By Leif Thomas Olsen. Our democratic systems are failing. Not because they do not work as intended. But because they still work as originally intended. Telling us that democracy equals general elections is nonsense. But it does of course serve our incumbent politicians’ interest. So,it is about time for a new democratic infrastructure. One where elected politicians work for – and report to – the electorate, rather than half the electorate having to wait four years for an opportunity to be at all represented again – the other half simply having to tolerate the fact they did not get what…
Author: Admin
By Leopold P. Mureithi On 11th October 2018, an announcement came: The State of the Future 19.0(SOF) won a 2018 Association of Professional Futurists (APF) Most Significant Futures Work (MSFW) award in the “analysis of a significant future issue” category. “This significant future issue” is broken down into fifteen challenges that this review will touch on later. For now, it is important to know that version 19.1 is available, with a note stating that “the difference between this State of the Future 19.1 and version 19.0 is only the addition of info graphics for each of the 15 global challenges.”[1]…
By Kee-Young Yoon General Purpose Technology and Social Change There are a lot of social-change driving forces including science and technological developments. Typography, steam engine, and electricity belong to general purpose technologies(GPTs). GPT is defined as a technology that has deep economic impacts across countries, regions, or globes, and has a lot of applications. The steam engine catalyzed the industrial revolution, which brought about fundamental changes in the political, economic and social sides of human history. It is natural that the assessments on GPTs have been processed after their economic impact. For example, the term “Industrial Revolution” is denominated by…
By Tom Valovic Intense levels of high tech competition and innovation have been with us for decades. Rapid change — with all the complexities and anxieties it creates — now seems to be the new normal. As impressive as the fruits of innovation have been, the pace of change seems relentless and, at times, almost mindlessly linear. It suggests a possible disconnect between the products or services being rolled out to the market and whether a specifically identifiable business or consumer need actually exists in sufficient degree to justify the development and investment of resources involved. In high tech circles,…
By Michael Mogensen “Stay tuned for news about the NEOM Advisory Board: a team of the world’s leading minds and experts, #TeamNEOM combining the best and brightest global experts to develop the future,” tweeted Neom recently. Neom, a planned mega-city, is a privatized semi-state scheduled to be built by Saudi Arabia in the sparsely inhabited northwest of the country, on the Gulf of Aqaba across from Egypt. Earlier in 2017, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman announced the proposed project at an investment conference in Riyadh attended by many of the world’s business elite, hungry for a potential share of…
By Nick Burnett We were given the privilege of delivering a keynote at the 2018 Combined QLD Principals Associations’ State Conference. The purpose of our keynote was to be both provocative and also to share some opportunities and reasons for optimism. In this post we are going to share just a couple of the activities we undertook with participants and also reflect on what emerged from one of them. Activity 1: Education in 2030 (Huge respect and thanks to Holoniq (https://www.holoniq.com/) for providing the scenarios and also the data from the feedback from conference participants.) We just want to draw attention…
By Eeva Hellström “The megatrends look like a runaway train posing daunting challenges, and collapsologists are talking of a dying world”. We have already learned from experience that this doom and gloom approach does not trigger sufficient changes towards sustainability. The question is, if this is not the way to activate paradigm changes, what is? Foresight can have a role in changing governance paradigms The challenges go deeper than improving policymakers’ knowledge of sustainability challenges and awareness of potential futures – they encompass the very core of our governance systems. Many of our governance systems worked well for the times…
by Dr. Phillip Daffara I have created this short video based on a recent PechaKucha talk I gave in Noosa. From my personal and professional experience, I share the thinking tools and design strategies I use to help me look past the cultural cage I grew up in. The cultural cage of modernity with the image of the ënlightened” Vitruvian man at its centre. These tools were gathered like shells from various shores – philosophy, futures studies, cultural studies and design. Thanks to my some of my mentors such as Sohail Inayatullah (watch out for him on the yellow research…
World Game Seminar at New York Studio School (1969, New York). Courtesy of Stanford University Libraries Special Collections By Rok Kranjc »Make the world work, for 100% of humanity, in the shortest possible time, through spontaneous cooperation, without ecological offense or the disadvantage of anyone« – Buckminster Fuller[1] »Imagine a future where cities are modeled, tested, designed, and reshaped through interactive, collaborative games« – Ekim Tan[2] In recent years there has been a major upsurge in theories around and prefigurative experimentation with various alternative institutional models (e.g. commons-based urban co-governance, platform cooperativism, alternative currencies,[3] universal basic assets,[4] circular economy)…
On 4th January, 2018, a 6-year old girl was raped and murdered in Qasur, Pakistan. This instance of child abuse served as a wake up call for a society which has been lax in its response to abuse and has shaken the collective conscience of the Pakistani nation. While the issue is in the spotlight, it is important to look at it from various angles, instead of just skimming the issue at a superficial level. Child abuse relates to neglect, emotional abuse, physical abuse and sexual abuse of children. In this regards I believe there is a need to explore…