As you know, I've been working with chatbots since 2005. It has been silent for years but with the introduction of the Facebook #Chatbot platform we've entered another hype. It seems that every innovative company now wants to be in the friend list of a consumers. Well, let me tell you what to take care for.

So, I've added quite a few Facebook messenger chatbots in order to test them (they want to be added to the Chatbots.org directory). The first thing these bots do is to start sending. After a few days I can't find the messages of my friends anymore. The first thing I did is to remove them again.

What chatbots are really about is to answer questions, to be relevant in time. How can you possibly know when you're relevant as a single brand? You've possible attended many workshops with that theme but the true answer is: you can't. That what we see right now. You can't, you simply can't. Let me explain.

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• Brand-dialogue

Between 2005 and 2011 I've presented my vision on the future during seminars, conferences and conventions. During these days I got many questions like: 'Erwin, will we be like like CyBorgs? Half human, half robot? Will our organs be printed? Do we learn by knowledge 'beaming' in our brains rather than learning from life, from a teacher or from each other? What we will be the role of teleportation in society? What do you think about personalised medicine?.

The assumption beyond this questions was that the trend of us getting older combined with the trend that we would be get ill earlier in life. That the horrifying health numbers of today would even get worse. That 1 out of 2 would get cancer. That the costs of diabetes in 2050 will be higher than all other diseases together. That autism will be the new standard for our children. They assumed that we won't learn from what goes wrong in our society. That our smartest scientists won't be able to put their fingers on the essence of human health.

During answering those questions I noticed that it is actually quite difficult for me to explain my vision in just a few minutes, that I think the selfhealing ability of humans is so strong that I expect that we'll find a universal accepted methodology for people that keep themselves vital and that we'll create a society that stimulates people to do so. That combination is absolutely essential for a 100% healthy world.

In 2017 I will release my new book on the future of health which will be focussed primary on the individual reader. In the upcoming period, people will take back responsibility for their health, and will integrate recovery and maintenance of their mental, emotional and physical health in their lives. We'll use the next decennia to integrate our own insight and experiences in a new health system, supported by the latest universal and yet scientific insight.

Over the past months I have been working on the outline of the book, researching by interviews, by sharing and by reading a lot from different angles, and obviously by writing the first chapters. Although I love it, I won't be finished the coming months. To be continued! . Life has just begun.

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• 2050-2100: Pamper planet

It’s official: according to data just released by Edison Research, more American teenagers listen to Spotify, Pandora, and other streaming music services than traditional, FM broadcast radio. The finding comes from Edison’s ‘Share of Ear’ report, which measures all forms of music listening, including downloads, streaming services, online radio, and traditional AM/FM broadcast channels.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

This is again another step. A future unfolds where central distributed media such as TV and radio are hardly used anymore. Only live events where everyone is tuned in interactively (a massive game actually) will have a future. All music and visual entertainment will be purely personal. And we’ll be prepared to pay for these services.

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• 2020-2035: Mediacompletion

Google expands its Google Play Music services to an online music streaming services that merges your collection with their catalog, personal recommendations using Googles advanced personalisation technology and options to explore music yourself.

It's a payed service, priced 9.99 $ in the US

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

The experience economy is actually taking place in the virtual world. We will pay lots for content. It all has just started. Soon, ‘free’ television and radio, full of ads, will only be watched/listened to by poor people. Without the disappearing opportunity to buy time in the lives of consumers, it will change the brand scape forever.

And this is only just the beginning. In five years from we’ll have bands holographically projected in our living rooms. That will be a bit more expensive, but will really add value to our lives.

And we’ll be invited to join the virtual band. Leaving one instrument to us. Or invite a friend to play instrument, to sing.

Music is a social activity, and very valuable to peoples lives. It all has just started…

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• Experiences

Summly Launch from Summly on Vimeo.

Nick D’Aloisio, a 16-year-old iOS developer based in London, England, is the mastermind behind this amazing iPhone app. Summly thrives on a high end algorithm. The Summly algorithm accomplishes this using a number of machine learning techniques and “genetic” algorithms — a search heuristic that mimics evolution.

D’Aloisio says that Summly works best with well-formulated articles that conform to a consistent structure. This lets the algorithm learn what’s important — and where to find that important information — more easily. Tech articles and news articles tend to marry well with Summly’s algorithm, as does the consistently organized content from the New York Times and the BBC. The app doesn’t do quite as well with narrative text written in the third person, but D’Aloisio says that there are no areas that are seriously troublesome to his algorithm.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

Computer try to understand in much more details what we find important and this is a step in this direction. This will immediately be followed by connecting it to social media: what do our friends, our family, our colleagues find important? People want to know about the news before they hear it from others. That’s where news coaching brands tap into.

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• Coaching brands

Ticketmaster Teams With Facebook So You Can Sit Next To Your Friends. Those who are reserving their seats will see a mock-up of an arena seat map indicating where their Facebook friends will be sitting, so the can reseerve a spot next or closeby.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

I’ve been writing about this phenonemon since 2004, and now it’s becoming reality. Finally, I’ve been waiting for this!!!

Soon, all our purchases will be powered by social media. For example: the next time when I visit a restaurant in Nigeria, I can exactly see where my friends have been, and what their experience were. This will influence my decisions way more, than any (anonymous) review site can ever do.

We’re social creatures you know;)

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• Tribal

Someone send me this link, no further information, but inspiration anyway. Video speaks for itself.

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• 2020-2035: Mediacompletion

I haven't written a lot lately (very busy with the chatbots.org, but those who have followed me since 2005 and have read my book, will recognize many trends reinforce my predictions of five years ago.

Here's an example: Spotify. A coaching music brand in its early days. For 9,99 a month, you have unlimited access to ad-free music. Connected to your friends through your Facebook account. My 2004 prediction was simple: it would not longer be about possession of music, but people would pay in the future for the right to play music.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

What will happen in the coming five years? Brands like Spotify will respond to our emotional reaction. They will notify how our movements will change, our tone of voice, our facial exppression. We don’t have to rate music any longer, our feedback is fully clear.

And from there, music coaching brands will feed us with music we need: which will change our emotional state. And that’s where the word ‘coaching’ comes in. The decision to select music for a particular person, on a particular moment, or a particular place, is not very simple. It’s not about selecting the persons favorite song. Being happy might not be the best mood to move to about the funeral of a family member or bad news at work. Or maybe, it is. Coaching is about understanding an individual.

So even though people think this is where it’s all heading to, it’s actually just the beginning…

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The future of shopping according to Cisco. It's looks as Science Fiction, but this future is already here (aside from a few minor technology problems such as lighting in the stores).

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

The most important roles of stores is to determine your current measurements. You can order anything you like, from brands, it can be tailored to your wishes, deliverable in every possible color, you can see how it combines with clothes you purchased before and which are still in your wardrobe (i.e. clothes you haven’t thrown away), you can ask what your friends think, and what they bought which will transform shopping to a far more social experience.

Having things on stock is no longer an issue. It will delivered to your home, before you even arrive after traveling back. No more need to carry bags. You can shop from home as easy as shop from any other location in the world. But being with your friends (both physical as virtual), provides a new dimension to the shopping experience.

And obvvously, you’ll be assisted by a brand agent (or a chatbot, dependent on the terminology you prefer), instead of a real human, an artificial character with far more knowledge than a human human could ever possibly have.

This is the future, but only a step into the future.

Related trends

• 2020-2035: Mediacompletion

Again another example that illustrates that the programming of our evening on the couch will be done on an individual basis by a new type of brands, home entertainment coaching brands, instead of traditional TV broadcasters, who are programming for the mass and interrupt our favorite shows with advertising.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

Just a matter of time before Google starts to charge us per show. And we’ll love to pay a few cents to avoid the advertising! Home Entertainment Coaching Brands have the future, and traditional broadcasters have to switch their business models. Fast!

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• 2020-2035: Mediacompletion

Rocket Taxi: This App checks your location with GPS and lists nearby taxi companies with distances. Just select one, press on it and a call will be initiated to the cab company.

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• Coaching brands

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• 2020-2035: Mediacompletion

Greenpeace has introducted an Iphone application that gives users a quick and handy guide to finding the greenest toilet paper, tissues, paper towels, and paper napkins sold at the supermarket. Ideally, the best products contain 100 percent recycled content (at least 50 percent of which is from post-consumer materials) and avoid the use of chlorine or chlorine compounds in the whitening process. Products that meet this criteria include Green Forest, Natural Value and Seventh Generation while products from companies like Kleenex, Charmin, Angel Soft, Cottonelle, Brawny, and Scott fall short. The application is free to download.

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• Coaching brands

TellMe for Windows Mobile 6.5 isn't just an app, it's a one-button hub for voice commands of all kinds, including text messaging, making calls, and also jumping to Microsoft Live Search with natural language queries like "weather in San Francisco, California," "pizza in Kansas City" or "mother's day gift ideas."