Publications
The Applied Futures Research series in full, by number, and the working instruments built from it.
Papers, 2026
| Number | Title | Subject | Issued | Originally |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AFR 26-16 | Uptime Is the Product | Robotics & Automation | October 2026 | REA·011 |
| AFR 26-15 | The Trillion-Dollar Search Bar | AI & Computation | September 2026 | AFR·001 |
| AFR 26-14 | Spooky Action, Entanglement, and the Case for a Second Time Dimension | Exploratory Research | August 2026 | SCI·005 |
| AFR 26-13 | The Second Patient: The Digital Twin of the Human Body | Exploratory Research | August 2026 | SCI·004 |
| AFR 26-12 | Deliverability, Not Capacity | Energy & Strategic Infrastructure | October 2026 2nd ed.; 1st ed. Aug 2026 |
REA·009 |
| AFR 26-11 | The Skeptic’s Field Guide With the Field Kit |
Robotics & Automation | August 2026 | REA·008 |
| AFR 26-10 | The Crew and the Machine | Robotics & Automation | August 2026 | REA·007 |
| AFR 26-09 | Own, Lease, or Rent the Robot | Robotics & Automation | July 2026 | REA·006 |
| AFR 26-08 | The Pilot Trap | Robotics & Automation | July 2026 | REA·005 |
| AFR 26-07 | The Humanoid as Capital Asset | Robotics & Automation | June 2026 | REA·004 |
| AFR 26-06 | The Autonomous Laboratory | AI & Computation | June 2026 | SCI·002 |
| AFR 26-05 | Gravity-Lift Systems for an All-Terrain Beach Cart | Exploratory Research | May 2026 | REA·002 |
| AFR 26-04 | The Charlotte Harbor Estuary | Exploratory Research | May 2026 | REA·001 |
| AFR 26-03 | Transparent Aluminum (ALON) | Exploratory Research | May 2026 | SCI·003 |
| AFR 26-02 | Geomagnetic Pole Reversal | Exploratory Research | May 2026 | REA·003 |
| AFR 26-01 | Sub-Quadratic Sparse Attention | AI & Computation | May 2026 | SCI·001 |
Numbers run in the form AFR 26-NN: the year, then the paper’s place in that year’s series. Papers issued before November 2026 were first published under register numbers (REA, SCI and AFR·001). Those numbers remain valid citations, and each one still resolves to its paper; for example, zspacedynamics.com/REA-009 opens AFR 26-12. The series continues at AFR 26-17 and restarts at AFR 27-01 in January.
The Robotics Buyer’s Field Kit
The vendor-diligence procedure from the robotics deployment series, built as working tools: the full AFR 26-11 paper, a 12-page field kit with a counter-demo protocol, spec-sheet decoder, reference-check script and ten contract clauses, and a live Excel scorecard with automatic weighting and a red-flag override. For operations, maintenance and procurement leaders evaluating a robotics vendor before the capital is committed.
How papers are published
Every paper is published as a PDF with its own page carrying the abstract, subject tags and a ready-made citation, with Google Scholar metadata. Papers revised substantively are issued as new editions, and earlier editions stay online unchanged; the policy is set out in Research Standards.
New papers are announced in the RSS feed. Paste zspacedynamics.com/feed.xml into any feed reader.