital space,ââ¬Â in its 2005-2015 ââ¬ÅMap of the Decade.ââ¬Â
P&G and the other companies are IFTF members. Rand Corp. researchers, backed by the Ford Foundation, founded the futurist think tank in 1968.
IFTF is headed by one of the fathers of the internet, Jacques Vallée. (He also happens to be one of the worldââ¬â¢s leading UFO experts. Vallée was among several prominent ufologists at a GWU symposium I covered for Wired in 2002.)
Now Jane McGonical, a developer and expert on ubiquitous technologies (a category that includes arfids and embedded sensors) and alternate reality games, is on the IFTF payroll.
ââ¬ÅAs a futures forecaster,ââ¬Â reads one line from McGonicalââ¬â¢s bio, ââ¬ÅI explore how games might be used to virtualize everyday life.ââ¬Â
clipped from tecfa.unige.ch
Influences of forecasts
ââ¬ÅWhile think tanks play many roles, an example that brings home their importance now and in the future is the increasing interest in long-range forecasting and thinking about the future. (ââ¬Â¦) What we must realize now is that as institutions assume the formal role of casting about in the future, they dramatically increase their influence on that future. Simply put, if a think tanks tells its sponsors and others willing to listen that X, Y and Z will occur by the year 2000, then X, Y, and Z are more likely to occur as policy and technological goals adapt to those predictionsââ¬Å
Paul Dickson, Think Tanks, Ballantine Books, 1972.
http://parallelnormal.wordpress.com/2007...realities/
The worldââ¬â¢s largest corporations, including Procter & Gamble, Siemens, Motorola and Time Warner, may be planning to port our individual consciousnesses over to machine-generated alternate realities (think Second Life).
The companies will use embedded sensors and displays, RFID tags and other tracking devices, and brain implants as the real-to-virtual gateway through which humans will either jump, or be pushed.
That is, of course, if you believe that think tanks not only predict the future, but actually shape it (link and excerpt, below).
The Institute for the Future predicts ââ¬Åa culture of layered realitiesââ¬Â marked by the ââ¬Åintermingling of alternate-reality games and real-life interactions in physicalââ¬âdigital space,ââ¬Â in its 2005-2015 ââ¬ÅMap of the Decade.ââ¬Â
P&G and the other companies are IFTF members. Rand Corp. researchers, backed by the Ford Foundation, founded the futurist think tank in 1968.
IFTF is headed by one of the fathers of the internet, Jacques Vallée. (He also happens to be one of the worldââ¬â¢s leading UFO experts. Vallée was among several prominent ufologists at a GWU symposium I covered for Wired in 2002.)
Now Jane McGonical, a developer and expert on ubiquitous technologies (a category that includes arfids and embedded sensors) and alternate reality games, is on the IFTF payroll.
ââ¬ÅAs a futures forecaster,ââ¬Â reads one line from McGonicalââ¬â¢s bio, ââ¬ÅI explore how games might be used to virtualize everyday life.ââ¬Â
clipped from tecfa.unige.ch
Influences of forecasts
ââ¬ÅWhile think tanks play many roles, an example that brings home their importance now and in the future is the increasing interest in long-range forecasting and thinking about the future. (ââ¬Â¦) What we must realize now is that as institutions assume the formal role of casting about in the future, they dramatically increase their influence on that future. Simply put, if a think tanks tells its sponsors and others willing to listen that X, Y and Z will occur by the year 2000, then X, Y, and Z are more likely to occur as policy and technological goals adapt to those predictionsââ¬Å
Paul Dickson, Think Tanks, Ballantine Books, 1972.
http://parallelnormal.wordpress.com/2007...realities/