When Edward Snowden revealed the extent of the NSA’s digital surveillance capabilities, shock was coupled with apathy. Many Americans already assumed they were being watched.

Here is the messy truth: this has been going on for years.

It started with the collection of call data from AT&T and Verizon a little over a decade ago. The initial project wasn’t about recording phone conversations, but keeping track of who was making calls to whom. Enough calls to the wrong people could create a pattern of affiliation that might justify further examination. (For a clever explanation of social network analysis, refer to Kieran Healy’s article “Using Metadata to Find Paul Revere.”)

Spray-on skin.  Lab-grown ears.  Human tissue grown in a petri dish.  We're going deep into sci-fi territory (and it is already happening).

Regenerative medicine is an emerging field that provides treatments to repair, regenerate, or replace damaged cells and tissue.  The applications include therapies for Alzheimers, diabetes, cancer, and spinal injuries.

In the next few years, we may see dozens of new therapies hit the market.  Here are a few leading companies: 

If you've ever used an ATM machine, pumped your own gas, paid for a bridge toll using E-ZPass, or had a gas meter read remotely, you've participated in the coming “internet of things.”

The first two versions of the internet connected five billion people and their social networks.  Internet 3.0 is about putting the physical world on the web.  As part of this trend, we’ll see more everyday objects communicating to each other through basic machine-to-machine (M2M) interactions.

According to the research firm Analysys Mason, approximately 2 billion M2M devices will be connected by 2021, up from 100 million in 2011. This represents a compound annual growth rate of 36%.

Whole industries are already changing as a result of this.  The possibilities are pretty remarkable…

Here are the results of this week’s survey of inspirational source material -- courtesy of John Mahaffie and the Association of Professional Futurists.

Margarine, prescription drug, or petroleum product?  Despite the confusing name, OLEDs promise to be the most disruptive display and lighting technology of the next two decades.

Organic Light-Emitting Diodes have been around since the 1950’s.  These are carbon-based materials that create light when electricity is applied.  Unlike traditional display technologies, such as LCDs and LEDs, no separated lighting mechanism is required.    Also, there is no need for a flat glass backing.  This changes everything.