Future & Foresight Collection
Technology is changing how we power homes, move around, build, grow food and work. This collection explores where those changes could lead over the next 5, 10, 20 and 30 years. We treat each future as a possibility to examine, not a prediction to accept.
A curated collection: researcher profiles, long-range explainers and reviews of past forecasts, with every prediction labelled as a prediction.
Articles chosen by our editors across the topic areas.
A profile of Tony Seba and the RethinkX energy reports. The core idea, how the argument changed from 2020 to 2025, and how we separate what is observed from what is forecast.
RethinkX says cheap solar, wind and batteries could make clean energy abundant. What is observed, what is a model, and what it could mean for Australia.
Emerging commercial solution
Read article: The future of energy: from scarcity to abundance?
Sixteen dated claims from three RethinkX energy reports, set against independent data from 2025 to 2026. What is supported, what is not, and what is still open.
Read article: Predictions vs Reality: RethinkX's energy forecasts
Prefabrication, 3D concrete printing and other new methods are promoted as fixes for slow, costly building. What the evidence shows, what is still a claim, and what is unresolved.
Emerging commercial solution
Read article: How could new building methods change construction in Australia?
What we explore
We are not trying to convince anyone of a particular future. We want readers to understand the possibilities and weigh the evidence themselves.
The collection is built to grow across many researchers and subjects, including views that challenge prevailing forecasts. Related practical coverage stays in our existing topics.
How generation, storage and demand could change. For today’s technologies see Energy & Storage.
Robotics, prefabrication, 3D printing, advanced materials and AI-assisted design. For current methods see Better Buildings.
Electrification, automation and the ways we might own, share or pay for travel.
Where AI and robotics may change design, manufacturing and work, and where the limits are.
New production methods, land and resource use, and how far they have actually progressed.
New materials and production methods, and what they could mean for cost and waste.
How reuse, recovery and redesign could change what we make and keep. See Circular Living.
Profiles of researchers, entrepreneurs, scientists and organisations, including those who disagree with each other.
What was forecast, when, on what assumptions, and what has happened since.
A forecast is not a fact, and a scenario is not a forecast. In this collection each claim is treated as one of four things, and we say which.
Measured or reported data and well-replicated research, with the source and its date.
A projection with a stated timeframe and assumptions. We record who made it and when.
What could follow if certain assumptions hold. A scenario is not a claim that those assumptions will hold.
Informed views and open questions. We say where evidence is not enough to decide.
A way of thinking
Many technologies are adopted along an S-shaped curve: slowly at first, then quickly, then levelling off as the market fills. The pattern is described in Everett Rogers’ Diffusion of Innovations, first published in 1962.
The shape raises a fair question for any forecast. Does it assume steady change when adoption could accelerate, or assume acceleration when something could stall? The diagram is a concept, not data. Where we discuss real technologies, we use dated measurements and name the source.
Predictions vs reality
When we look back at a forecast, we start from the original publication, then compare it with independent data, not with the forecaster’s own later assessment.
We use original reports and independent sources such as the IEA, IRENA, CSIRO, AEMO and peer-reviewed research. Where the evidence is not enough to judge a forecast, we say so.
Solar, batteries, efficiency and the systems that tie them together, from rental-friendly power to whole-home storage.
Materials, construction methods and design ideas that make buildings more comfortable, durable and resource-smart.
Repairable, reusable and well-designed products, plus the recycling and recovery technologies that keep materials in play.
Collection
Emerging technologies and research worth watching, with honest notes on how close each one is to real-world use.