Today, more than ever before, we think and talk about our future. We look at it in equal parts with fear and fascination. Fear, because we are witnessing the rampage of technology in breaking down the very ideas we’ve built our societies on. Fascination, because of the incredible positive impacts we see and foresee due to the same technology.

The role of our Future coverage at FactorDaily is to address both these thoughts. The fear pushes us to approach the impact of technology with a certain scepticism and ask tough questions. The fascination drives us to connect the dots and see its bigger, more majestic impact, and sometimes even dwell in a dreamland.

Here are some of the pieces from 2016 that attempt to make meaning of the oncoming changes and maybe even help prepare for them.

1. What’s the future of jobs?

Automation, robotics and incredible advancements in artificial intelligence have kindled a deep fear in us about our relevance in the future workforce. At FactorDaily, we want to make sense of these disruptions for job seekers and creators through richly reported stories, columns by industry experts and interviews that give you incisive views as part of our Future of Jobs in India coverage. We also organised the Future of Jobs in India Summit where we brought together thought leaders, disruptors to debate ideas and share learnings on jobs of the future. In 2017, we will double down on this and dive deeper.

We are heading towards a jobless future: is it good or bad?

2. Bots are everywhere

AI became a little more mainstream in 2016. It integrated deeper into our lives, often improving it. But, it also began to show its nasty side. We realised that machines can learn human biases and play it back to us.

Biased bots: Artificial Intelligence will mirror human prejudices

3. Space is becoming big business

The next trillionaires may be created in space. Elon Musk is planning missions to colonise Mars. Jeff Bezos wants to move earth industries to the planet’s orbit. Amidst all this, our very own ISRO has been disrupting costs — launching Mars missions and satellites cheaper than high-budget Hollywood films. But, change is in the air and ISRO needs to reinvent itself to stay relevant.

ISRO, it is time you outsourced to get to the next orbit

4. For India’s young, even the sky’s isn’t the limit

The teens working with scientists and engineers on India’s quest to capture the moon paint a rosy picture of our future in so many ways.

Meet the space-crazed teenagers at India’s first private space mission

5. New worlds, every week

“You mean old books?”
“Stories written before space travel but about space travel.”
“How could there have been stories about space travel before —”
“The writers,” Pris said, “made it up.”

― Philip K Dick, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

Gautham Shenoy uses potent science fiction to transport you into new worlds every week. In such dreams could even lie a blueprint for our future where may all live long and prosper.

Science fiction’s many realities: Elon Musk, Simulated Reality and why there may be no spoon

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