The Future Thinker’s Dilemma

Why are we futuring to find solutions to the problems created by extrapolative, exponential, and extractive systems, when we should be futuring to imagine emerging novelty and construct transformative realities that would allow us to elevate our human, planetary, and universal experience above and beyond those systems?

I’m reminded of the words of sci-fi author Ursula K. Le Guin: “We live in capitalism. Its power seems inescapable. So did the divine right of kings.” Of course, it was also noted by philosophers Fredric Jameson and Slavoj Žižek that “It’s easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism.” Such a statement displays the narrative wei

Our present-day solutions are born from the present-day problems of our present-day systems that are fueled by our present-day perspectives, and foresight/futures thinking should be offering us an entirely different way of perceiving the world that supersedes our limited assumptions, our system-defined problems and our context-limited solutions.

A world that’s upside down cannot and should not be treated and measured as if it holds the key to creating a world that’s right side up. A new vision and world requires a new way of thinking, measuring, acting, and being

as Albert Einstein was famous for saying, “ No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it ” Put another way, you can’t solve a problem within the context of that problem.

Our practice of “futuring to the problem” (a phrase that mirrors the idea of “teaching to the test” — a colloquial term for any method of education whose curriculum is heavily focused on preparing students for a standardized test), has resulted in the development of a plethora of tools and methods in the field of foresight that are meant to help us

Neither of these individuals are saying that we should not be working with organizations, businesses, governments, for-profits, non-profits, or any other entities where people work and live — and neither am I. What we are saying is that our thinking and acting toward the future must challenge the systems that would seek to short-circuit the very fu

𝘞𝘦 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘢 𝘴𝘺𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘮 𝘣𝘶𝘪𝘭𝘵 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘢 𝘸𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘥, 𝘧𝘳𝘢𝘨𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘤𝘰𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘱𝘴𝘺𝘤𝘩𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘳𝘦𝘸𝘢𝘳𝘥𝘴 𝘶𝘯𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘴𝘤𝘪𝘰𝘶𝘴, 𝘧𝘳𝘢𝘨𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴. 𝘐𝘵’𝘴 𝘸𝘪𝘯𝘯𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘢𝘭𝘭. 𝘈𝘴 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘱𝘦𝘰𝘱𝘭𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘶𝘱 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘥𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘰𝘸𝘯 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺

challenges to long-held assumptions take place when individuals dive deeper and deeper into anticipatory imagination and provocation, and this opens the door to transformative realities that profoundly change the perspective of the foresight practitioner. Consequently, the possibility of these new worlds become an internal experience that can no lo