As futurists, we learn to be patient and take the long view. So, when something catches our attention, we catch our …
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Futurist as Public Voice
I was glancing through the posts to our Futurists in Media project, and I noticed the strong presence of two …
Don’t be a meatbot
My elegant title suggests a simple strategy of looking at the unfolding pathway of automation and don’t follow a …
Next Economy: Is It Really Different This Time?
I finally got to Carlota Perez’s, Technological revolutions and financial capital: The dynamics of bubbles and golden …
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Looking ahead on City View
I had a nice opportunity to talk about the future with host Art Rascon on his City View community affairs television …
Your story and your work
How does your life story fit with your work? That question stuck with me after reading Bob Johansen’s “Get There Early.” …
Foundations of plenty challenged
Continuing on the next economy theme this week with The Birth of Plenty: How the Prosperity of the Modern World was …
Development ≠ progress
We teach Progress and Development as separate theories in our Social Change class. I sometimes joke that Development is …
Foresight classics: 20/20 foresight characterizes uncertainty
Not surprisingly, we discussed uncertainty during Futures Research class this semester. Hugh Courtney’s 20/20 Foresight: …
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Luck, practice, and the futurist
Success in the future is directly related informed preparation and hard work, right? And the futurists who succeed got …
Designing Foresight and Foresighting Design
I’m happy to share that my collaboration with [former] design student (and now Dr.) Danilo Zindato exploring the uses of …
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Translation and Transformation
I previously wrote [rather briefly] about letting go, translating, and transforming as three major roles of futurists. …
Jobbing or Doing?
A frequently asked question I get as an educator is “can I get a job as a futurist? I tackled this important and …
MISC: Prepping for the Next Economy(s)
I am pleased with the Houston Foresight program's collaboration with the elegant and informative MISC: A …
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Public sector interest in foresight taking off?
I’m in Dubai for a week doing scenarios with a government agency. One can’t help but be impressed by the tremendous …
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Next Economy Additions: Commons, Creative Molecular, and Em/Singularity
A couple of years, I started collecting and posting concepts or names for the next economy as part of my scanning (which …
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Intuition in Futures Work
We come to the week in Alternative Perspectives class where we see how far one’s embrace of alternative extends. We call …
Foresight in the university world: size matters
Last week we tackled the pressure to bring in research dollars. This week we confront a classic chicken-and-egg problem …
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Foresight in the university world: Research
I'm thinking of a series of unofficial random musings about the state of foresight in the university world, as I begin …
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Future of income inequality via Picketty
Every now and then, perhaps more than I care to admit, I defer reading a book that attains some degree of popular …
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2016 APF Most Significant Futures Works Winners
One of my favorite things to do each year is to coordinate the APF’s Most Significant Futures Works program. Each year, …
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News Flash: Futurists Are Dying Again
Almost on cue, after a few days of saying nice things about Alvin Toffler, the NY Times pointed out the demise of …
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Indicator: “Mainstream” economist embracing uncertainty
Okay, I’m sure there are economists out there embracing or at least acknowledging uncertainty about the future. But a …
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Artificial Intelligence: It Depends
Futurists pretty regularly get asked about artificial intelligence, often along with robots, and perhaps some …
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Help Disseminate Foresight Market Survey
Most of you know that the market for foresight is still pretty murky. As part of my work on the APF …
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Indicator Alert: The Swiss Say No to Basic Income
We have been keeping an eye on new economy concepts. The passage of a guaranteed basic income would be an indicator of …
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Foresight Classics: Earth Might Be Fair
My journey into classic views of the future recently turned up an expected gem – unexpected in the sense of my not being …
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Is better better?
What’s on my mind here is the potential perniciousness of ubiquitous feedback/performance rankings/predictive …
Historians & Futurists: More Alike than Not
A few weeks ago, we explored a few thoughts around the history of the foresight field. APF colleague Ruben Nelson …
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Next Economy Additions: Zero marginal cost, metaspace, conscious, and Blockchain
A couple of years, I started collecting and posting concepts or names for the next economy as part of my scanning (which …