AN INTERESTING AFTERNOON
We Dutchies have spawned some of the world's well-know forecasters in the past decades. But we only have a Dutch Future Society since 2013. They organize interesting events where international and Dutch future researchers lecture and meet. We visited 'An Interesting Afternoon' in Amsterdam and heard about these great projects & topics:
Horizonscan 2050: The STT (The Study Centre for Technology Trends) is an independent non-profit foundation and is currently researching the far future of 2050. What challenges await us on the horizon in the next four decades? These challenges were rated on their possibility and desirability. The researchers found an interesting blind spot: when we feel a low desire for a challenge/situation we also tend to estimate the possibility of it happening low. Our brain is wired to like continuity and dislike changes, so it's hard to be open to any alteration in our lives. Futurists: beware of your own blind spot!
World 50.0: A project that states it's the first open source project to collect visionary insights about possible events, technical innovations and social changes. They ask anyone (yeah, you too!) to share ideas of the future of our world in 50 years via several ways, eg. a Facebook group. The goal of World 50.0 is to inspire, to call for action and craft our own future together.
Impact of Future Technology: At Oxford University there's a research group dedicated to studying the possibilities of transformative technological changes and its implications. They are studying 'the unknowns' and feel the future might be all about safe, responsible and fair technology.
The essence of scenarios: Is the book title of former Shell futurist Roland Kupers. He states: "the future is not neutral" and we need to engage WITH the future instead of just thinking about it. Scenario planning is a way to engage with several possible futures and is best done via a combination of intuition and logic.
What is a futurist? Phd-student Tessa Cramer is exploring the profession of future researchers. What defines a futurist? Which job title(s) are used? What do futurists contribute to the world (or clients)? Most of the participants considered themselves to be strategy consultants who inspire others to act on possible futures.
It was indeed An Interesting Afternoon! Be sure to check out the forthcoming events organized by the Dutch Future Society.
