There are several ways to think long-term, some are more effective than others. But what’s overlooked is the skills and attitudes needed to bring together and nurture different values and ideas to open up rather than lock-down future potentials.
Lists of technologies and “disrupters” are sometimes click-worthy, but they can obscure the need for deeper discussions about the social systems in which they could sit.
Outrageous, immoral or downright dangerous. That’s a description of the lifestyle of women “flappers” in the 1920s. Could it apply to science (and scientists) in the 2020s?
It’s deceptive to think that new technologies and some innovative thinking will transform government. They are just part of a larger field of changes that need to occur, which I summarise in an infographic.
Addressing the impacts of climate change can seem daunting or insubstantial. Some good work is already being done to show what is already working, and what are the initiatives that can best help reduce the causes and impacts of a changing climate.
It’s hard to find a way through the forest of forecasts about the impact new technologies will have on work and life. Is it going to be terrible, awesome, same same, all of the above, or something else?
Like business and politics, futurism and foresight are susceptible to short-termism, shallow historical perspectives, and a focus on parts not the whole.
