Open Source Futures

Eddie Choo

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NEWS COMMENTARY
UPDATED WEEKLY

Present news and developments in the context of strategic foresight. Singapore/Asia-based.

04/05/2021

Open Source Futures #10 - What Happens After the Scenarios

Scenarios - just the end of the beginning About uncertainties and learning Switching between different perspectives, and unlocking possibilities Horizon Scanning - finding things out today and imagining how things might play out 5 or even 10 years later. iPhone, 2007 Youtube, 2005 Facebook, 2004 Google, 1996 Tesla, 2008 All have had really long gestation periods - hard to tell! What's happening today that are not covered, but might have big impacts? Get plugged into Operations - find a way to work with them! Or be a Red Team that tackles what-ifs Ways to overcome resistance. Science fiction might be a way to explore possible futures. As usual, if you enjoyed this, see if you contribute at the Patreon or Buy Me A Coffee! Music: Cutting Edge by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Music promoted by https://www.chosic.com/

14 min
27/04/2021

Open Source Futures #9 - Axes

Building the scenarios economic axes market ideologies? state-society partnership (the Mazzucato stuff) Environment How much change? environmental consciousness? Look out for things with impact and uncertainty ideologies often fall into this category Create Axes look for things with impact and uncertainty Impact need not be quantitative - can be qualitative Use tweets or newspaper headlines to make the scenarios come alive Have the facilitator game going to guide people through the process Another way to construct scenarios is to use Dator's Four Futures Business As Usual Collapse Discipline Transformation As usual, if you enjoyed this, see if you contribute at the Patreon or Buy Me A Coffee! Music: Cutting Edge by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Music promoted by https://www.chosic.com/

13 min
23/04/2021 · BONUS

[Bonus Episode] Global Trends 2040!

I talk through the highlights of the Global Trends 2040: A More Contested World How it differs from previous GTs - 5 scenarios! and regional forecasts focused on climate. Renaissance of democracies - US and democratic allies thrive and solve problems A World Adrift - Sluggish growth for everyone and problems are unaddressed - and China tries to expand influence Separate Silos - 'Spheres of Influence' -type, and problems are also unaddressed Competitive Coexistence - US and China learn to work together and solve problems, although they also compete Tragedy and Mobilization - EU, China and other international orgs come to together to solve problems. I talk about the wonderful concept diagrams - pg 69 on societal dynamics; 79, on national dynamics and demands on governance, and 91, on the global order of the report. The main findings here: https://www.dni.gov/index.php/global-trends-home As usual, if you enjoyed this, see if you contribute at the Patreon or Buy Me A Coffee! Music: Cutting Edge by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Music promoted by https://www.chosic.com/

21 min
20/04/2021

Open Source Futures #8: Technology Axes

How to incorporate technology issues as axes: About adoption and industry size Several examples of how that has happened: Browsers Aerospace industries Carmakers It's not clear whether something is abandoned or not Neural nets, deep learning Nintendo Wii interface Foldable phones Extended Reality Autonomous Vehicles Somethings things just need a really long time Nuclear fusion? Decarbonisation - a new area of technological development A portfolio approach looking at multiple technologies at the same time might be helpful - keeping tabs on them and then making further decisions when required. As usual, if you enjoyed this, see if you contribute at the Patreon or Buy Me A Coffee! Music: Cutting Edge by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Music promoted by https://www.chosic.com/

15 min
13/04/2021

Open Source Futures #7: Technology

The last in the series of the STEEP buckets. I discuss: As a shorthand, I look at technology through digital, engineering and bio/health Quantum computers for simulations and materials science AI as contributing to inequality Extended Reality as the next area of computing platform Looking at cancers as an annoyance Management of chronic conditions Future treatment of dementias The varios -omics - genomics, epigenomics, transcriptomes, proteomics... Nuclear fusion as part of the energy system DARPA - as contributing to innovations in the past - GPS, the Internet, and more recently, driverless cars, mRNA vaccines, Boston Dynamics' robots. Marianna Mazzucato - the state as the lead player in creating innovations. I would have loved to cover synthetic biology, but maybe next time. As usual, if you enjoyed this, see if you contribute at the Patreon or Buy Me A Coffee! Music: Cutting Edge by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Music promoted by https://www.chosic.com/

21 min
06/04/2021

Open Source Futures #6: Social and Demographics

Covering social and demographics - as STEEP bucket and how to use it in scenarios Demographics: Foundation of a country Age structure and economic growth Application for geopolitics: China is ageing and needs resources to care, might become difficult to grow quickly US can depend on immigration, but not always - with the Trump Admin interruption EU is tricky - immigration is now weaponised China-boosters claiming rapid growth looks like a really tall order Needs to change culture and society radically Demographics is an example of a pre-determined trend Uncertainty and Impactful Social ideologies are impact but highly uncertain Analysts must avoid judge-y language Avoid 'good' or 'bad' and avoid leaning to one side Present both sides with tradeoffs Present information and someone representative of the identity to express opinions Fanaticism seems connected with modernity As usual, if you enjoyed this, see if you contribute at the Patreon or Buy Me A Coffee! Music: Cutting Edge by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Music promoted by https://www.chosic.com/

20 min
30/03/2021

Open Source Futures #5: Economics

I talk about what counts in the Economics bucket. This is the FOURTH thing in the STEEP category, not the THIRD one as I mentioned. I discussed: economic ideologies - free market ideology, privatisation. inequality, with reference to Thomas Pikkety's books, both Capital and Capital and Ideology. antitrust, and how the big court fights with technology companies might be happening. consumption and individualism trade and development - free market vs state-capitalism demographics and consumption ability entrepreneurship supply chains - an efficiency and resilience tradeoff? As usual, if you enjoyed this, see if you contribute at the Patreon or Buy Me A Coffee! Music: Cutting Edge by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Music promoted by https://www.chosic.com/

17 min
23/03/2021

Open Source Futures #4: Geopolitics

There was a fighter jet flying overhead, so pardon the sound when you hear it. In futures thinking, I look at politics at two levels: the global geopolitics, and also domestic politics. This one focuses on global geopolitics. I go through the basics - how countries seek security, and try to find offshore balancers as a way to bargain with other powers. How China's Belt and Road Initiative - viewed simplistically, is a way to get round being surrounded by pro-American neighbours. Central Asia-Middle East route as a way to get past the US Navy dominated Indian Ocean and Malacca Straits. How countries in Southeast Asia find a balance between US and China. How EU is a global player though less so on security matters. How middle powers such as Japan, India, Russia, the UK also play a role. The domestic angle is also important - parties can have different foreign policy interests sometimes. (Actually in authoritarian governments too, depending on who specifically is in power and what their interests might be.) Companies also have to play these rules - such as placating to political demands, or having to abide by multiple standards in data and technology and industry. Cyberweapons are changing the strategic balance and still an open question how they might play in warfare. And one last bit on "overstretch" - when powers have commitments beyond what their country can sustain. As usual, if you enjoyed this, see if you contribute at the Patreon or Buy Me A Coffee! Music: Cutting Edge by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Music promoted by https://www.chosic.com/

26 min
16/03/2021

Open Source Futures #3: Futures Thinking

First off - thanks for bearing with me. Juggling work and this hobby, so bear with me when there are delays. In this episode, I cover, "what is futures thinking?" Its really just thinking about the future in a systematic way - thinking through trends and assumptions. Trends - what's happening today and how it came to be? Assumptions - the thinking behind how we think. Futures thinking IS NOT ABOUT PREDICTIONS. NOT ABOUT PREDICTIONS. I give a history - from the Cold War, to Shell - to Adam Kahane in South Africa, to Shell to the US intelligence community Global Trends. Then I walk through how a scenario exercise might look like, and my very quick thoughts about them. For more scenarios, check out the Instagram. As usual, if you enjoyed this, see if you contribute at the Patreon or Buy Me A Coffee! Music: Cutting Edge by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Music promoted by https://www.chosic.com/

22 min
25/02/2021

Open Source Futures #2: Decarbonisation

I describe the four pillars of decarbonisation: electricity generation transportation heavy industries plastics and pharmaceuticals. I also describe Singapore's readiness renewable energy disadvantaged - might burn hydrogen? need to wait for the rest of industries to decarbonise Wanted to say - we might import electricity from say, solar panel from Australia If you are a chemical engineer: industries will undergo this long shift from thermodynamic to biological process? but all of these will take time. If you enjoyed this, Buy Me A Coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/opsourcefutures Or through the Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/opensourcefutures

15 min
18/02/2021

Open Source Futures 1: The 2021 Singapore Budget

Discussed the Singapore Budget - some observations, some perspectives. Still a pandemic budget; Partnerships - economy and social (CDCs) The infrastructure bond - a bit late? GST - limited window; Carbon Tax - going to come in steep

12 min

11 Episodes

Present news and developments in the context of strategic foresight. Singapore/Asia-based.

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Eddie Choo
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Open Source Futures