Looking for this year's Fast 50?
The 5th Annual Fast 50
Sure, there's plenty to fret about in the coming decade--dwindling natural resources, swelling populations, whipsawing technology, and growing conflict. But are we scared? Hell, no. The possibilities are multiplying, too. We're learning to engineer human organs from our own tissue, generate solar power on a vast scale, build robots to fight our wars--and even make a cubicle we'd actually want to work in. Inside, 50 portraits from the future: people in business, technology, government, the arts, and beyond who are writing the history of the next 10 years. No, they aren't all heroes. Some are simply seizing an opportunity. But they're all smart, and they all tell you a lot about where we're heading.
* And one note for the literal-minded: This is a list, not a ranking. In this gallery of imagination, No. 1 gets no more laurels than No. 50.
More of our Report from the Future
SlideShow: The Fast 50 (part I)
In this slideshow meet the people, technology, ideas, and trends that will shape how we work and live over the 10 years ahead.
SlideShow: The Fast 50 (part II)
The fast 50 continues, in this secord part of the slideshow examining who and what will shape our future.
Fast 50: Reader Favorites
We were looking for innovative talents and you all responded with hundreds of submissions and thousands of commments. Here is our list of reader favorites--the submissions that drew the highest marks.
Demographics: The Population Hourglass
Your future is older, browner, and more feminine than you might have realized. That will make for some major lifestyle changes ("Welcome home, Mom!") and lots of huge opportunities for business.
Resources: The Revolution Begins
Businesses large and small are finally seeing the green light. It isn't just conscience--or all those nice young people in Guatemalan sweaters--that's doing the trick. It's the sight of all that money.
The Body: Bulletproof
If you want to live forever, change your skin color, or just firm up those abs from the comfort of your own couch, you might be in luck: Gene therapy is on its way--and it's coming fast.
Technology: Boom, Bust, and Beyond
Battered and bankrupt alike, take heart: The dotcom crash did more than cull the investor herd; it set in motion the next great wave of innovation. But now things will only move faster--and competition will only get hotter.
Security: Power to the People
The myth of American omnipotence fell in the Iraqi desert, laid low by an agile new enemy. We have a chance now to rethink the systems that protected us in the past. It's one we cannot miss.
Six Jobs That Won't Exist in 2016
The FC Wish List: Science Edition
The FC Wish List: Tech Edition
Stuff we hope to see by 2016.
The Comeback Trail
A few failed ideas from the past 10 years that we're welcoming home.