There are many exciting ideas about what the metaverse is now and might be in the future. Today it’s a workplace, a concert, a fashion show, a gaming community, a classroom. But in the future? The metaverse gives off a shape-shifting vision of tomorrow distorted by FOMO and spin. …

By Alexandra Whittington and Teresa Inés Cruz In 2012, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were born at the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development in Rio de Janeiro. The objective was to provide a framework of comprehensive goals and targets addressing the most urgent environmental, political, and economic challenges. Ten…

The importance of learning, unlearning, and relearning the wisdom in foresight By Alexandra Whittington and Teresa Inés Cruz Futurist Alvin Toffler famously said, “The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.” It is time for…

Tomorrow’s Shopping Mall is Taking Shape Today by Alexandra Whittington and Bart Édes U.S. shopping malls have been on the decline for many years, victims of a consumer culture that has turned toward strip malls and on-line shopping. Then the pandemic arrived and shoved many malls over the edge. Iconic…

By Alexandra Whittington The way we work is shifting. The pandemic accelerated the remote working trend, and many companies now embrace the benefits of telecommuting, such as higher employee satisfaction and productivity, plus considerable cost savings. …

By Alexandra Whittington What are the most surprising or unexpected plausible future scenarios imaginable for the university? Even before the pandemic, mainstream debate about the future of higher education tended to oversimplify the issue into a binary choice between online learning and face-to-face instruction. In practice, it is extremely optimistic…

Educational experiences are becoming more diverse by the day. Mobile, wireless, smart, and social technologies allow for learning at any place and at any time. Along with a strong trendline favoring lifelong learning, more and more people seem to sense an education is never complete. Now that on-demand, personalized learning…

This article is an excerpt from a new report by Partners in Foresight, The Home of the 2020s: Scenarios for How We Might Live in the Post-Pandemic Future. — A “collab house” or “content house” is a house where social media influencers live while creating shareable digital content. It is a creative and social media-friendly living environment. In the future, will every house be a content house? The 2020s could be a decade saturated with media emerging from living…

This article is an excerpt from a new report by Partners in Foresight, The Home of the 2020s: Scenarios for How We Might Live in the Post-Pandemic Future. — Should a home literally stimulate the mind? A 2020 global survey by Ikea found that the majority — 78% of us — felt home was a refuge during the pandemic. Home became the place we frequently sheltered, worked, and learned during COVID-19, and it was a sanctuary for many. During…