Richard Watson

Richard has written numerous books including:

• Future Files: 5 Trends for the Next 50 Years (2007)
• Future Minds: How the Digital Age is Changing Our Minds, Why This Matters and What We Can Do About It (2010).
• The Future: 50 Ideas you Really Need to Know (2012)
• Future Vision: Scenarios for the World in 2040 (2012).

His latest book is Digital Vs Human: how we’ll live, love and think in the future.

Articles by Richard Watson:

• The Glass Cage and the Future of Automation
  It’s not rogue robots that we need to worry about, but unseen automated systems
• In Our Own Image
  Is artificial intelligence going to save the human race or destroy it?
• The Future of UK Public Libraries
  What’s the future for public libraries?
• Back to the Future Day: Six experts predict life in 2045
  What will life by like in 2045? Take some clues by going Back to the Future
• Why Companies Die
  Why is it that the average lifespan of an S&P 500 company in the US has fallen from 67 years in the 1920s to just 15 years today?
• Futurist in residence discusses his role and what the future means to him
  Richard discusses is role as Imperial’s first Futurist in Residence
• The 14 most outlandish predictions of futurologist Richard Watson
  Including travel by vacuum tube and drone pizza delivery
• Timeline of Failed Predictions (Part 1)
  Covering the 1400s up to the 2000s
• Timeline of Failed Predictions (Part 2)
  What might people live to regret saying in the future?
• The Future of Money
  Will phones be the new banks?
• Retail Therapy
  Is the future of shopping a dystopia? The choice is ours.
• The Future of Newspapers
  In this age of user-generated content and citizen journalism, it might seem like newspapers are becoming yesterday’s news. But there’s more life in them yet.
• Everything you’ve ever wanted to know about innovation
  One of the biggest issues facing organizations in the early part of the 21st Century is the commercialization of new ideas
• The Future of Travel
  Where will we be going, and how will we be getting there?
• Open Innovation and Other Foolish Ideas
  The best ideas are often conceived of by trial and error, or even just by accident. Open source innovation can be the best path to discovery – if you aren’t afraid to take the plunge.
• An Evolutionary Approach to Innovation
  Need to kickstart your innovation practices, processes, and production? Take a hint from the world of biology and consider how evolution — idea Darwinism — can help inspire change and creativity.
• Why Smart Companies Do Dumb Things
  Do successful companies sow the seeds of their own destruction?
• Have I Got Your Full and Undivided Attention?
  Life is speeding up and we are constantly inventing new ways to make things move even faster. But what are some of the consequences of this constant busyness? Are we losing our ability to think and properly relate to other people?
• Don’t Confuse Creativity with Innovation
  Can anyone be creative? Companies and consultants alike say the answer is yes.
• Fast Forward: Innovation Station
  10 great ideas, tools, and thinkers
• Five Trends That Will Transform Society
  Globalization, polarization, and more
• The Perils Of Technology Prediction
  Why pundits often get it so wrong when it comes to tech trends
• Five Facts That Will Turn Your World Upside Down
  Five arresting facts and their implications for the future
• Why Good Ideas Go Bad
  Why do some smart people make stupid mistakes?
• Why Doing Nothing Is Often Better Than Doing Something
  Information diets and focusing on the big picture
• The Rise of Connectivity Addiction
  Are we becoming hopelessly addicted to our devices?
• How to Have an Idea
  Is your brain blocked? Don’t worry, the solution could be as easy as taking a bath
• Are Open Plan Offices Damaging Our Thinking?
  Open plan offices could turn out to be a terrible idea
• How to Profit From the Future
  Five forces that have the potential to change the world as we know it over the next few decades
• A New Age of “Innocence”?
  The experts who’ll drive innovation are not the usual suspects
• Smart Spaces
  Why you can’t think out of the box when you’re sitting in one
• Beginner’s Luck
  Your most innovative team members and employees may not be the most senior — or oldest
• Bite-Sized Innovations
  Sometimes the most powerful ideas start small. Here’s a roundup of our recent favorites.
• The Trendspotting Trend
  Has market research been democratized? Identifying new product, service, and business development opportunities might be as easy as exploring your immediate surroundings — and talking to your customers.
• The Future is a Mixed Bag
  With every downside, there is a corresponding upside: Get an expert’s take on how technology, connectedness, globalization and ageing will affect us in the future.
• Celebrate Failure
  You don’t read about failure very often. Why is this? What are we afraid of? It is the proverbial elephant-in-the-boardroom. And yet by being scared of failure, we are missing a great opportunity.
• Keep It Simple
  Time famine, Too Much Information, Too Much Choice and Too Many Options.