'When I Grow Up, I Want To Be A Futurist' by Nikolas Badminton

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When I Grow Up, I Want to Be a Futurist
A Collection of Articles, Discussions, and Predictions
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By Nikolas Badminton
2015
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Contents
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Preface / 4
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Acknowledgments / 9
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1 The Strange Future of Sex / 10
2 Predictions on What the Future Will Look Like / 15
3 The Internet of Things in 2020 / 19
4 Software is Sexier than Advertising / 21
5 Creativity, Collaborative Economy, and Building the Future / 27
6 2015 Predictions: The Rise of #thefutureofwork, Industrial
Wearables, Surveillance, and Psychedelics / 33
7 2014 Predictions: An Exciting Year for Connected Society and
Business / 43
8 2013 Predictions: Low Quality, High Volume / 47
9 Twenty-Five Quotes That Count / 51
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Preface
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“You should write a book.” Those words rang in my ears. How will I find the
time? I am busy with three separate jobs, a relationship, blogging, and writing articles.
I’ve threatened to write long-form books on specific subjects for some time; however,
when I start researching, I find that things move so quickly that my original intentions
are soon washed away and replaced with newer, more innovative ways and means for
humans to connect and interact with each other.
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Wait. Writing? Well, maybe I’ve already done enough writing to form a book. That is
where the idea to release this book came from. Instead of starting a new book right
away (a new book will come soon), I have collected some of my favourite writing and
thoughts from the past two to three years and compiled it here.
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For as long as I remember, I have actively spent time thinking about what technologi-
cal trends will have the biggest impact on humanity and how they bind people togeth-
er through relationships, intimacy, and business. To gain an understanding, let’s look at
the path that led me where I am today.
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In 1991, I took my childhood love of computers (I had been coding and gaming since
I was ten years old) and decided to pursue a more serious goal of mastering comput-
ing applications and developments. I enrolled in Yeovil College in Somerset, England,
which gave me an amazing grounding in databases, more advanced mathematics,
desktop publishing, and graphics. That was also when I started writing, albeit more
satirically, about student life.
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In 1993, I started at Bournemouth University, where they offered one of only two
courses in the UK that really dug into human-computer interaction – a BSc in Applied
Psychology and Computing. This choice was very deliberate. Even back then, I felt
that computing and technology were going to go way beyond just utilitarian applica-
tions, into areas that would be more akin to self-learning computing, with society’s
very operations adjusting to fit how applications and technology facilitate a more op-
timized existence. Out of all of the module choices, I chose a more focused route by
studying neural networks, linguistics, social-network theory, multimedia, cognitive psy-
chology, organizational psychology, human-computer interfaces, database program-
ming, and data analysis. It was a course full of people trying to work out where we
were headed, and the lecturers were driven to really challenge traditional thought and
to think differently about the world. It was at this time that my curiosity and bravery
of opinion was born.
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After university, I decided to follow a more business-focused career path versus acad-
emia or research, which was partly out of necessity for a decent income. Over the past
eighteen years, I have had a pretty interesting ride from how computing is used in
markets, large-batch processing, customer service, customer behavioural analytics, or-
ganizational optimization, and all the way through to exerting influence using digital
advertising, traditional media, social networks, and content. Throughout it all, I have
tried to push thinking and boundaries in order to make the tools and platforms I use
work better for people (I often ignored manuals in favour of using software in ways
that were needed rather than prescribed). The chapter entitled, “Software is Sexier
than Advertising” will give you more of a perspective on this part of my life.
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So, where does that leave me? Today, I work in a number of fields, write, and organize
events that help people see what is going on in the world and challenge their percep-
tions. In 2011, my friend Kharis O’ Connell and I travelled to Portland to attend an
event called “Cyborg Camp” held by Amber Case. I had become aware of Amber
through her TED talk, “We Are All Cyborgs Now,” and found her views on the field
of cyborg anthropology and where we were headed to be so essential. We met Amber,
listened to the talks, and a month later we jumped on a call to arrange a Cyborg Camp
YVR event for Vancouver in 2012. This event turned out to be an amazing one, in
which the following topics were discussed: the fluidity of the interface, becoming
more human through technology, the ethics in robotics and surgery, wearable comput-
ing and crime, and emotional interfaces. It was the first event like this to be held in
Vancouver, BC, Canada.
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Following that, Kharis and I started a design-thinking format, called “PRODUCT,”
where people would attend a short presentation by an expert in a particular field who
provided a thought-provoking perspective and then led guided exercises to get them
thinking about the opportunities presented. These opportunities would then be par-
celled up and passed on to whomever could benefit from them - typically local gov-
ernment and larger businesses. Subjects included reductionist approaches to smart-
phone design, creativity in urban environments (including how skateboarding can
teach us about creativity and connection), and why mascots and personalities are im-
portant factors in the adoption of municipal transport systems. I even worked with
Vancouver Film School and Launch Academy to deliver PRODUCT as part of their
curriculum.
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In June 2014, I formulated and hosted the “From Now: Humanity with Technology” con-
ference, with speakers on urban design, gamification in healthcare, theories of time
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and prediction, bio-hacking, sex and technology, and more views on emotional design.
Later that year, I also formulated an event called “Dark Futures: Revealing the Truth be-
hind Hidden Systems”, which was a little more dystopian and was born of a conversation
about sharks eating undersea Internet cables, urban manipulation, and surveillance.
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Where did all of this lead? Well, definitely to opening minds, making more friends,
encouraging progressive thinking, and to people calling me a “futurist.” When it first
started happening, I felt a little strange. I was just curious and wanted to create plat-
forms for discussion. Then I started to feel more comfortable when talking about
what I did for a living and what I was interested in. I never aimed for the title of “fu-
turist”; I just kind of grew into it (thus the title of this book) and I like it, to be hon-
est.
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It would serve us all well, as author and readers, to frame my predictions and visions
of the future. I am more of a “near futurist”; meaning I look between two and five
years ahead rather than twenty or thirty years out. I’ll leave that to great thinkers such
as Alvin Toffler, Ray Kurzweil, and others. My process is actually very simple and has
five steps:
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Step 1: Walk down the street and observe your daily life
What works? What doesn’t? What relationships seem to persevere? What systems
need to be changed and optimized? For me, it’s about thinking about the kind of
world I would like to live in and leave as a legacy for future generations.
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Step 2: Constant research
I regularly meet with very smart people from various disciplines. I actively seek out
people’s opinions, which goes beyond experts to anyone who may be touched by
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something – doing so creates a broad canvas on which to think about challenges and
solutions. I review media and new research articles and opinions from popular and
academic culture on a daily basis, work on presentations, and write regularly.
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Step 3: Be creative
To embrace a vision of the future in utopian and dystopian states, and its implications,
requires the ability to step outside of your current state of mind and location. You
have to imagine how every structure, system, and rule we have in place today could be
flipped on its head. You need empathy for many different people, communities, coun-
tries, and businesses trying to use technologies in services and products. You need
compassion and kindness when considering what might be the best course of action.
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Step 4: Take a chance and look beyond the obvious
Be brave. Never be afraid of saying something justified that goes against popular
opinion; even if this means losing some work or even a friend or two.
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Step 5: Make (and maintain) friends - This is so important. For every opinion,
prediction, and thought there needs to be a counterpoint and input from multiple
sources.
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Overall, I like to think about what William Blake said in his writing All Religions Are
One (1788):“The true method of knowledge is experiment.”
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Enjoy this collection.
-- Nikolas Badminton, February, 2015
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Acknowledgments
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I have so many people who I need to thank for this book. The epic and adven-
turous Evelyn, my mother and father, Kharis O’Connell, Ryan Betts, Nick Black, Am-
ber Case, Amal Graafstra, Alex Beim, Megan Brand, Niveria Oliveira, Andrew How-
ell, Meena Sandhu, Jo Shin, Boris Mann, Mark Busse, Patrick Sauriol, Jonathan
Vaughn-Strebly, Chad Woodley, Natalie Godfrey, Ute Preusse, Dave Smith, Nate
Smith, Sarah Tesla, Polina Bachlakova, Claire Atkin, Andrew Jackson, Rik Logtenberg,
Bradley Roulston, Oliver Moorhouse, Ben Bashford, Jack Dayan, Steven Graves,
Stephen McGuinness, Udi Daon, Chuck Harper, Joel Greensite, Jordan Yerman, Maja
Segedi, Quinn Nielson, Randy Siu, the Pirates, Suzanne Rushton, Dan de Sosa, and
my long-standing friends Chloe Twiston-Davies, Joanne Levenberg, Glenn Selby,
Richard Clarke, Phillip Luckett, and Kit Goodchild.
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I’m likely to have forgotten some people who feel they should be mentioned. Print
out this page and write your name below.
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The Strange Future of Sex
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“Sex should be friendly. Otherwise, stick to
mechanical toys; it’s more sanitary.”  
Robert A. Heinlein
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* * *
At the end of 2013, I realized that I had been drawn toward the effect of tech-
nology on humanity’s ability to create and maintain relationships. But I wanted to go
one step further. I wanted to explore more intimate, physical relationships using tech-
nology and the (potential) effect that it’s having on intimacy and connection.
* * *
On June 7th, 2014, I hosted “From Now: Humanity with Technology.” This
was a conference held to look at where we are headed with new technologies and in-
novations. For this event, I prepared a presentation entitled “Sex and the Singularity,”
which dealt with how far we have come with technology creeping into our sex lives,
sexuality, and intimate relationships (scroll to the end for the video if you want to skip
the insight into this article).
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In preparation for the session, my friend Polina Bachlakova – art lover, curator, strate-
gist, and creative – interviewed me on “The Strange Future of Sex” for the Vancouver
Is Awesome online magazine run by my friend Bob Kronbauer. What follows is a tran-
scription of this interview.
You’re looking at how technology is changing the way we have and consume
sex. In your opinion, are the current and potential changes negative, or is there
a light of hope for sex influenced by technology?
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Start off with a hard question why don’t you? OK, let’s tackle the (perceived) negative
side first. I think society doesn’t know what to do with discussions and developments
with sex in general, so that makes things really hard (excuse the pun). We have a more
developed sex toy, fetish, and plastic-surgery market that have active technological de-
velopments right now. We also have more niche applications relating to transsexual-
ism, bio-hacking, and even robotics that live in the shadows. Overall, the problem is
that sex is marginalized. As a society we are shameful and prudish so discussions are
not as open or as serious as they should be. And that’s before we even start to talk
about technological developments.
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On the positive side, we have the opportunity to fix sexual dysfunction, be more open
about our sexual identities and have an enhanced sex life more than ever before
through technological development. One example I really love is Dr. Meloy’s Orgas-
matron. Amazing! Technology can also connect people at the edges of sexual adven-
ture, too. Did you know that there is a private social network for people into BDSM,
called Fetlife that is based in Canada and is a worldwide phenomenon?
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I think we all have a role in being curious and active sexual pioneers that seek out
augmented capabilities for a stronger sense of who we are sexually and how we can
have more fun. I’m all for that … fly the cyber-freak flag!
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This is a pretty specific topic you’ll be discussing. Why did you choose to talk
about sex and the singularity?
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It’s just such a rich subject to talk about and is as old as the hills. As an Englishman, I
embrace talking about such things openly here, as we on the West Coast are quite lib-
eral and free from embarrassment (as is quite often seen in the UK).
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I think we are careering towards a technological approach towards creating and culti-
vating relationships. Technology has made the first impression to be very asinine by
reducing it to an image (or set of images) and a short description of who we are.
Technologies like OKCupid and Tinder are making a mockery of humanity. They can
be gamed. And that’s just the start of things, and don’t get me started on the banality
of Facebook “liking,” stalking, and the suchlike that leads to reduced self-esteem and
reliance on popularity to reinforce our looks and attractiveness.
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Even existing relationships are being enhanced through technology that fixes prob-
lems with being able to orgasm and erectile dysfunction, or [are] being ripped apart by
social networks allowing for the rekindling [of] old flames that lead to non-consensual
sexual relations and secret online sex lives.
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Challenges exist at every turn and in many different places. Look at the hot water
Nintendo got into with their game “Tomodachi Life.” It’s a life simulation game that
is similar to The Sims and Second Life, where you create and develop characters that
live out your life in a virtual world. Players create a personalized avatar called a “Mii”
that can have relationships with other players’ Miis. If your virtual relationship is go-
ing well, your Miis can get married, but Nintendo forgot to build it so that two charac-
ters of the same gender could marry. A #Miiquality campaign on social media was
started and generated a huge amount of negative press. In all honesty, I could talk
about sexual anthropology and technology for hours on end.
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What are your predictions for how we’ll consume and have sex in 2045?
I think that very few of us will choose to have sex or relationships due to busy lives
and more immediate connectivity through devices. It’s a scary future. At From Now, I
will talk about the real emergence of a solipsistic society, where we regress and live in
our own bubbles without a care in the world for what anyone else thinks or feels. We
are heading that way quickly if we are left unchecked. That means decreasing popula-
tions and an increased burden on social systems. Japan (and a number of other coun-
tries) is facing that problem right now, and I think we’ll have to move towards models
of commercial surrogacy and more lenient borders to allow for population to grow
and migrate a lot more easily with less disruption to our lives. I have to say that’s not
an ideal state for society but will be born from necessity. It’s also likely that the ability
to selectively choose stronger, smarter children will also be part of that, and that
could indeed widen the gap between those who have and those who have little in
terms of ability and intelligence. It will be a very progressive, yet difficult, political and
sociological future for us all.
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Is there anything happening right now that you’re really excited about?
That’s a great question. I think that medical advances that help people get back down
to having sex and a stronger sexual identity is great (see the Dr. Meloy example
above). Even new virtual-reality applications are starting important debates. BeAnoth-
erLab has undertaken a project that is letting users experience a few minutes as the
opposite gender. (Warning: some nudity ahead in the hyperlinks).
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Virtual sex is even taking a (rather strange) leap forward with VR TENGA in Japan,
which takes the idea of creating a personal celebrity sex tape, starring you and them,
forward into reality. Scary or cool? A bit of both in my mind. I am also a great propo-
nent of the #realworldsex movement that is happening. Cindy Gallop and her team
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have developed MakeLoveNotPorn.tv as an alternative to the mass-produced porn
that is readily available (again, that link is NSFW if you click through but realize that
these are real people having real connections, so if your IT department or boss freaks
out then have a conversation about real-world representation of love and sex). Once
you see real sex and emotional connection on camera, it seems to neuter the oooohs,
aaaahs, and set pieces that exist in online pornography and replaces them with sweaty
laughter, intensity, and fun. After you watch two or three videos, it actually turns you
off “traditional” pornography – try it and see what I mean. Pornography is so perva-
sive that we need way more of these demonstrations of human connection to balance
out bad (and sometimes quite abusive) practices learnt through unrealistic depictions
of sex.
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Predictions on What the Future Will Look Like
“I never assume anything. I anticipate the possibilities
and allow my imagination to create the future.”
Lionel Suggs
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* * *
This piece is related to the From Now: Humanity with Technology conference,
held in Vancouver, British Columbia on June 7, 2014. As part of the sign-up process,
I asked attendees to provide me with a prediction. At the conference, I worked with
Afshin Mehin, Creative Director of WOKE design agency, to create an installation of
some of the predictions. It looked great. Below are some submitted ideas that I used
to generate interest about the event.
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Recently, I’ve noticed a great many articles and infographics that talk about
where we are headed in the world with all of this technology. With wearables, Nike
recently walked away from the FUEL Band; Google is still hawking Google Glass; and
even Facebook joined the game with the purchase of the Finnish company Moves.
With health-related technology, we are seeing an increased amount of personal med-
ical insights from companies such as 23andMe (even though the FDA didn’t like the
DNA markers they showed) and loads of apps that help patients self-diagnose skin
conditions, heart arrhythmia, and a number of other ailments (a modern hypochon-
driac’s dream). In daily life, we are seeing the rise of mobility and even the dawn of
mesh networks that may make conventional carriers obsolete (I imagine this will be a
hard-fought battle, so don’t hold your breath).
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Humanity is careering towards “singularity” -- a moment in time when artificial intel-
ligence will have progressed to the point of a greater-than-human intelligence with
far-reaching effects on civilization and perhaps how humanity operates.
I have been collecting a number of predictions from Vancouverites on where they
think the world is heading with technology as part of a gathering of minds at an up-
coming conference called “From Now.” Each attendee has offered up their view of
what and when things will happen. I wanted to share my top-five predictions with
some more insights:
2018: A group of people will be standing around a water cooler listening to a
co-worker complain about how he can’t figure out how to program his couch.
This seems pretty fantastical. However, as home-goods manufacturers start to inte-
grate computers and intelligence into housewares and furniture to create connectivity
and control, it may not be that far-fetched. Interaction designer Simone Rebaudengo
has imagined a world of “needy” products that want nothing more than to be used,
which is wonderfully demonstrated with “Brad the Toaster.” Brad tests you and de-
cides whether you will be a worthy host. If the toaster is not happy with you, it will
share and reassign itself to a new owner (it will arrange its own shipping) and you will
lose that toast-making friend.
2021: We will only have friends on social media, and the iPhone13, known as
“The Unlucky One,” will be powered by body heat, never leaving a person’s
side. Ever.
To me, this scenario seems grounded in some science-fiction nightmare. We are even
more reliant on our devices, Apple or otherwise, and we pick them up and use them
over 150 times a day according to recent research, so it might not be so crazy after all.
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Ann Makosinski, a student from Victoria, recently won the 15-to-16-year-old age cat-
egory at Google’s Annual International Science Fair for her “Hollow Flashlight,”
which runs off of the heat from the palm of the hand using a special material that
generates electricity from the heat flowing between the palm on one side and the am-
bient air on the other. This is absolutely amazing. The act of charging devices is a
pain, and I feel that holding a device to absorb body heat may be the answer going
forward, thus creating even more dependency between user and device (let’s hope de-
vices like Brad won’t need hugs too).
2025: Major power grid failure forces re-evaluation of our dependency on au-
tomated systems.
Connectivity will increase with the upward trajectory of the amount of devices that
are enabled to be part of the “Internet of Things.” Cisco’s Internet Business Solu-
tions Group (IBSG) predicts some 25 billion devices will be connected by 2015 and
50 billion by 2020. Automation of processes, increased cost reductions, and reduced
waste are some of the benefits but with them comes reliance. Hospitals are moving
down this path with the use of robots such as Da Vinci and even some early trials of
“The Internet of Robots.” But more immediate are autonomous vehicles (cars that
drive themselves), such as those being developed by Google and more traditional
manufacturers such as BMW. What happens when even one car fails and veers into
other lanes of traffic? This technology could have serious consequences and requires
a lot more development and testing.
2030: An end to the impairments caused by physical disabilities due to prothes-
tics, exoskeletons, and wearable technologies, which will advance to the point
where they will fully compensate for disability, while perhaps even augmenting
disabled lifestyles in the process.
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I personally think this will happen a lot sooner. However by 2030, prices will be much
more affordable for the general population. It was rumoured that a paraplegic teenag-
er fitted with a robotic exoskeleton that translates brainwaves into actions - developed
by a team of scientists from around the world called the “Walk Again Project” -
would kick the first ball of the World Cup in Brazil in 2014. Exoskeletons will go be-
yond making the disabled able, to providing able-bodied people with even more
strength and stamina. This will the tipping point for this technology, but industrial and
military uses will likely drive innovations forward a lot more quickly.
2034-44: Device-to-device communication will be the new paradigm. Protocols
will be written to handle big data. All data will be processed online. New pri-
vate distributed processing (niche) networks will emerge.
I already mentioned the “Internet of Things” here, but it introduces an important
subject -- protocols. For data to come together quickly and efficiently, we will need a
lot of the services we use to open up and allow us to collect, aggregate, and process
data to derive insights about what we are doing on a personal, household, community,
and city-level. Private networks will become huge business at this stage of the game,
as will management of personal data using one-to-one agreements on a personal,
business, and government level.
These predictions just skim the surface of what we are thinking and some of the
things that point us in that direction. It’s likely they will change and that some of them
will prove to be totally wrong. But one thing is certain; humanity is changing at an in-
credible pace.
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The Internet of Things in 2020
“It is only when they go wrong that machines
remind you how powerful they are.”
Clive James
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Oftentimes, I lay in bed in the dark and think about some of the pressing tech-
nological developments that are happening in the world. One such thing I have given
extensive thought is The Internet of Things. I recalled how my friend, a progressive
UX designer, gets angry about people thinking The Internet of Things is about smart
fridges. I then wondered what would happen if we gave permission to things to look
out for and do our thinking for us.
* * *
I often have to explain what The Internet of Things is to people or provide
them with examples that make it come to life. I prefer to describe a scenario of how
we give our environment permission to intervene in our lives that has a slightly darker
twist:
Imagine that you go out and have a nice meal, some drinks, and then on to a club.
On the way home (you’re inebriated at 2:30am), you stop the cab to grab two
slices of dollar pizza to which you add more sauce and messily consume. Your
cellphone has silently captured all of this.
When you get home, the stereo refuses to turn up its volume, the fridge auto-locks
the beer drawer, and the cooker/oven won’t allow you to cook anything. You
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think your home hates you (and is doing this for your own good) as various appli-
ances start lecturing you and agreeing with each other.
In addition, the gym unlocks, and your couch won’t let you sit down …
Do you have to negotiate for your own rights? Do you turn off the appliances and
incur a potential arrest for cruelty against sentient intelligence (as defined in the
“Charter of Robot Rights”)? Or do you undertake a 30-minute workout and
then go to sleep on the floor and pray that you are forgiven in the morning?
The dilemma is, do you let this kind of connectivity into your life, as it delivers re-
duced waste, cost, connectivity, and efficiency, or do you rely on your own discipline
going forward?
Not being connected feels more human; being connected and having connected de-
vices feels cool, but there are definitely implications.
What would you choose?
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Software is Sexier than Advertising
“Marketing is what you do when
your product is no good.”  
Edwin H. Land
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* * *
When I started writing this article to help me understand the ebbs and flow of
my career, it became clear that I actually wanted to share these thoughts.
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I started my career as a freelancer in financial data analysis for a satellite manu-
facturing company. It was an amazing first foray into working life after choosing not
to pursue a career in academia. My job was all about coding, data, and visualization - it
was pretty cool but definitely not that sexy, except for the fact I got to work in
Toulouse and Paris. Then I was on to the city of my dreams, London. But I spent six
months spent coding for a derivative company in the city before realizing it was not
for me (I was unsupported in my role, and the work was little too dry – I was not cut
out for it).
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Then I had my first taste of innovation. I joined a forward-looking company that de-
veloped billing systems for telecom companies. The average age of company employ-
ees was around twenty-eight, we were all called “project consultants,” and they let us
play. I developed some of the first “big data” warehouses from telecom data and built
MOLAP analytics tools for marketers. This was sixteen years ago. In that job, I man-
aged to travel the world and lead teams to deliver really great projects and develop-
ments. It was the dotcom boom, and we had a spiritual/business leader who wanted
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to innovate and deliver his vision. He used his company as a sandpit for new business
models and talked about development and software in different ways - we were the
rats in his laboratory. Don’t worry, it was ethical and lots of fun. A large company
bought us out for a significant amount of money. The founder had bootstrapped the
company with just $4,000 of his own money and hired his best students. It was a ge-
nius move. It was time for me to move on.
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I then landed a job at a visionary Customer Relationship Management (CRM) compa-
ny. It was hard work delivering more big data and CRM projects in the UK and Eu-
rope. I also had my first taste of Silicon Valley when they sent me there for orienta-
tion. It shocked me how much it felt like a warmer Milton Keynes in the UK (sanitary,
business-focused, and a little soulless). It was no surprise that I spent my nights and
weekends in San Francisco. I eventually realized that this drudgery of focusing on
software was not that fun anymore -- it lacked creativity, and I found myself caught
up in the rat race. So I took a sabbatical and headed to New Zealand to think. Upon
my return, I continued to work for three months and then quit to live in Whistler,
British Columbia for a ski season. Following that, I worked for a management consul-
tancy in Guildford, UK, where we did some pretty great projects, and I was blessed to
work with some smart people and even got to dabble in some spooky data stuff. After
a while, I needed a bigger challenge and moved on to a larger, more strategic consul-
tancy. I built a team that was essentially a direct-marketing and managed-analytics ser-
vice for clients. It’s now funny to see the Big Four consultancy companies scrambling
to be part of the marketing and advertising game these days. Back then they didn’t
care. I loved being there due to their willingness to let people create capabilities and
prove out business models. They nurtured talent, just like great software companies,
and it continues to grow their business in great ways.
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Then I returned to freelancing again -- nothing like the freedom of being able to
choose what I want to do. Cue eighteen months of working with BIG DATA and an-
alytics. It was a real roller coaster ride working on probably the most demanding
project I had ever worked on. We delivered miracles and faced potential failure every
day (processing data for four months non-stop to build operational data warehouses,
while making incremental processing changes, can be like that). The analytics were
amazing, and we delivered great business value. I then got a call from Canada …
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I jumped into the digital and ad world when I landed in Vancouver, British Columbia.
I then spent a couple of years at a leading digital agency doing some great strategy
work before leaving to spend eight months reevaluating life (a relationship breakdown
will do that to you). After that, I had a chance meeting with one of the largest ad
agencies in Vancouver and ended up there for a couple of years. It was my first foray
into a full-service creative agency and was a change of direction and pace. The strate-
gy was less intense but definitely critical. Some great ideas made it through, and we
managed to deliver some great digital platforms where I had leeway. One such plat-
form was for a local government organization.
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It was great, and I’m proud of that (or I was). I say “I was” because some two years
later, the videos were made private, and the platform was decommissioned. What?
Why? I didn’t know, and I didn’t see anyone fighting to have it remain accessible to the
public. It made no sense to me. It was what engagement should be -- using digital as a
platform for conversation, not pithy social media campaigns and tweets masquerading
as “conversations.” The public was also bemused as to why it disappeared. You can’t
fight these things, and I had no backup, so I moved on to another agency, TAXI.
!
!23

This agency has amazing people in Vancouver, Calgary (well, used to) and Toronto.
Seeing as Vancouver was an outpost, and that we had a fairly sexy product to play
with, the team and I created some augmented-reality print ads, got 3-D printers in re-
tail stores that printed iPhone 5 and Samsung S4 cases while people signed up for new
services, launched social-media campaigns that lead to videos about BASE jumping,
and installed Twitter-enabled vending machines. Sounds cool, right? It was, but then
came the employee cuts again. I couldn’t wrap my head around why this was happen-
ing when we were delivering great things. It became clear that advertising had no fo-
cus. I honestly don’t think it was the fault of people I was working with directly -- it
was the bean counters who never saw results and capabilities beyond dollars and
cents. That was a shock for me, because in the software industry, we knew there were
tough times, and we sailed those seas together and fought to make better products.
Layoffs should be a final resort, not a common business practice.
!
I went back to freelancing and worked on creative projects in which art, technology,
and innovation intersected. I had so much fun and was busier than I had been when I
was working in the ad industry. I had made a choice to pivot back to working in soft-
ware when a large agency approached me to interview for a significant role in NYC.
My decision was made when I asked a simple question: “Are you a digital agency?”
They replied, “Well, we are not specifically a digital agency but all of us are a bit digi-
tal.” This point made me listen to my heart. I love software and the web. When I con-
nected to the web in 1993 via green screen and a modem to access Stockholm Univer-
sity’s library systems, I knew that was the world for me. When I started my career, I
also knew that freelancing was something I loved that would be a recurring theme in
my career, and I now knew that I needed to focus on product and software.
!
!24

Then a friend introduced me to the team at Freelancer.com. I warily had a casual
meeting with the HR folks in a bar, and it struck me that this company was different.
It was driven by creating an amazing platform that enabled people all over the world
to realize their visions. Maybe we could work together, and I could freelance on and
for Freelancer.com (that’s a little meta). Well, they got me. After several conversations
with the leadership team and some planning, I knew I had to join this company. It’s
software; it’s people; and it’s hugely disruptive -- just my cup of tea. It’s definitely not
built on the same model as advertising, but it has the same mission - changing peo-
ples’ thinking and behaviour. They told me: “You can do that technical project now.
You can deliver change. A local, and premium-priced, professional resource pool was
out of the reach of your budget. We can help you set your creativity free.”
!
I returned to software on September 22nd, 2014, after a six-year hiatus. It’s hard to
describe how much it feels like I’ve come home, but I wanted to share some insights I
gained over the years going from software to advertising and back to software:
● If something is effortless and employees want to take the easy route, then it’s
probably not going to satisfy them.
● If something has purpose, and you are given room to play, you should improve
it and help it evolve to become applicable and useful in the real world.
● If possible, work for an organization with leaders who trust you to play with
new ideas and create something amazing.
● Try and work with colleagues who feel secure in sharing ideas and working to-
gether.
!
!25

I’ve learned that you’ll encounter these opportunities in a lot of software companies,
some privately owned small agencies, but definitely not in large agencies. Large agen-
cies are super-fun; it can all feel a little “Mad Men” and is edgy, but it’s just not for me.
Plus they lack sense and staying power when the chips are down.
!
Viva software! Viva innovation! Viva the drive to change the world!
!
!
!26

Creativity, Collaborative Economy, and Building the Future
“Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much”
Helen Keller
!
* * *
This piece kind of happened by mistake. A good friend of mine, who runs a
great digital agency that specializes in 3-D renderings for clients – buildings, environ-
ments, and the like – was fighting with the idea of the collaborative economy deliver-
ing top quality work and yet still being able to maintain the status quo for designers in
local markets.
* * *
!
Every day, I have really interesting conversations with creatives and technical
folk about my decision to work with an Australian resource marketplace, Freelancer.-
com, and how we connect people to design, build, write, and create businesses and
successes. I realize (after debating value, distributed economies, the creative processes,
and other subjects) that we are working with a future model which, while inspiring the
layman, truly scares people in a traditional creative economy.
Earlier this week, I was updating a good friend (I’ll call him “Jon” in this article to
protect his anonymity) about my new job, about the changing dynamics of the collab-
orative economy, and also about Freelancer.com. Jon works for a cutting-edge digital
agency that also does 3-D simulations for architectural navigation.
The next day I awoke to a text from him at 6 a.m. (I am in Vancouver and he is in
Toronto, so he was OK with this.)
!27

Jon: “How would you answer the question: “Doesn’t Freelancer devalue the artist and exploit
them to achieve the lowest price for what may or may not be an adequate product at the end
of the day?”
Me: “Oh I understand - we get this all the time :)”
Jon: “By nature, devaluing the experience to the lowest common denominator harms the prod-
uct’s expectations in the public forum. Over time, people come to expect a leaner, less thought-
out solution as the norm, and the true designers are viewed as an elite service that is only val-
ued by a few that can afford it or understand the intellectual stretch required.”
Jon: “as a business guy I like it ... as an artist I despise it.”
Jon: “I personally want to live in a world where I am willing to pay more for less if the prod-
uct I purchase has the attention to detail of the person creating it. The rest is just noise.”
Me: “OK, so here’s a situation. I needed a poster for my next event. I found a great guy in
New Zealand on Freelancer.com for $USD55 an hour = about $ NZD70 an hour. He
did a killer job - http://www.ericjordan.com/clients/darkfutures/final/.”
Me: “I’m now also going to hire him to create a front and end slate for my videos with motion
graphics.”
Jon: “Too bad ... I could have done that for you.”
Me: “For $155 - 9 initial versions, 5 new versions and 3 iterations, in 2 days?”
Jon: “It’s all good dude, don’t get me wrong. But I fight hard for the money I make. I need to
find ways to take advantage of this platform ... Can’t beat ’em? Join ’em.”
Me: “We’re catering to people wanting to build businesses on both sides.”
!28

Jon: “What is market value anymore ... India prices? The global economy sucks ... the game
is changing.”
Jon: “I downloaded the [freelancer.com] app.”
It was an interesting chat for sure. I had thought a lot about this and was prepared for
this kind of chat, which signals to me that a change in modus operandi for resourcing
models and their business structure is uncomfortable for many. It’s obvious to me that
we have to shirk off the norms around cost and location of resources in these situa-
tions. Oftentimes people say that Freelancer.com devalues economies, both local and
remote, but that is not the case. If I have $10K in my business account to establish
my online business, I could spend it all locally and then have to do another round to
raise more money. Or I could find comparable resources remotely (by using free-
lancer.com or other means) and spend a fraction of the cost. Note that there is no re-
duction in the expectations surrounding quality. Great talent can be located anywhere,
and if I choose to go with someone in an economy with a lower cost of living we
both win. It’s terribly arrogant to think that a designer in India or Poland is not as
skilled as a designer in my city.
Then I got another text from Jon about four hours later talking about how our last
conversation and how his opinion came to be ...
Jon: “[From] my words, some of my own thinking, as well as a collection of
multiple discussions with creatives I have recently engaged with, as we all see
our world crumbling. Only the strong will survive. And never will they be financially se-
cure in creative. Or at least very very few. So much creativity has been chopped and sliced into
piecemeal deliveries for the best price. The economy always rules. I wish for a creative utopian
world. If the world continues to thrive on great ideas but refuses to pay for them, the artistry
dries up. Gotta water the plants not hope for them to grow in the desert.”
!29

This was quite a heavy thought. The end of days for artistry? Reduction to piecemeal
work? How do you answer this? My opinion is that it is about efficiency, meeting de-
mand, creating a high volume of good, creative work and being true to ourselves. It’s
a collaborative process.
Efficiency
I need “X,” and I need it now. The longer I wait, the more frustrated I get and that
affects the end product (whatever it is). So, if I try and find what I need locally and I
can’t, my idea and business suffer. It may be less of an issue in a larger city versus a
rural town, but this is something that I feel affects everyone. A couple of years ago, I
ran an event with a friend. We built a very simple website to act as a blog and link to
tickets. Designers were critical because it wasn’t “beautiful”-- it was effective and sim-
ple. Maybe we are expecting a lot from design versus thinking things out and being
unclear of the desired effect? This is critical in a collaborative resource model. A poor
and ill-conceived brief will equal poor work. A good designer can help you through
the process to reach the end goal, and therein lays the inefficiency. Do the research
and planning up front. Even pay for a strategist to sit with you at the beginning. That
is money well spent.
Meeting Demand
The world has embraced on-demand technology. Fundamentally, the Internet enables
that. Freddie Mercury said it well, “I want it all, and I want it now.” Online resource
marketplaces meet these demands. Freelancer.com is also instantaneous. Post a
project, and you’ll see submissions immediately. That is key for creatives and project
managers, and it’s what people have come to expect.
!
!30

Creating a High Volume of Good, Creative Work
Okay, this issue is a contentious one. Should a good creative solution take a long time
to come up with? Is the creative process an important one? Why can’t it move quick-
ly? Take, for example, the logo for Disney, which is Walt Disney’s signature. Signatures
are can be generated quickly. What about a more complex creative solution? Earlier
this year, Jack White recorded the world’s fastest record. “Lazaretto” was recorded,
pressed, assembled, and available for sale in stores at 3:55:21 on the stopwatch. He
played two songs live on stage at 10 a.m. on a Saturday morning in the Blue Room at
Third Man Records’ Nashville headquarters. The two songs were cut directly to ac-
etate, and the masters were rushed from the venue to a pressing plant to make 45s,
with a sleeve featuring photos taken during the performance. United will continue
pressing and delivering the record today for as long as fans are lining up to buy it. It
wasn’t even a digital recording, which are even quicker to market. I challenge you to
claim that this recording was not the result of a high-quality creative process. Com-
prising music, images, and vinyl, it’s a physical manifestation of what is happening on-
line every minute of every day.
Being True to Ourselves
How honest are we with the people who provide services to us at a premium? Or at
any cost? We trust creative folk to do a great job. As laymen, we should recognize that
we do not know best, but it’s sometimes hard to stand our ground when in discussion
with a talented designer. Sometimes good designers misread what we have in mind,
and it’s tough to accept what they’ve come up with in the end, which can result in
more iterations, time, and expenses. This change in the way we are sourcing resources
and building teams is part of an ongoing discussion, not only with my friend and I,
!31

but more in the wider sense in a world where people are trying to make sense of the
shifting sands of creativity, which new technology platforms enable.
!
!32

2015 Predictions: The Rise of #thefutureofwork, Industrial
Wearables, Surveillance, and Psychedelics
!
“However vast the darkness,
we must supply our own light.”
Stanley Kubrick
!
***
For the past few years, I have set myself the task of looking ahead one to three
years, based on what I learned during the previous year, to make some predictions
about what technology would be adopted or become popular. I always say that I can-
not always be right; however, it seems that I have had a pretty good success rate thus
far. In 2014, I have some very far-reaching predictions about malcontent, technologi-
cal adolescence, and opening our minds to new ways of looking at the world.
***
I actively spend time thinking about what technological trends will have the
biggest impact in the near future. At the beginning of 2014, I spoke about the Maker
Movement, the rise of tech in healthcare, autonomous cars, additive manufacturing
(large-scale 3-D printing of livable structures), the importance of emotional inter-
faces, and the adoption of alternative business models, such as Holacracy and Amoe-
ba Management.
!
Before we get into where I predict tech is going, I’ll reflect a bit on the following
trends that have already entered the mainstream or have been hijacked by popular cul-
ture, wild conjecture, and advertising:
!
!33

• “Established” social media. Facebook, Snapchat, and other platforms are
less interesting to me, as they have become inert in modern society from a
progression perspective.
• Perceived innovations in the ad world. I loved working in the ad industry
but disliked its stunted approach to “innovation.” That industry is slow to
catch up, mostly because it has not made time to experiment or encouraged
clients to open their minds. Budgets are restricted to tried-and-true methods
of creating impressions and engagements which, they desperately hope, will
have positive effects on brand perceptions and, in turn, sales and uptake on
services.
• Driving wider Internet adoption. Initiatives, such as internet.org, Google’s
Project Loon, etc., seem like initiatives that plan to expand with more benefits
for business rather than for the good of humankind.
• Sex, intimacy, and technology. This was a major topic of discussion for
me during 2014, and you can refer to my previous articles and presentations,
such as the From Now conference. Vice has recently jumped on the subject
as well (covering a lot of the technologies that I covered).
!
The following trends are those I have noticed, been attracted to, thought about, and
discussed with friends over the past few months. I feel that all of them will become
leading topics of discussion throughout 2015.
!
The Growth of The Collaborative Economy and #thefutureofwork
By far, the biggest shake up of the past few years has been the mass adoption of the
new sharing and collaborative economies. Traditional businesses are starting to find it
harder and harder to survive in the current economic climate, as it is now so easy to
work, travel, create, and exist just by using a credit card and a mobile device.
!34

!
The big shakers, such as Uber, Lyft, Car2Go, and Airbnb are changing how we travel
and stay; companies such as Freelancer.com can help find you the resources to take
your business idea and make it a successful reality. You can pay for some of the things
you need using Bitcoin (and other crypto currencies), and you can even fund projects
and create bespoke goods using platforms such as Etsy, Quirky, Indiegogo, and Kick-
starter. All are hugely disruptive to their respective conventional industries.
!
Right now in the United States, two million Americans are leaving their jobs every
week (US Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics), and the nine-to-five
work culture is crumbling as people report they no longer like their bosses, they lack
empowerment, there are too many internal politics, and there is an overall lack of
recognition. Employees are demanding more, and they are not being given the
chances they feel they deserve. Even some high-level corporate executives are plan-
ning to start their own businesses on the sly. And why not? I feel that Jacob Morgan,
Author of The Future of Work, put it very well:
!
“Change is the only constant, and in that type of an environment the only way to
know what works and what doesn’t is by trying things out. Every experiment is a
chance to learn what works and what doesn’t.”
!
And, in companies that are structured in traditional ways, i.e., that are more hierarchi-
cal and bureaucratic, there is more of a chance that productivity will be affected as
members of the workforce become disgruntled and plan their escape routes. It’s al-
most as though the “collaborative economy” should really be called the “courage
economy.”
!35

!
Companies such as VALVE - with their open framework of delivering value as de-
tailed in their new employees’ guide, Zappos - with the adoption of a holocratic style
of management, and Virgin - with the removal of vacation restrictions (with guide-
lines) are all heralding new ways of how modern businesses should be operating as
well. It’s all about trusting employees. Back in 2010, a study by Watson Wyatt showed
that high-trust companies outperform low-trust companies by nearly 300 percent.
That’s not just a significant statistic; it’s game changing. Even author Stephen M.R.
Covey summarizes very nicely why trust is so important to businesses:
!
“When trust is low, in a company or in a relationship, it places a hidden ‘tax’ on
every transaction: every communication, every interaction, every strategy, every deci-
sion is taxed, bringing speed down and sending costs up.”
!
Wearable Computing Grows Up
2015 is the year when “wearables” will grow up. Over the past two to three years, we
have seen all kinds of wearable computing - watches, glasses, cameras, and sensors in
clothes - however, the average person is still trying to work out what to do with them
all. It takes a lot of effort and consideration to quantify your life and do something
useful with the data. One person who has spent a number of years wearing comput-
ing and optimizing his life is Chris Dancy, arguably the “most connected human.”
Chris attended Cyborg Camp YVR in 2013, and it was clear that he was dedicated to
the power of wearables. This year, he spoke at the Cyborg Camp held at MIT about
kindness and compassion, as the power of access to so much data affords great power
(this video is well worth watching).
!
!36

All of this data is starting to be seen differently by the authorities. In Canada, there is
a personal-injury suit in Calgary in which a woman is using FitBit data to show how
her activity levels have declined since having an accident. A third-party analytics firm
called Vivametrica will analyze the data and provide its report with findings to the
court, versus just submitting raw data into evidence. This use of data is an unexpected
one, which could set a challenging precedent as the availability of such data increases.
Quant-hacking anyone?
!
Okay, turning now from the personal uses of devices and data towards more applied
uses for business, which is where so many wearables companies are focusing their ef-
forts. Here in Vancouver, there are a number of companies that are finding more in-
dustrial and business applications. The first is a company called Command Wear that
has developed a wearable-technology solution for command systems, such as police
and response units. They are driving forward with their solution that empowers the
global public safety and security industry to make communities safer. Fatigue Science
is focusing on improving human performance and preventing fatigue-related risk in
sports and the workplace.
!
Other companies, such as Recon Jet and Plantiga, are developing solutions for athletes
to optimize their performance. Accelerators, such as Wavefront and Wearable World
Labs, are really helping people get ahead in these spaces; and consultancies, such as
HUMAN, Accenture and Vandrico, are helping companies work out what they want
as well.
!
Yet, it seems that there are a lot of people still talking about conceptual products but
finding it very challenging to deliver. Recently, I visited Professor Steve Mann at his
Humanistic Intelligence Engineering Lab at the University of Toronto. There, he and
!37

his students live by the motto “Demo or die!” You can’t just talk about concepts; you
have to build them. That’s exactly what he has been doing since the late 1970s.
!
We’ll Be Watched Twenty-Four Hours a Day, and We’ll Want More Privacy
Recently, I watched a video of Greg Borenstein, from the MIT Media Lab, deliver a
talk called “More Pixels Law: How the Camera is Becoming the World’s Most Impor-
tant Sensor,” in which he talks about the rapid growth of the research and develop-
ment of groundbreaking vision systems that allow people to do more productive
things.
!
In 1974, Xerox created the first digital camera. Today, cameras surround us, we carry
them in our pockets, and each month over 6 billion images are loaded to Facebook
alone. In fact, it is claimed that over 880 billion photos will have been uploaded in
2014 (as detailed in a recent presentation by Yahoo). Google+ Stories will even help
users download and auto-enhance photos to make sure that everyone has a bright,
beaming smile in each picture. It’s the most photogenic side of you that has likely not
existed before.
!
In addition, the omniscient presence of video cameras, including facial recognition
technology, such as CCTV in the streets and in retail environments (primarily stores
and malls), means society is 100 percent surrounded, whether we like it or not. Even
companies such as Placemeter are asking citizens to actively be a part of an
anonymized surveillance, or “metering,” system that overlooks stores, restaurants,
bars, or shops. They incentivize with cash. The more you film, the more they will pay
you. That’s right; Placemeter is paying people to film their surroundings.
!
!38

A lot of people are waking up to this new reality and are also concerned with how
they are being tracked online and how their data is being used. The Electronic Fron-
tier Foundation (EFF) launched the www.ifightsurveillance.org website to promote
encryption and help defend privacy rights. Even WhatsApp is working with Open
Whisper Systems to provide end-to-end encryption, and according to them, the mes-
saging tool’s Android client release already uses “TextSecure encryption protocol.”
!
Tim Berners-Lee has been very public in talking about the dark side of surveillance
on the Internet:
!
“I had hoped that the web would provide tools and break national barriers and
provoke a better global understanding, but it’s staggering to me that people who
must have been brought up like anybody else will suddenly become very polarized
in their opinions and will suddenly become very hateful instead of very loving.
Well, maybe it’ll happen in the future. Maybe we will be able to build web-based
tools that help us keep people on the path of collaborating rather than fighting.”
!
The profiles of applications and devices that help maintain privacy will rise through-
out 2015. TOR browsing software, RedPhone, Wickr, Silent Text (and other Silent
Circle apps), Hushmail, Sure Spot, GSM’s SecureVoice and other applications will be-
come more mainstream, and devices like the Blackphone (also from Silent Circle) will
be considered more commonplace.
!
Even Apple is taking privacy seriously. When it launched the iOS 8 for iPhone and
iPad users in September 2014, the company included a security change that it claimed
would make it nearly impossible for police agencies (or anyone else for that matter) to
!39

unlock these devices without the owner’s consent. Previously, the operating system
allowed Apple employees to unlock devices if police or the FBI provided a search
warrant. Needless to say, the authorities do not like this recent development. It’s great
for the average person who cares about privacy; however, it does mean that the bad
guys could potentially get away (which is a bit of a moot point as the smart bad guys
already get away with so much).
!
The Resurgence of Psychedelics and Smart Drugs
In the 1960s, Timothy Leary famously said: “Turn on, tune in, drop out.”
It was a hugely revolutionary time for the youth of the day, and minds were expanded
and blown. The use of psychedelics, such as LSD, mescaline, DMT, and psilocybin,
had a deep and profound effect on more liberal society and thinkers. Now, although
most of these drugs are illegal, they have also become essential to many people con-
ducting guided explorations in their respective fields, such as mathematicians, cartoon-
ists, physicists, designers, software engineers, architects, and many other professions.
The origins of the modern fields of computing, graphics, chaos theory, and fractal
geometry can largely be attributed to active (and guided) psychedelic use. Even Nobel
Prize winner Francis Crick, co-discoverer of the DNA molecule in 1953, gave credit
to LSD for paving the way to his discovery. Steve Jobs also stated that LSD is “one of
the two or three most important things I’ve done in my life.” He created the world’s
most valuable company, which creates products that resonate with people on a deep
emotional level.
!
These drugs have been around for a long, long time, so why am I just now including
them in an opinion piece on future trends?
!
!40

2014 featured a number of stories on founders of technology companies, but it was
in late August when much of the popular startup and tech press focused on what
these people were doing in Black Rock City at Burning Man. Many people in Silicon
Valley have been going to this week-long event for a number of years. Elon Musk has
even been quoted as saying, “Burning Man is Silicon Valley,” and he came up with the
idea of Solarcity while there one year.
!
It’s a place of radical inclusion, of creativity, of alternate thinkers. It’s a place where
you can be someone else and escape the realities of life, partly through the use of
psychedelics and other substances. It’s a place where people can dive into the core of
emotional connection:
!
“Part of what psychedelics do is they decondition you from cultural values. This is
what makes it such a political hot potato. Since all culture is a kind of con game,
the most dangerous candy you can hand out is one which causes people to start
questioning the rules of the game.”
Terence McKenna
!
People are also starting to explore micro-dosing of LSD, which involves using small
doses on a daily basis (for example, in coffee or as a little morning pick-me-up) to
help their creative thinking and problem-solving. Experimentation with LSD is some-
thing that will continue to grow in popularity in 2015.
!
Lastly, in addition to (mostly illegal) psychedelics, there has been a rise in the use of
“smart drugs,” nootropics (neuro-enhancers), and nutrition to help with sharpness of
thought and focus. Products such as AlphaBRAIN® and Bulletproof® Coffee have
!41

become commonplace, and their effectiveness will continue to be debated throughout
2015.
!
Maybe it’s time to turn on, tune in, and start up?
!
!
!42

2014 Predictions: An Exciting Year for Connected Society and
Business
“Live daringly, boldly, fearlessly. Taste the relish to be found in
competition – in having put forth the best within you.”
Henry J. Kaiser
!
* * *
At the end of 2013, I had moved from thinking about social media and its us-
age to thinking about how technology will affect modern business practices. Big
changes and new platforms were starting to appear around every corner. As a digital
strategist, I concerned myself with trying to understand these trends.
* * *
!
Back in December 2012, I published my technology predictions for 2013:
• Convenience will send our lives into a creative low point
• We will be tired of, yet even more addicted to, social media
• We will start to celebrate locally connected societies more but with
less conversation.
!
It was a pretty cynical view, which for the most part rang true throughout 2013. What
I feel really did happen is that connected society became a little more connected to its
humanity. The rise of closed social connections, such as SnapChat and WhatsApp, has
resulted in more invested connections and empathy. The “maker movement,” spear-
headed by developments in 3-D printing, has helped inspire home industry and shak-
en up the retail industry. Even wearable computing, such as Google Glass, Recon Jet,
!43

FitBit, Nike FUEL, and Pebble, has made people realize that life happens outside and
on-the-go. Apps have become simultaneously more discrete and connective rather
than always needing attention (the Moves app is a good example of this).
!
I feel that there is a little more hope for us in 2014 than there was in 2013, and here
are my predictions:
The Decline of Social Innocence and the Rise of Storytelling 
 
People will wake up even more to the fact that Facebook and Twitter (and soon to be
Instagram) are connective and targeted advertising networks and broadcast channels,
which are validated and made authentic through our submissions and interaction.
The result will be less about reaching for mobile devices to check social streams and
more about one-to-one or one-to-few connections using apps such as SnapChat and
WhatsApp. Real business impact will come from these connective apps and will con-
tinue to erode revenues for conventional telecommunications companies.
Facebook will suffer more fatigue than other social networks while starting to be seen
as an aggregation tool, and it will begin to deliver less value to brands. Within three to
five years, I think it will resemble an automated QVC channel -- interrupting us with
product offers and pumping out C-list celebrity conversation to help convince us to
consume more. Twitter will continue to be a platform more akin to a curated search
engine than a social network, which is where its value will lie. It will be a solid and
long-standing business.
The popularity of single-use social applications that help us tell stories through video
and imagery will also rise, and we will see more brands aggregate these media and re-
ward people for their contributions. There will be a noticeable move from “thing con-
!44

sumers” to “memory-and-inspiration consumers.” People will start caring less about
things (purchased goods and social-status services, such as new phones, cars, and
memberships to clubs, etc.) but will strive for experience every day, which they will
share through the power of rich personal stories and distribution via friends, influ-
encers, and media channels. Social networking creates weak bonds in groups, but sto-
ries strengthen them and create a platform for actual emotional investment and empa-
thy. Self-expression in new environments, bolstered by content creation and influencer
networks with “up voting,” will lead us into the new world of entertainment and valu-
able connection. Even big players, such as GE, etc., have validated the value of short-
form storytelling -- the result of which will be weaker TV propositions, more cord-
cutting, and increased mobile consumption.
I also predict Netflix (and series producers) will also start to integrate short-form con-
tent in one form or another and that we will see more integration using short-form
video and transmedia storytelling, which will be used to draw people into owned on-
line channels. Unfortunately, advertising will not be going anywhere soon, so we will
all still need to endure the marketing messaging being forced upon us.
Interactivity in Unexpected Places Will Change the Way We Interact and Con-
tribute
!
Urban environments will change more and more to accommodate and involve people,
and experience design will span digital applications, online connectivity, and physical
contribution. Augmented reality and digital/physical experiences will go beyond being
simply smart phone enabled, and wearable computing will start to take a real hold.
The Internet of Things will gain momentum by starting to deliver value and proving
its potential in smaller ways. It will be led by the Internet of people, experience-based
!45

tech such as Arduino, and simple (and ultimately useful) executions using smart-
phones, interactive displays/objects, and wearable computing like HUDs and watches.
Our cars, public transportation, and urban information systems that use open data
will help lead the way. Free information backbones and data plans for objects, re-
moved from consumer-usage plans, will help accelerate communication between de-
vices, and cities will need to work with service providers and local businesses to en-
sure they are deployed successfully. Start-ups and brands will also utilize city open-
data applications, which will support modern “digital cities.”
Insights from Big Data Will Mean Organizations and their Teams Will Change
!
Big data is such a hot topic right now, and organizations are a little worried about
what they should do about it. In an article earlier this year, I tried to address the po-
tential impact of it and give some advice in mobilizing capabilities in organizations.
A new kind of employee will emerge in organizations, “The Innovator,” who will
have the attributes of data scientists, service/product designers, and developers who
consider physical and virtual environments where consumer relationships and busi-
nesses are established. These people will feed into and lead teams of product design-
ers, developers, and marketers, which will result in smaller and more agile companies
(that embody a start-up philosophy) getting stronger faster and gaining adoption. This
change will noticeably accelerate the crowd-sourced economy.
We are entering a year where strong relationships will form and multiply, and there
will be a stronger connective tissue running through society. Organizations are really
waking up to what they have to start doing, gaining precise insight accompanied by a
broader view of societal needs, and learning to connect with consumers and citizens
alike. I’m more excited for 2014 than I was for 2013 -- let’s see how it plays out.
!46

2013 Predictions: Low Quality, High Volume
“Give me convenience, or give me death.”
Dead Kennedys
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* * *
I started to develop my writing more in 2012, which was the first time I pub-
lished some thoughts on where we were headed, thus the simple title. I was worried
that we were starting to choose convenience over quality.
* * *
!
It’s at this time of the year that pundits, tastemakers, and futurists start making
fantastical predictions about what we can expect in 2013. Some of these predictions
are obvious and will ring true and hit the mark. I like making predictions and am
sometimes wrong in knowing when and if things will happen (NFC gaining wider
adoption, the uptake of mobile wallets, Twitter to replace text messaging, etc.). And I
wonder, how can my predictions become more accurate?
I started to think about how we, as humans, behave in the new socially connected
landscape and how we are happy to accept less quality in our lives. My predictions are
threefold for 2013.
Our Creative Lives Will Become Lower in Quality Due to Convenience
I love music, art, and photography. All three have become democratized by the intro-
duction of accessible technologies, e-commerce platforms, and social media. While
this has created accessibility, it has made us all create and accept low-quality content.
!47

Every day we listen to great music in the form of MP3s (and other compressed for-
mats) that deliver flatter sound than good stereo equipment and vinyl. This dilemma
became obvious to me when I “downgraded” my living space to have no TV and a
vintage 1980’s record player. I dug out my old records (thanks to my formative years
spent DJing and record collecting) and listened to high-fidelity music for the first time
in six years. Why had I not done this before? I play records at home that allow me to
hear the full range of frequencies and to climb inside the intricate worlds they create.
It made me realize that I have compromised my taste for the sake of convenience, as
so many people have.
Photography is the same. We prefer disposable low-resolution images and browsing
art on the web to visiting galleries and taking personal photographs using proper
cameras. We create millions of “artistic” and intimate images every day, which we
share on Instagram and other platforms. We even make them look old and degraded
and think that’s cool. Well, it’s not. What is cool is the World Press Photo 2012 collec-
tion, Boston.com’s Big Picture, National Geographic, and photographers who can tru-
ly capture the qualities of things we see with our own eyes in real life.
Not everyone is a world-class photographer, but maybe if we start approaching pho-
tography like we used to, then we will return to the use of real cameras to capture
some magic and treasure a few moments.
!
We Will Become Fatigued of, Yet Addicted to, Social Media Even More
While we are talking about Instagram, let’s look ahead to January 16, 2013, when its
new privacy policy kicks in. This policy suggests that Instagram may accept payment
in exchange for the use of a person’s username, likeness, photos, and other data for
sponsored content or promotions. I predict that we will continue to upload more than
300 million photos every day. Some will feel fatigued and drift from the platform, but
!48

most will find it difficult to change the habits that they have formed -- filling the emp-
ty moments of their day with photo opportunities.
Facebook has also not had its day yet, but people are starting to regard it as an infor-
mation aggregator. Users are also finding that advertising has taken over its interface
on the web and mobile devices. That, along with shareholder greed, has killed the val-
ue of the social connections we can gain through the platform. Sorry, let me adjust
that last comment a little. Spam has killed the user experience. Good advertising rarely
appears on Facebook anymore in terms of side-bar adverts and brand messages. That
is why brands are moving to storytelling and more humanistic approaches to connec-
tion, in an attempt to draw viewers back in.
!
We Will Start to Celebrate Locally Connected Societies More but with Less
Conversation
Cities have been celebrating the world of open data over the past two or three years
through more useful apps and transparency in how they work. Transparency and ac-
cess is amazing in this day and age; however, this recent turn towards data crunching
and utility has the potential to make us retreat further into ourselves. Although we
have an amazing open-data culture, we are becoming more self-absorbed, isolationist,
and unfriendly both online and offline. We’ve disappeared into our own little worlds,
and technology is making up for the shortfall in real-world connections.
Instant messaging, email, and social media connect us to local information. Douglas
Coupland, author and futurist, is even championing digital over human connection
with his “revolutionary” V-Pole. This device, which is about the size of a telephone
pole, would manage cell signals for multiple carriers and deliver wireless Internet ser-
vice for the surrounding area. There would also be inductive (wireless) charging for
!49

parked electric cars, an integrated touch screen with local maps, ads, payment inter-
faces, and an LED street light. Sounds great, doesn’t it? Actually, it seems inevitable as
companies become less reliant on human staff, and it feels a little depressing. We will
find even less of a need to speak to each other face-to-face or to even venture to out
of our homes. Innovations will continue to roll out in our cities under the guise of
information and connection; however, there is the potential for them to backfire in
these stated aims.
!
So, there you have it. Low quality interactions, fatigue, and introversion await us in
2013, but only if we let it. I say, go outside, demand more from real life, downgrade
your home, read a book, be more analog, and smile at people on the street. Use tech-
nologies only when the need arises rather than out of compulsion. That way we can
all find utility and meaningful connections in, rather than reliance on, the innovations
being introduced into our world.
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!50

25 Quotes that Count
“[A] quotation is a handy thing to have about, saving one the trouble of thinking for
oneself, always a laborious business.”
A.A. Milne
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* * *
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When bringing together this collection of writing, I wanted to add something
inspirational. I often find solace in the great (and alternative minds) that exist, and
have existed, in the world when I’m researching and developing articles and presenta-
tions. I have already tried to match the sentiment for each chapter in this book by in-
cluding quotes, and here are twenty-five more quotes (in no real order) from people
who inspire me and help me navigate this world. I have put each quote on its own
page, regardless of length, to give it breathing space and to allow you to have
thoughts about it. Also, feel free to print these pages out and doodle around them,
that’s always fun. And, remember, always state who the quote is from, check authen-
ticity and use it as the first step in some new thinking.
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“My system uses no apparatus. The resistance of your own body is the best and safest
apparatus.”
Charles Atlas, fitness icon 
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“Imagine a puddle waking up one morning and thinking: ‘This is an interesting world I
find myself in — an interesting hole I find myself in — fits me rather neatly, doesn’t
it? In fact it fits me staggeringly well, may have been made to have me in it!’ This is such
a powerful idea -- that as the sun rises in the sky and the air heats up and as, gradually,
the puddle gets smaller and smaller, it’s still frantically hanging on to the notion that
everything’s going to be alright, because this world was meant to have him in it, was built
to have him in it; so the moment he disappears catches him rather by surprise. I think
this may be something we need to be on the watch out for. We all know that at some
point in the future the universe will come to an end, and at some other point, considerably
in advance of that but still not immediately pressing, the sun will explode. We feel
there’s plenty of time to worry about that, but on the other hand that’s a very dangerous
thing to say.”
Douglas Adams, author of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
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“I don’t know what a cyborg is.”
Steve Mann, father of wearable computing 
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“On the most rudimentary level, there is simply terror of feeling like an immigrant in a 
place where your children are natives -- where you’re always going to be behind the 
eight ball because they can develop the technology faster than you can learn it. It’s what  
I call the learning curve of Sisyphus. And the only people who are going to be 
comfortable with that are people who don’t mind confusion and ambiguity. I look at 
confusing circumstances as an opportunity -- but not everybody feels that way. That’s 
not the standard neurotic response. We’ve got a culture that’s based on the ability of 
people to control everything. Once you start to embrace confusion as a way of life, 
concomitant with that is the assumption that you really don’t control anything. At best 
it’s a matter of surfing the whitewater.” 
John Barlow, lyricist for the Grateful Dead and cofounder of the Electron-
ic Frontiers Foundation (quoted in Cyberia by Douglas Rushkoff) 
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“Musicians and journalists are the canaries in the coalmine, but, eventually, as comput-
ers get more and more powerful, they will kill off all middle-class professions.”
Jaron Lanier, pioneer in Virtual Reality (VR), American writer, computer
scientist, and composer of classical music 
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“Science fiction is held in low regard as a branch of literature, and perhaps it deserves
this critical contempt. But if we view it as a kind of sociology of the future, rather than
as literature, science fiction has immense value as a mind-stretching force for the creation
of the habit of anticipation. Our children should be studying Arthur C. Clarke,
William Tenn, Robert Heinlein, Ray Bradbury, and Robert Sheckley, not because these
writers can tell them about rocket ships and time machines but, more importantly, be-
cause they can lead young minds through an imaginative exploration of the jungle of po-
litical, social, psychological, and ethical issues that will confront these children as adults.” 
Alvin Toffler, American writer and futurist (as quoted in Future Shock) 
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“We don’t see things as they are; we see them as we are.”
Anaïs Nin  
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“People have different ideas about the validity of tattooing as an art form ... tattoo
artists have to be more responsible than other artists. If you don’t study respectfully and
strive to create fine tattoo arts, in short if you don’t love your customers, you should quit
as a tattoo artist. What it means when you love your customers is that you love the work,
and vice versa. If you don’t understand that, you just do your work and collect money.
Work fails when there are mistakes in the drawing and this takes solid knowledge. To
love your customers is to not make mistakes and to make the right drawings. You should
quit if you became a tattoo artist because it was ‘cool’ or because of the money-making
side of it. It is bad for the customers. Customers come to you and entrust their own bod-
ies, entirely. You should respond to this, this is the responsibility of the tattoo artist. You
study, study, study, and study until you die, and maybe then you would get close to being
a full-fledged tattoo artist. This is a never-ending goal.”
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Yoshihito Nakano, aka. Horiyoshi III, Japanese traditional tattooist 
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“Perhaps wisdom, at least for me, means realizing how small I am, and unwise, and
how far I have yet to go.”
Anthony Bourdain, chef and writer 
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“Abandoned subway stations were the first places underground I went into, and it was
amazing to find these huge spaces totally unused and lonely. They are in a city where
every bit of space is filled with people, and it was magical to find places where I could be
as alone as if I was on a mountaintop. In fact these places were no more than a couple
dozen feet below some of the busiest streets in the world.”
An unnamed urban explorer
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“You can play a shoestring if you’re sincere.”
John Coltrane 
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“When people talk, they lay lines on each other, do a lot of role playing, sidestep, shilly-
shally, and engage in all manner of vagueness and innuendo. We do this and expect oth-
ers to do it, yet at the same time we profess to long for the plain truth, for people to say
what they mean, simple as that. Such hypocrisy is a human universal.”
Steven Pinker, experimental psychologist, cognitive scientist, author, and
linguist 
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“Life, it is true, can be grasped in all its confused futility merely by opening one’s eyes
and sitting passively, a spectator on the stands of history -- but to understand the social
processes and conflicts, the interplay between individual and group, even the physicality
of human experience, we have need of small-scale models.”
Will Self, author and journalist 
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“Design is like solving a crime.”
Thomas Heatherwick, designer 
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“And God said, ‘Let there be light’ and there was light, but the Electricity Board said
He would have to wait until Thursday to be connected.”
Spike Milligan, comedian 
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“The future is an inherently good thing, and we move into it one winter at a
time. Things get better one winter at a time. So if you’re going to celebrate something,
then have a drink on this: the world is, generally and on balance, a better place to live
this year than it was last year. [He pulls out a Frost-Biter 7-K snow cannon.] For in-
stance: I didn’t have this gun last year.”
Spider Jerusalem, journalist (as quoted in Transmetropolitan by Warren Ellis
and Darick Robertson) 
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“Now there are some things in the world we can’t change – gravity, entropy, the speed of
light, the first and second Laws of Thermodynamics, and our biological nature that re-
quires clean air, clean water, clean soil, clean energy, and biodiversity for our health and
well-being. Protecting the biosphere should be our highest priority or else we sicken and
die. Other things, like capitalism, free enterprise, the economy, currency, the market, are
not forces of nature, we invented them. They are not immutable, and we can change
them. It makes no sense to elevate economics above the biosphere, for example.”
David Suzuki, academic, and environmental activist 
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“From one thing, know ten thousand things.”
Miyamoto Musashi, author of The Book of Five Rings 
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“We are called to be architects of the future, not its victims.”
R. Buckminster Fuller 
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“The main thing that I learned about conspiracy theory is that conspiracy theorists actu-
ally believe in a conspiracy because that is more comforting. The truth of the world is
that it is chaotic. The truth is, that it is not the Jewish banking conspiracy or the grey
aliens or the twelve-foot reptiloids from another dimension that are in control. The truth
is more frightening, nobody is in control. The world is rudderless.”
Alan Moore, author 
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“Our bodies are given life from the midst of nothingness. Existing where there is nothing
is the meaning of the phrase, ‘Form is emptiness.’ That all things are provided for by
nothingness is the meaning of the phrase, ‘Emptiness is form.’ One should not think
that these are two separate things.”
Tsunetomo Yamamoto, samurai of the Saga Domain in Hizen Province
under his lord Nabeshima Mitsushige, and author of Hagakure  
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“We don’t want to know what we are doing. It’s much better not to know. You have to
express yourselves; once you’ve finished a group of works you have to start all over again.
It’s extraordinary stuff -- what an artist has to do. You finish a big group of works,
then the next day you have to begin again. Forty years we’ve been doing that.”
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Gilbert, one half of the contemporary art couple, Gilbert & George  
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“The basic tool for the manipulation of reality is the manipulation of words. If you can
control the meaning of words, you can control the people who must use the words.”
Philip K. Dick
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“You can have an art experience in front of a Rembrandt … or in front of a piece of
graphic design.”
Stefan Sagmeister, designer 
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“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”
Arthur C. Clarke
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The end of the beginning of this future.
!77

'When I Grow Up, I Want To Be A Futurist' by Nikolas Badminton

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