heathervescent

Nostalgic in the Present

I drive  Mom's Jag North though the San Joaquin. It rides like a dream and I feel like I am on the Disneyland Monorail. Mr Dog is my co-pilot. We slide into Alameda as the sun sets across the bay. The dark hills are silhouetted against the fiery orange sky. I remember so many of these sunsets from my Berkeley porch. Previous chapters of my life. 

Alameda is beautiful place. Tree lined streets. Gorgeous houses. It reminds me of days past. There are no new shiny metal condos. I walk my dog in the cool mornings and dream of living here. Dream of what life could be like living here. I indulge in this fantasy. I indulge in returning to this metropolitan area.

I'm up here for the wedding of one of my best friends. Someone who had a profound impact on my life, many times. We met through work, we became friends through divorce, health and work challenges and celebrated good times with lots of sushi. I think of all these things as I see her, Rosie, beautiful in her white dress, hair pin curled with pearls. They have been such a comfort, such a friend to me. It's an honor to be here with them, to celebrate and witness their marriage. The ceremony and vows are perfect.

I can't help but be a little sad. My heart is still broken. I have dreams of my own romance. My awesome partner. Visions of a life. I try to enjoy these times alone. Doing whatever I want. Reinventing myself. But I miss the companionship. I feel this absence even as I joyously witness the union of two great friends. I hold space for their dreams and wish them everything they desire.

These circle of friends. Many know me pre-Heathervescent. People who made such an impact in my life. Taking chances on me. Believing in me. Mentoring me. Befriending me. These people I have known for more than 15 years.... connected by the core values we share. 

It feels great to have these longtime friendships. To revisit our antics of the past. To catch up on current projects. Under it all, friendship and love. 

That's what I'm learning this year, love really is the only thing that matters. The tender thread weaving us together. I strengthen my thread and weave it widely in the world. 

WE DID IT The Future of Money TV Series is NOW FUNDED

Quick update: WE DID IT! Last night we hit the goal and raised the $35k needed to move to the next step on the project. Thank you so much! I could not have done this without each and every one of you! More updates as they happen...

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I'm really excited to share my latest project. Allow me to introduce you to (drum roll please).....

Since 2010, I have researched the Future of Transactions. My scenario work from my research caught the eyes of Peter Vander Auwera and Kosta Peric of Innotribe, the Innovation division of Swift. With their financial support, I made 3 short scenario films and 2 documentaries. I even joined the Innotribe team for a year to help make these visions a reality.

While working for Innotribe, I was struck by the impact my films had on people. When I showed them at SXSW and other conferences, people would come up to me afterwards and tell me how the visions in my films changed their perspective. Over and over I saw people's ideas about the future change after watching my films. They were positive and excited about coming innovations.

It's this change that inspired me to develop the idea into a TV Series for a general audience. I know from a research expert perspective that finanical innovations are exciting. The past 3 years have been filled with many new technology innovations. I know as a futurist, that the future is full of possibilities - but most people don't see how things can work out positively for them. And it doesn't help that we have a lot of negative baggage and fear around the topic of money and finance. I want to change that. I want to put a spotlight on the amazing financial innovations that will improve our lives.

We are living in a fantastic and most abundant time. (Yes, I know there are still problems... my 1st place Award winning paper, The Human Problem addresses this.) I truly believe the future will be even more abundant - if we allow it to be. It is fully within our choice.

With this backstory, I've developed the Future of Money TV Series since February. An international distributor came on board in May and has agreed to distribute the series internationally with your help. I need your support to greenlight the project. 

I've launched a Kickstarter to raise $35,000 to fund the first milestone of the project - expert interviews. 

To date, I have self funded all of my research and the development of the series. Innotribe graciously funded the production of the scenario films and documentaries - which were part of the inspiration. Now is when I need to hear your voice.

Want to hear about the Future of Money from a positive, balanced and honest perspective?  

• Greenlight the project by sharing the link
• Follow the project on Twitter and Facebook
• Back the project

I'm taking my research of the past 3 years to the next level. But I can't do this alone. Please co-create the future - a future we can look forward to. 

Thank you.

The Future of Identity at PII, Sept 17 in Seattle

I've spoken on Identity and participated in the Identity community for a long time, going back to my work at AOL on Account Linking for Instant Messenger (circa 2002). With that background, I'm speaking at Privacy, Identity, Innovation in Seattle on Tuesday, September 17th at 5pm. 

The Future of Identity

Like privacy, the term “identity” means different things to different people. In this conversation with Mozilla privacy engineer Monica Chew and futurist Heather Schlegel, we’ll discuss those nuances and consider what the future of identity might look like. What role does contextual identity play in protecting privacy and how can companies like Mozilla enable individuals to manage their various personas? How is use of a real-name identity changing the digital experience? Will pseudonymity and anonymity as we know them exist in the future? Or, as Seinfeld’s George Costanaza might say, are our worlds colliding as our online and offline personas merge?

If you're interested in attending, you can register for the event with at 15% discount using this link.

Future of Enhanced Intimacy

Think technology is tearing us apart? WRONG.

[W]hat I discovered in the course of my reporting was something quite different. As traditional family structures are falling apart for working-class men, many of them are forging new kinds of relationships: two old high-school friends who chat so many times a day that they need to buy themselves walkie-talkies; a father who texts his almost-grown sons as he goes to bed at night and as he wakes up in the morning.

Christians often talk about a “God-shaped hole,” a need inside us that can be filled only by faith. But perhaps we share a “family-shaped hole.” When the old structures recede for men, they find ways to replace them with alternative attachments, bonds with one or two people that offer the warmth and intimacy typically provided by a wife or significant other. If anything, these improvised families can prove more intense because they are formed under duress and, lacking a conventional domestic routine or a recognized status, they must be constantly tended and reinforced.

 From this Atlantic article: Murder by Craigslist

What's interesting about this, is the technology that facilitates these intimate familiar relationships. Based on my recent research on the Future of Intimacy, this is going to happen more and more. I think this is a GREAT thing, so my team and I have submitted a panel to SXSW to share our findings.

The New Age of Technology Enhanced Intimacy

As the technology becomes a natural augmentation of our physical relationships, virtual interactions are becoming less of a substitute for physical proximity and rather a mechanism to extend and augment intimacy (play/engagement/closeness) between humans and machines. 

Humans are drawn to create and sustain intimate connections with each other. This goes beyond a partner sex bond and includes close friends, family and work colleagues. Technology will increasingly facilitate and strengthen these deep human emotional bonds. 

These deep intimate connections are not limited to human to human subjects. Technology will also facilitate deep connection with machines, computers, devices and sensors embedded in our world.

We'll answer these questions

1. How is technology is increasing human intimacy and connection?
2. What is the technology facilitating human to human and human to machine intimacy today?
3. What technology can we expect to facilitate human to human and human to machine intimacy in the near future?
4. What are the implications of increased intimacy through technology use? For couples/individuals? For groups/communities? For machines? For our world?
5. Why is an increased literacy of technology facilitated intimacy important to solve today's wicked problems and save the world?

Our all-star team includes

• Heather Schlegel The Purple Tornado
• Carl Hastrich Biomimicry Institute
• Zahra Ebrahim archiTEXT
• Karen Oikonen Kerr Smith Design

If you're interested in this topic, please vote to support the topic. 

The Future of Intimacy

This summer I kicked off a new domain of research with 3 colleagues in Toronto: The Future of Intimacy.

As the virtual becomes a natural augmentation of our physical relationships, how will virtual interactions become less of a substitute for physical proximity and rather a mechanism to extend and augment intimacy (play/engagement/closeness) in 2050?

To show a vision of this future, we created a company: UME; which was founded in 2025.

UME is the leading company in emotion extension technology. At UME, we connect how you feel with your loved ones.

UME offers two products that facilitate deep connection with loved ones. EMP-CONNECT and INLINE.

While we envisioned positive ways to use this technology, including an increase in emotional literacy; we explored the dark side of complete mind-melding. 

And other scenarios share more possibilities, like a general overview of this world, an empathic high school and a feminist perspective. 

These scenarios show a vision of what the future could be. How could this world become a reality? We created a Backcast to show plausible events happening in the next 37 years that could lead to this reality. 

While we can't say for certain that this vision will happen, the technology and trends of today lead us to this vision. The value of this work is in how it makes you think about this topic. Is this a future you want to live in? What things about this future are exciting and pull you toward it? Which items about this future concern you?

Without a vision of the future to step into and experience, we can't explore these questions. The answers to these questions changes the way we interact in the present, and this, in turn, changes the future.