As a Graduate Student in our Houston Foresight Program, one of our courses is a “Professional Seminar” with the objective to introduce students to the professional aspects of the foresight field. Our module the past week has been the history of foresight as a profession and so we consequently had a great class discussion around the future of futures!
Where we have been
Various foresight practitioners perceive rapid changes in our industry very similar to other fields and professions. We have really come a long way since the fiction of Thomas Moore and Jules Verne! Since the advent of studying the future, we have established a plethora of methods and participated in a tremendously wide range of industries. Our field is dynamic and because its borders are so very fluid, its influence has been so broad!
Where we are going
However, all things future have now become mainstream thinking. The type of conversations previously reserved for futurists are now typical on campuses, Ted-talks and even in the mainstream media. Consequently we might ask the question: “Who owns the future?” Or, maybe we should rephrase this to: “How could we help others participate and own their own futures?”
As our class discussion continued, I wondered about the kind of demands that will be placed on foresight in a world in which the future is not “out there” but “here and now,” a world in which the pace of change is highly accelerated. It is possible that we are now needed more than ever!
A conversation starter
Below are some post-class scribbles – not at all normative! – on how our field might change and where it might lead to. (Click image to enlarge).
What do you think?
– Johann Schutte
