The Near Futurist

Jan 31 2025 98 ep. 21 mins 30
The Near Futurist Podcast artwork

Periodic look at the impact of future technologies on our lives - what can we do now to prepare for the next few years? Senior journalist Guy Clapperton presents a series of interviews with consultants, technologists and future thinkers in general that takes the shorter-term view rather than forecasting decades ahead. Want this voice at your event? Contact Guy to discuss!

  Technology  Society & Culture
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From 5G to 6G part 2

Jan 31 2025 17 mins  
In this second part of the interview with Dimitra Simeonidou of Joiner, the academic project to explore what's coming next in 6G and beyond, Guy Clapperton asks about when to upgrade our devices, what the role of academia is in all this - and gets advised not to try to trademark the term "7G". Which is a shame. More on the work of Prof. Simeonidou here.

From 5G to 6G - where networking goes next

Jan 24 2025 17 mins  
You thought the conspiracy theories over 5G were bad but had stopped - well, we can only hope it won't all happen again because, wait for it, plans for 6G are afoot. Surely, asks Near Futurist podcaster Guy Clapperton. we don't need it, isn't 5G fast enough? That's until our guest, Prof. Dimitra Simeonidou, head of the UK 6G Testbed, called Joiner (website https://www.bristol.ac.uk

A Smarter Way To Work part 2

Jan 16 2025 7 mins  
In the second part of this interview with Smartrectuiters CEO Rebecca Carr, near futurist Guy Clapperton explores the advantages of using artificial intelligence for recruitment. AI isn't the whole answer - but it's going to offer a lot of shortcuts!

A Smarter Way to Work

Jan 09 2025 11 mins  
Should we be worried about AI in terms of job seeking? Rebecca Carr is a specialist who sees pros and cons. She speaks to Near Futurist Guy Clapperton in. part 1 of this interview.

Mind over technological matter

Feb 02 2024 23 mins  
We keep hearing that we're too stressed because we're always on and we spend too much time in front of screens. No argument there but technology can also help. Dr. Emilia Molimpakis of Thymia explains to Guy Clapperton that monitoring of employees in an anonymised, non-intrusive manner can expose all sorts of behaviours that indicate someone is heading for a crash. But to what exte

Powering the People

Jan 05 2024 15 mins  
So many myths about selling electricity between neighbours and yet it never seems to happen - meanwhile the cost of living is set to continue skyrocketing this year. Near Futurist podcaster Guy Clapperton speaks to Jo-Jo Hubbard, CEO of Electron, about how the infrastructure and business models are coming around to enable people to trade electricity with each other at last.

AI and women - still an issue?

Nov 30 2023 32 mins  

Sound and Fury

Nov 03 2023 23 mins  
Noise cancelling headphones work by adding noise. What's more, if you measure the annoyance of someone when a contact centre agent asks them to repeat their contact information more than once, it gets disproportionately high. This matters when it can all be a matter of fixing the audio engagement. In this edition of the Near Futurist, IRIS Technology CEO Jacobi Anstruther explains

Shopping Around

Oct 06 2023 17 mins  
Shopping is changing - we're abandoning cash almost without realising it and you can walk out of an Amazon Go store feeling as if you haven't paid at all. In this edition of the Near Futurist Guy Clapperton speaks to Charlie Hope, retail principal at IT services company BJSS, about what his retail clients are asking - and therefore what we can espect next! Also Guy looks at the Log

Changing the world a message at a time

Sep 01 2023 20 mins  
What's that? There's another social network out there? There certainly is and we don't mean Threads. Guy talks to Sue Fennessy, founder and chief executive of WeAre8, which aims to restore value to the participant (or "citizen" as it calls them), enable them to donate to charities and stop using hateful messages. Also Guy's thoughts on the Amazon Kindle Scribe - the e-reader that a