This week included a mention of a McDonald’s being referred to as a futurist restaurant because of its progressive technological installations being used to increase efficiency and improve the customer experience. There was a mention of the addition of Dr. Marie Puybaraud, a futuris
t, to the Jones Lang LaSalle team as Global Head of Research for Corporate Solutions. Finally, there was an interesting Fast Company piece highlighting some cool demo pictures of the London Futurists.
A McDonald’s restaurant opening in Stratford Upon Avon, UK has been called a “futurist” restaurant because of its additions of new customer-facing technology including “digital menu boards and tablet computers for customers to enjoy while they dine.” There is a large amount of focus devoted to the claim that the restaurant will create jobs and will train employees, and comparatively, there is very little information on future practices of McDonald or any new back-of-house technologies being implemented by the company.
Paris based Dr. Marie Puybaraud, who is being called a “workplace futurist” presumably because of her Futures Workplace 2030 and Smart Workplace 2040 work, has been hired as the Global Head of Corporate Research at Jones Lang LaSalle. Puybaraud will lead “the firm’s global research team in understanding how people, places, and processes can come together to advance the performance of organizations.” That sounds a lot like a futurist position to me, but there is still no mention of the future in her title, nor is there mention of any formal Foresight training on her LinkedIn profile. This may be a classic example of a futurist-by-attribution.
Most interesting to me was the Fast Company piece titled “Step Into The High-Tech World of London’s Futurists”, an article based on images of some of London’s interesting futurists from photographer David Vintiner. London Futurists appears to be a community excited about the Singularity. Their mission is “Serious analysis of radical scenarios for the next 3-40 years.” People portrayed in the piece include:
- “DIY brain hacker Andrew Vladimirov”, who “uses electrical currents, magnetic fields, and lasers to alter his moods and state of mind
- Anders Sandberg, “A futurist and Transhumanist, Sandberg’s research centers on societal and ethical issues surrounding human enhancement and new technology
- Caroline Falconer, who “has created a virtual reality program for treating people suffering from depression”
- Dirk Bruere, “party secretary of The Transhumanist Party, a political party that puts science, health and technology at the forefront of politics
- Neil Harbisson, “who is widely considered to be the world’s first officially recognized cyborg. Born with a rare form of color blindness, [an] antenna is implanted directly into his brain and allows him to hear visible and invisible colors as sound. It also has a wifi connection so he can receive music or phone calls from satellites – along with extraterrestrial colors from space – directly to the brain”. I want one!
