The Naked Future

#sxsw #futurebare

An app on your phone knows you’re getting married before you do. Your friends’ tweets can help data scientists predict your location with astounding accuracy, even if you don’t use Twitter. Soon, we’ll be able to know how many kids in a kindergarten class will catch a cold once the first one gets sick.
We are on the threshold of a historic transition in our ability to predict aspects of the future with ever-increasing precision. Computer-aided forecasting is poised for a rapid growth over the next ten years. The rise of big data will enable us to predict huge areas of the future—not only events like earthquakes or epidemics but also individual behavior.
Patrick Tucker explores the potential for abuse of predictive analytics as well as the benefits. Will we be able to predict guilt before a person commits a crime? Is it legal to quarantine someone 99% likely to have the superflu while they’re still healthy? Hurry and answer! The naked future is almost here...

Presenters

Patrick Tucker

Tech Reporter/Editor

The Futurist Magazine and World Future Society

Patrick Tucker is the deputy editor of The Futurist magazine and content director for the magazine’s Web site. His writing has appeared in The Futurist magazine, MIT Technology Review, The Wilson Quarterly, The American Legion magazine and The Utne Reader. He’s also written for the Discovery channel.Tucker's fist book, The Naked Future: What Happens in a World That Anticipates Your Every Move will be released from Current (a Penguin Random House imprint) in 2014.In addition to serving as the deputy editor of The Futurist magazine, the author is also the director of communications for the magazine’s publisher, World Future Society, a scientific organization with membership in 82 counties around the world. He edits the organization’s e-newsletter, Futurist Magazine Update, which emails to a list of 45,000, and he directs all of the editorial content on a Website that averages 738,030 hits per month (50,000 unique visitors per month).