Guest Contributor Ingrid Furtado

Ingrid Furtado, a journalist originally from Brazil and rooted in Texas, is a dynamic storyteller committed to using her news expertise to bridge the gap between journalism and accessible foresight fluency. As a futurist, she assists organizations and communities navigate change and uncertainties, shaping a path toward sustainable and preferable futures. Ingrid firmly believes that kindness infuses rhythm into every action in life.

Her focus areas are broad including liberatory practices, personal futures, organizational systems & consumer behavior.

 

During our recent trip to Iceland, our Shameless Collective* group visited the Blue Lagoon, a man-made geothermal spa known for its warm and milky-blue waters due to the abundance of silica and volcanic activity in a city called Grindavík, around 45 minutes from the capital Reykjavík.

The serene opaque water and mysterious fog – resulting from the interaction between warm water and cold air above-, create an environment where losing sight of friends or family is very easy.

Due to the constant fog, for a short time, Hauson (Le) and I could not find David (Geye) and Elizabeth (Herfel) in that beautiful scenic view. Hauson then said: “This is so foresight!” – I loved the metaphor he used and couldn’t agree more because foresight is like navigating through a foggy landscape and requires curiosity, meticulousness, and a willingness to press forward despite uncertainties.

I take this opportunity to play with the metaphor of fog and foresight. The equivalence may not be new to the field but “living” this immersive and sensorial experience in Iceland gave me more elements to speculate.

So, from the conversation with Hauson, we arrived at some comparisons that might be a good way to explain foresight for those not too familiar with it.

  1. The intense fog condition itself represents the complexity we currently live. Even with the intellectual or practical tentative in understanding our world, it remains hard and challenging to do so. Think about the dilemmas we face today such as deepfakes, misinformation, climate change, the return (or tentative) of authoritarianism in some regions, geopolitical tensions, and new technologies. All this combined with the social implications of neoliberalism and our weakness in comprehending nature, ancestralism, and spirituality makes the incomprehension become anxiety.
  2. The ground of the lagoon was the only ‘solid’ surface we had there, the walls along the lagoon too but the majority of the time we only had the ground to guide and sustain us, which worked as the foresight framework, the steps that lead us to guidance in an unknown path.
  3. If you want to find something or someone there (domain map) you also need to constantly pay attention (sensing, scanning) because the breeze or wind can move the fog away for some seconds (uncertainties) allowing you to grasp your surroundings a bit better (weak signals, trends). In this context, you are physically and metaphorically immersed in change. Your senses must be turned on 100% to navigate the unseen to be able to see.

I forgot to mention that at the beginning of our time at the lagoon, I became separated from the group for approximately 15 minutes. It was not a big deal but upon regrouping, we created a plan: in the event of another separation, we agreed to meet up beneath a small “cave” located by the waters of the Blue Lagoon.

4. And this detail is important in our speculation here because even though we had “a plan”, that did not work as we headed to the meeting point and our friends were not there.

5. We navigated that smoothly thinking about other alternatives (visioning): “They might be by one of the lagoon bars? Or in the Silent area?” We were in the unknown but still trying to make sense of things using logic but also intuition.

By that time, we were a bit hungry and we had our drink tickets to use in the lagoon so, Hauson and I headed to the bar and ordered a delicious green smoothie when, after 30 minutes we had embarked on this conversation, we saw David and Elizabeth coming toward us… through the fog.

Question: Who found who?

6. I found this question somewhat philosophical in the context of fogginess and all the environmental characteristics described above, but I can’t provide an answer to that. The point is that, despite the unfamiliarity with the place we were able to find each other (preferable future) safely.

This experience is proof that we futurists, carry foresight wherever we venture, applying our unique thinking even in captivating and picturesque locations like the Blue Lagoon.

 

*The Shameless Collective, A.K.A “Sex team”, went to Iceland to present our experiential futures exhibit The Future of Sex & Intimacy in the Futures of Democracies conference organized by the World Futures Studies Federation ( WFSF)’s Nordic Chapter. The group is constituted by Mushfiqa Jamalludin, David Geye, Elizabeth Herfel, Hauson Le, and Ingrid Furtado