ISD Lecture
Futurism and its Discontents
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
5:00 pm to 6:00 pm
Jamais Cascio
In a rapidly-changing, uncertain environment, the ability to think constructively about various future possibilities is more important than ever. "Foresight Specialists", "Scenario Planners", "Trend Spotters" and good old "Futurists" provide a specialized service that few businesses, non-profits, and governments have organically -- and fewer still recognize that they need. I'll talk about why today's futurism has more to do with imagining the possible than thinking the unthinkable, why futurist ethics matters more than futurist economics, and whether futurism might just be the best job out there for the easily-distracted generalist.
Jamais Cascio writes about the intersection of emerging technologies, environmental dilemmas, and cultural transformation, and specializes in the design and creation of plausible scenarios of the future. His work focuses on the importance of long-term, systemic thinking, with a particular emphasis on the power of openness, transparency and flexibility as catalysts for building a more resilient society.