Futurism and its Discontents, the Musical

Jamais Cascio on February 5, 2008 at the School of Information at University of California Berkeley. (MP3) Jamais warns: “First third of the hour is me talking solo (and I seem to be afflicted by um disease), the second two-thirds is Q&A. As always, I welcome your responses and insults.”

Abstract: In a rapidly-changing, uncertain environment, the ability to think constructively about various future possibilities is more important than ever. “Foresight Specialists”, “Scenario Planners”, “Trend Spotters” and good old “Futurists” provide a specialized service that few businesses, non-profits, and governments have organically—and fewer still recognize that they need. I’ll talk about why today’s futurism has more to do with imagining the possible than thinking the unthinkable, why futurist ethics matters more than futurist economics, and whether futurism might just be the best job out there for the easily-distracted generalist.

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