Are You Ready for the Future?

Let’s face it; the future is uncertain. If we knew for sure what would happen, we’d make fewer mistakes… and more money, too. However, we can’t let uncertainty cause us to fall into a state of paralysis.

In the absence of clairvoyance, we can look to trends based on facts, research, science, math, etc. and make informed decisions. Think of it as something closer to full-on predictions than guesses. As we as a species continue to collect and analyze data on… everything, we can feel more and more confident in predictive models to aid our decision-making.

Our October 31 session looked at a variety of future-ready topics, including disaster-resistance, water efficiency and renewable energy. These are areas where we already have, but will continue to refine our abilities to protect ourselves (in the case of disasters) or optimize our usage (in the case of water and renewable energy). Sam Rashkin will drill down into each of these facets of housing in greater detail than previous sessions. Given the significance of those three topics alone and their relevance to millions affected by hurricanes or drought throughout the United States, the timing of this seminar couldn’t be better.

This session isn’t just about seeing into the near-term future. It’s also about understanding what products are available now, but haven’t advanced past the early adopter phase yet. JD Gill of Schneider Electric is going to talk to us about smart home innovations. Through machine learning, smart home and smart grid systems will be able to detect time of day and usage patterns that can optimize energy and water efficiency. They’ll be able to remind us of systematic maintenance needs, perform some level of self-diagnosis for troubleshooting, adapt to different occupancy levels and that’s just the tip of the iceberg.