If the SkyMall catalog still exists in 2025, it will probably look like this
To come up with its scenarios, the Near Future Laboratory thinks about the logical endpoint of scenarios that are already emerging. In this case, they might have asked, "What does a world look like where genetic testing has become commonplace?"
"People are investing tens of millions in order to change the world. It's the perfect time to introduce the idea of the near future," says Julian Bleecker, a cofounder of the Near Future Laboratory.
The near future in the TBD Catalog is a reflection of the consciousness only of its 19 creators, but still manages to capture a diverse array of trends that are already playing out.
Some of the items advertised in the TBD Catalog already exist on a small scale. In parts of Oakland, California, for example, residents have banded together to pay for private neighborhood security in lieu of a slow-to-respond regular police force.
By putting all of these items in a catalog, it makes them seem blasé and realistic — even things that indicate a slightly menacing future, like the surveillance-mitigating umbrella pictured here.
According to its creators, the catalog isn't intended to be a fully accurate representation of the near future.
Instead, its primary function is to spark everyday discussion.
In the TBD Catalog future, people are the same as they are today, with slightly more advanced tools.
They're still trying to avoid boredom, stay healthy and safe, experience luxury, and get from place to place in comfort.
Bleecker's advice: "Read it as a kind of anthropological excavation, an inventory of things, and then read between the lines to see the kind of worlds you might anticipate and their implications."
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