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Monthly Scan Hits and News
Each month VFS publishes a monthly newsletter in which we share recent writings and publications, thought-provoking scan hits, and news about company goings on. We currently have three editions of the newsletter: Political Futures: focused on domains such as the futures of governance and of conflict and security Economic Futures: having a more business and […]
Repo No More? How Blockchain May Spell the End of the Repo Man
Three of the most talked about “disruptive” future technologies today are the Internet of Things (IoT), automation, and blockchains. Individually, each portends great changes in how we organize, what we can do, and how we can do it. Extrapolating what each of these developments might do individually is one thing (what we’d call “linear thinking”); […]
It’s Time for a 3 Worlds View
It’s time for everyone to add a third “world” to their view of daily life. We are all used to thinking and talking in terms of the “natural” world and the “man-made” world. Some have always argued – and not without some excellent points – that those distinctions are themselves artificial, and yet for a […]
4 Steps to the Future
I am pleased to announce that my new book, 4 Steps to the Future, is now available on Amazon.com! The book is intended as a field guide for managers, providing them the process and tools to conduct their own basic foresight process within their own organization. It was fun to write and I’m looking forward […]
Good Political Design Process Should Incorporate History
I gave a short talk on January 15th on political design to a group at the University of Hawai’i at Manoa. The attendees were folks interested in either/both recent constitution-making efforts or the application of futures to designing governance. Coming out of that session, someone loaned me their copy of the book The Ancient Hawaiian […]
What We Intend to Read in 2016
Since it is the beginning of the new year, we thought we’d take stock of the best reads from across the VFS network. Below we’ve collected some of the best nonfiction that we read last year and the ones that we are most looking forward to reading in the new year. And they’re in no […]
Blockchain Futures and Blockchain Training
Blockchain Futures There’s still time to contribute your story about the future of blockchain applications and its impacts on society. The Sensemaker collection is still open and we continue to receive contributions. If you have any thoughts about how blockchains could be will be used in the future please do submit them today! Blockchain Training […]
25th Anniversary series: Democratic Diversity: the turbulent and diverse futures of popular government
Originally posted on SAMI Consulting:
Democracy, as defined by its Greek originators, has never been the global or even Western norm for government. The governments that we today label as “democratic” are in fact not what the ancient Greeks – or even the American framing fathers – would have called democracies. They are, rather, representative…
Rigorous Futures: Training Course at WFS 2015
Pre-Conference Foresight Training at the World Future Society 2015 Conference Dr. Richard Lum and Dr. Wendy Schultz will be running a pre-conference training course in “Rigorous Futures” on Thursday, July 23 in San Francisco at the annual World Future Society conference. Participants in the special course will be learning to harness logic, creativity, systems thinking, […]
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Writing a Book on Foresight
As anyone who has taught a class or run a training workshop knows, having to teach others something very often requires you to reflect more deeply on your own expertise. What is most important for others to learn? What really are the key concepts and intellectual tensions in my field? And perhaps most importantly, how […]