I am Jerome Glenn. Ask me anything about running an international futurist organization, teaching at Singularity University or working with Isaac Asimov.

Hi everyone,

My name is Jason and I’ve been spending this summer working as an intern at the Millennium Project. The Millennium Project is a global futures study organization. Every year, they put out a report called the State of the Future. You can learn more about that here.

http://www.millennium-project.org/millennium/challenges.html or

http://www.millennium-project.org/millennium/2012SOF.html

My boss for the summer has been Jerome Glenn and he is honestly one of the most fascinating people I have ever met. He spearheaded the creation of this organization as a way to get humanity to collectively think about our future. In my entire time here, I have not been able to find a single topic that he couldn’t shed light on, from self driving cars to neural networks to the politics of the separate regions of China. I suggest asking him about any future related topic you are curious about.

There are also several other cool things you can talk to him about. The Millennium Project is currently launching a Collective Intelligence system, which is a better way to integrate the knowledge from top experts around the world on various topics. He is far better at explaining it than I am however, so I will leave that to him.

Additionally, he has lived a fascinating life. He has contributed text to a book with Isaac Asimov, become a certified witch doctor in Africa and is a champion boomerang thrower. He has also met many of the big names in the futurist community.

Ask away. Mr. Glenn will be logging on at 4:00 PM Eastern Standard to answer your questions

Edit: Proof on the Millennium Project twitter https://twitter.com/MillenniumProj

Edit 2: Forgot to mention that its Mr. Glenn's birthday. Make sure to wish him happy birthday. Also, he just came down and said that these questions are way better than the questions he normally gets, so keep up the good work.

Comments: 651 • Responses: 4  • Date: 

dlpwillywonka60 karma

[deleted]

JeromeGlenn68 karma

My vision of the future is "Conscious-Technology" in a book I wrote back in the 1980s call Future Mind - human consciousness our tech become a continuum. The tech actually confirmed it rather than changed it - near-nanotech sensors in the built environment, tele-everything or the "internet of things," synthetic biology, Google voice search. 3D printing price falling came a bit faster than I expected.

bostoniaa18 karma

I can confirm this. I read the book and it blew me away. Mr. Glenn not only accurately described the ways in which technology would evolve, he also pointed out some of the issues which came about as a result of accelerating technology.

dlpwillywonka6 karma

Thank you! As a follow up, what recent developments, in society as a whole, have you excited?

bostoniaa21 karma

I'm sure he can answer this better than me, but recently he's been talking a lot about 3D printing as well as synthetic meat. He believes that synthetic meat could be an excellent way to reduce the environmental impact of humans.

bostoniaa45 karma

I'll start things off

  1. The Millennium Project covers an extremely large range of topics that are of concern for humanity. If you had to pick one issue that you think is most important for humanity to focus on in the coming decades, what would it be? How would you focus on solving this issue?

  2. I'd like to hear a little more about your time at Singularity University. What is it like teaching there and what are your opinions on the organization as a whole?

Giggledust3 karma

This week Google announced its self-driven car travels 300,000 miles accident free. What's your take on self-driven cars?

bostoniaa2 karma

Talked to him about this yesterday. He's very excited and thinks self driving cars are going to be a great benefit for humanity. The only worry is the legal and social aspects holding us back.