Open Source Futures Eddie Choo

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.
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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
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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/

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/

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/

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/

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/