DAVID HOULE, THE FUTURIST: Disruption ahead in the next 20 years – Sarasota Herald-Tribune

There will be more change in the next 20 years than any 20- to 50-year period in history. In fact, future historians may well look back on this time as a historical transit as significant as the beginning of the Industrial Revolution or the Renaissance.

It is hard to imagine any area of life that will not be changed. This means that life will be disconcerting, disorienting and disruptive, and that reality as we know it today will end. This, of course, means that a significant percentage of humanity will endure a great psychological upset as we all like, or at least accept, our version of reality.

This is not a warning but a call for readers of this column to begin to prepare for massive, inevitable change. The name of this column is The Futurist. It is my responsibility as a futurist to be a catalyst to get people to think about the future and to help readers and audiences find context and concepts.

Here are just some of the changes ahead for Americans between now and the late 2030s:

Electric cars become the majority of all cars driven.

Autos that are autonomous, meaning driverless, become 25 to 75 percent of cars on the road.

The number of cars in America drops by 30 percent.

A move from fossil fuels to renewables, a move to energy that is free.

A movement toward a marginal-cost economy with ever lower prices for any part of the global economy that is connected to technology.

A loss of some 50 percent of all current jobs and professions due to artificial intelligence and big data.

The complete transformation of education and medicine.

The ability to extend the human lifetime to a maximum of 125 to 150 years.

Increasing the average life span from 80 to 100.

The emergence of a new,21st-century religion in which man and technology merge.

An emerging collective global consciousness.

The widespread use of virtual reality which will alter entertainment, education, training, travel and personal relations, in short redefining most human experiences.

Global legalization of marijuana.

Largely curing cancer and other diseases as a result of altering DNA for personalized treatments.

Climate change will redefine weather, seasons and coastlines and will create both tens of millions of refugees per year and hundreds of billions if not trillions of dollars of real estate and other economic losses.

An urgent development of crew consciousness for This Spaceship Earth as the red warning light and buzzer for getting "all hands on deck" starts to go off in the next five years.

A reinvention beginning of both capitalism and democracy.

The list could go on, but the above provides an indication of what lies ahead. I am so confident of these forecasts that you can cut out this column and file it away to read in 2025 or 2030.

Recently I have been receiving an increasing number of requests to deliver keynote presentations to organizations as the desire increases to seek out a futurist as uncertainty and unease increases. My career as a speaker actually took off when the Great Recession hit.

My current presentation is called Shift//Transformation: 2017-2037. In it, I start off with some definitions and quotes that I want to share with readers of this column as they may help you prepare for the massive changes ahead.

The definition of shift: To put something aside and replace it with another or others, to change or exchange.

The definition of transformation: A change in form, appearance, nature or character.

A quote from Dr. Alvin Toffler, one of the greatest futurists of the last 50 years:The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn.

And perhaps my favorite quote about the future, from Miguel de Unamuno, a Spanish essayist who died in 1936:We should try to be the parents of our future rather than the offspring of our past.

So, in your business, your profession or your personal life, open up to embracing change and accepting transformation so you can prepare yourself to enjoy being alive during one of the most interesting times in history.

Sarasota resident David Houle is a globally recognized futurist. He has given speeches on six continents, written seven books and is futurist in residence at the Ringling College of Art + Design. His website is davidhoule.com. Email him at david@davidhoule.com.

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DAVID HOULE, THE FUTURIST: Disruption ahead in the next 20 years - Sarasota Herald-Tribune