Begin somewhere in the past.
Travel into tomorrow.
Each voyage starts with a real, dated thread from Jim Carroll's work. We follow its changing course through research, deployments and unexpected detours, then explore a possible future—clearly distinguished from what is already real.
Choose your next destination.
A City Built for a Different Climate
From Jim Carroll's 2022 archive to an explicitly imagined 2040 future: how will cities adapt when the old assumptions about weather no longer hold?
A School Day Designed Around How You Learn
From Jim Carroll's 2007 archive to an explicitly imagined 2036 future: how could tailored learning finally be scalable without hollowing out human instruction?
A Visit to the Factory That Never Stops Learning
From Jim Carroll's 2013 archive to an explicitly imagined 2036 future: how will tomorrow’s competitive advantage come from learning speed rather than just labor cost?
A Walk Through the City That Responds
From Jim Carroll's 2010 archive to an explicitly imagined 2040 future: how can cities improve resilience without turning public infrastructure into a surveillance system?
A World Where Electricity Can Be Saved for Later
From Jim Carroll's 2009 archive to an explicitly imagined 2040 future: how does cheap storage change generation, prices and resilience without replacing firm supply?
An Ordinary Morning in the Hospital of 2040
From Jim Carroll's 2008 archive to an explicitly imagined 2040 future: how can healthcare move toward prevention without overwhelming people with false alarms?
Can We Detect Disease Before We Know We Are Sick?
From Jim Carroll's 2012 archive to an explicitly imagined 2036 future: how will predictive care become trustworthy and equitable enough for routine use?
Inside the Research Laboratory That Never Stops Testing
From Jim Carroll's 2013 archive to an explicitly imagined 2036 future: how does accelerated experimentation shift science’s bottleneck from doing to validating?
Inside the Vertical Farm of 2036
From Jim Carroll's 2015 archive to an explicitly imagined 2036 future: how what can indoor agriculture grow profitably, and where is it a poor fit?
Could Tomorrow’s Materials Repair Themselves?
From Jim Carroll's 2019 archive to an explicitly imagined 2040 future: how will smart materials change maintenance schedules more than the objects themselves?
The Bank Without the Traditional Front Door
From Jim Carroll's 2023 archive to an explicitly imagined 2036 future: how what becomes of finance when service is automated but trust and liability remain human concerns?
The Day Your Shopping Agent Does the Negotiating
From Jim Carroll's 2008 archive to an explicitly imagined 2036 future: how can machine-to-machine commerce develop trustworthy identity, payment and redress?
The Drive Home When the Car Does More of the Driving
From Jim Carroll's 2013 archive to an explicitly imagined 2036 future: how will autonomy arrive as a patchwork of zones rather than a universal switch?
The Electric Car Becomes a Battery the Street Can Borrow
From Jim Carroll's 2021 archive to an explicitly imagined 2036 future: how could fleets unlock vehicle-to-grid economics before private households do?
The Farm That Can See Trouble Before It Arrives
From Jim Carroll's 2004 archive to an explicitly imagined 2036 future: how much autonomy can farming use without losing the agronomic and economic judgment of growers?
The Supply Chain That Rewrites Its Own Route
From Jim Carroll's 2018 archive to an explicitly imagined 2031 future: how what decisions can supply chains delegate without hiding risk and accountability?
What Becomes of the Store When Everything Has Data?
From Jim Carroll's 2012 archive to an explicitly imagined 2031 future: how might physical shopping combine data, service and genuine choice?
What Does a Career Look Like When Skills Keep Changing?
From Jim Carroll's 2015 archive to an explicitly imagined 2031 future: how can employers build continuous reinvention into real career paths instead of slogans?
What Does It Mean to Be a Futurist in 2036?
From Jim Carroll's 2011 archive to an explicitly imagined 2036 future: how as analysis gets cheaper, could judgment, imagination and adaptability become more valuable?
What Happens When Factories Make Things One at a Time?
From Jim Carroll's 2013 archive to an explicitly imagined 2036 future: how could mass customization transform inventory and the relationship with customers?
When a Robot Coworker Joins the Morning Shift
From Jim Carroll's 2019 archive to an explicitly imagined 2031 future: how will broad-purpose robots become practical coworkers or remain specialized expensive machinery?
When the Grid Learns to Repair Around Trouble
From Jim Carroll's 2009 archive to an explicitly imagined 2040 future: how autonomous can infrastructure become while retaining accountable human control?
When Your Insurance Policy Learns From How You Live
From Jim Carroll's 2014 archive to an explicitly imagined 2036 future: how far will real-time underwriting go before social and regulatory limits intervene?
The Day Your Neighborhood Becomes Part of the Power Grid
From a connected thermostat in 2009 to a possible neighborhood-scale energy network in 2036: follow Jim Carroll’s long-running exploration of the intelligent grid.
Will We Still Know What Is Real?
From Jim Carroll's 2023 archive to an explicitly imagined 2036 future: how will authenticity become a service and a civic infrastructure?