The Latest from Big Think

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The population of the world, long expected to stabilize just above 9 billion in the middle of the century, will instead keep growing and may hit 10.1 billion by the year 2100, according to a new U.N. report. 
A friend of mine sent me a text message yesterday. “Should we be worried about retaliation?” I was in the middle of something, so I gave her a one word […]
The driving task has generally remained the same since the baby boomers learned to drive. That is about to change. New in-vehicle technologies are promising to make us more connected, aware […]
MIT AgeLab is launching a new website. The updated content reflects the expanded research agenda of the Lab in transportation, health behavior, financial & longevity planning, and business & policy […]
The past four decades have seen major transformation in the roles and evolving responsibilities of employerswith regard to the lives of their employees. While business has changed with the ‘times,’ […]
Discussions of China tend to focus on size – a nation of over 1.3 billion people certainly deserves attention from business and investors worldwide. But, ‘total’ numbers reveal little about […]
Ken Gronbach writes on CNBC.com that “Aging Boomers Could Spell Big Trouble for Walmart.” If true, this really is disruptive demographics when the world’s largest company is thought to be […]
Few people can imagine their own old age – old age is always something that happens to parents, relatives and friends met at 30th reunions. Putting denial aside, with any […]
Communications and convenience giant (Nasdaq: RIMM) RIM, the maker of the ubiquitous Blackberry, sees a number of defining trends ahead. These reflect the themes of my own research and are […]
Product development and launch was easier when the consumer was young enough to see everything as new and novel. While admittedly fast moving and hard to keep, the ‘tween through […]
Who is online? As thefigure shows, the majority of adults from 18 to 50 are living some form of digitallife. Even older adults 65 and older are growing in numbers […]
This is the second of afive-part interview of Joseph Coughlin on disruptive demographics and businessinnovation conducted by Rohit Sakhuja on WMBR MIT Radio's Paradigm Shifts program. Inthis segment Coughlin envisions […]
The iPad. It’s new. It’s cool. And, it’s a terrific designexperience that is likely to excite and delight your grandmother…and you. It isa stellar example of what designers should consider […]
Ironically, the growth of new disruptive technologies is only rivaled by the growth of disruptive demographics in an aging marketplace. These two forces collide and are reconciled by designers on […]
Innovative product design is increasingly crucial as the generally educated and wealthier boomer consumer rises to the fore of the marketplace with a lifetime of technology experience and rising expectations […]
“…Should I stay or should I go now?If I go there will be troubleAn if I stay there will be double…”           The Clash (1982)       […]
A baby boomer turns 64 nearly one every seven seconds. Perennially youthful, butno longer young the nation’s largest generation is now well into middle age andbeyond. Born between 1946 and […]
Too many designers, marketers and concerned observers have declared universal design to be the universal answer to meet the new needs of the growing numbers of older baby boomer consumers. […]
It's that time of year again. It’s summer time and olderdrivers are in the news. Perennially trapped between humor and horror thedebate on older drivers continues in every state house, […]
The future of financial services will be more than managing money. The longevity gains of the last century present a financial risk that previous generations rarely encountered -- a lifespan […]