The art of arguing
Knowing how to logically argue a point is the modern day equivalent of owning a razor-sharp sabre. Interestingly enough, the way you construct a good logical argument is almost exactly the same as the...
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Warren Buffett’s thoughts on the future in his Letter to Shareholders
Every year, the Oracle of Omaha, Warren Buffett, writes a fairly lengthy letter to the shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway. In it, the world’s greatest investor shares details about his company’s...
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Capitalism will trump democracy
You may remember Yanis Varoufakis from the fairly recent Greek tragedy that played out on CNBC and CNN last year [he was the ill-fated, motorbike riding, finance minister at the time]. Few people know...
View ArticleHow did humans become so powerful?
Humans are by an astronomical margin the most successful species on Earth. We are sadly so successful that other animals, plants and the Earth itself are fast being removed from existence because of...
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How to achieve the seemingly impossible
How do you achieve the seemingly impossible task of getting global politicians and the governments they represent to come to an agreement which will theoretically limit their future GDP growth? Climate...
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On the marriage market in China
Nothing is more powerful than the way people believe things ought to be. A case in point is the way society thinks about marriage; and what ought to happen at what age in life. To be ‘on the rack’ as a...
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Inside the world’s seed vault
The global seed vault can be found deep inside a mountain on a remote island in the Svalbard archipelago, halfway between mainland Norway and the North Pole. The seed vault is the world’s doomsday...
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Meet the CEO who has never heard of Snapchat
Snapchat according to a CEO – ‘probably an SMS that arrives very quick’? Having an active awareness of the trends that are happening in the global environment is a pretty vital part of being able to...
View ArticleTo have a better future – you first need to imagine it
All possible futures start with imagination. You need to imagine and see what is possible and plausible in the mind, before you can find a way of getting there. Angela Oguntala‘s TED talk about...
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Does Brexit signal the NIC’s ‘Stalled Engines’ scenario?
Brexit is now, unbelievably, a reality. But is this just the beginning of the collapse of ‘the European project’ that was highlighted as a major global risk by the National Intelligence Council in...
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#RIP Alvin Toffler
Alvin Toffler’s book Future Shock, which was written in 1970, is to this day a remarkably insightful look at the world as we experience it today. Toffler was a pioneering futurist and is seen by many...
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Can you upload your mind to a computer?
Man has always had a weird fascination with the idea of living forever. Attaining immortality has been the focus of books and movies for centuries. But is the modern solution to this ancient dream the...
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Who owns your future?
Who owns the future and who owns your future? Jaron Lanier is a computer scientist and a Silicon Valley insider. His views are similar to those of Douglas Rushkoff in that the premise of his argument...
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The TED talk Donella Meadows never gave
Dr Donella Meadows was a pioneering environmental scientist, academic and systems thinker. Those that study systems thinking, mention her name in hushed tones. The reason being that she, along with a...
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What is the Fourth Industrial Revolution?
Society has passed through the gates of the so-called Fourth Industrial Revolution. But what exactly does that mean? How is the Fourth Industrial Revolution different from theThird Industrial...
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#makethefuture – Shell’s scenario planning video goes viral
Shell’s 2016 #makethefuture video contribution, entitled The Best Day of My Life, is going viral. Featuring the combined talents of Jennifer Hudson, Steve Aoki, Pixie Lott, Luan Santana, Yemi Alade...
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Before the flood – full movie
If you missed it last night – here is Leonardo DiCapio’s full 95-minute long climate change movie ‘Before the Flood’. In it DiCapio travels around the world to witness the effects of climate change...
View ArticleThe future of search according to Biz Stone
Biz Stone was one of the co-founders of Twitter and recently founded the unusual search engine Jelly. In this interview he has some interesting ideas with regards to the future of search. According to...
View ArticleThe price we pay for our need of certainty
Reality itself is based on how we choose to see the world. And in our quest to calm our brains in the face of unlimited, complex stimuli – we revel in certainty. But in a complex, interconnect world –...
View ArticleYour future depends on the present moment
The present moment is what you can control right now to design a preferable future. That’s a powerful statement. But if you really think about it – your actions in the present (the right this moment)...
View ArticleThe Future of Cities
What is the future of cities? Never before have so many lived in the world’s cities, and the trend heading towards the future indicates that the future of civilization itself will depend on the...
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Could Brexit and Trump be a surprisingly good thing for South Africa?
One of the really worrying issues South Africa has faced since the dawn of democracy, is what we term ‘the brain drain’. This, if you haven’t heard of it before, is the phenomenon of skilled, educated...
View ArticleHow is South Africa preparing for the 4th Industrial Revolution?
South Africa’s top officials, politicians and business leaders are in Davos, Switzerland – rubbing shoulder and drinking overpriced cocktails with the who’s who of the global elite at the World...
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Future news: 10 things you need to know on this Friday, 20 January 2017
News items worth considering when thinking about the future: US investors see big profits ahead for American companies under Trump thanks to automation, not jobs – Reuters 5 American financial experts...
View ArticleFuture news: 10 things you need to know on this Friday, 27 January 2017
Recycling news: This company is saving the planet by turning old clothing into fuel – Bloomberg US food entrepreneurs are taking on the greedy big boys with healthy alternatives – NYTimes The world is...
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Future news: 5 things you need to know on this Friday, 3 February 2017
Studies have revealed that reading books makes you live longer. Of course those who don’t read books aren’t intelligent enough to disprove this theory. – The Guardian Scientists find the first...
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Future news: 5 things you need to know on this Friday, 10 February 2017
Future news is a quick weekly snapshot of a collection of news items that could well shape our collective future. Here’s a handy list of South Africa’s treacherous economic woes in five easy to...
View ArticleHow good is your vision of the future?
When you imagine the future – what do you see? Is it a vision which is better than your reality of today, or worse? As somebody who is studying alternative futures at university level and has a keen...
View ArticleWelcome to the Transformation of Humanity
“It’s happening in our lifetime, it’s happening in your lifetime, it’s happening during the next thirty years.” – Peter Diamandis By 2025, 66% of the world’s population will most probably be connected...
View ArticleThe world’s most valuable safe
Humanity can survive without cars, jobs and money – but without clean water, fresh air and food [and maybe cold beer] we’d have more to worry about than just Kendall Jenner’s crappy Pepsi ad and Donald...
View ArticleFuture news: 8 things you need to know this Friday, 14 April 2017
In this week’s news from the future: Is the universe a computer simulation? Neil deGrasse Tyson moderates a debate about the topic. Can we now use computers to see alternative futures? – The Atlantic...
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Breakthrough brands to watch in the future
Breakthrough brands are those global companies that are really setting the pace of innovation as we move forward in time. Interbrand recently published their 2017 report on breakthrough brands to...
View Article10 things you need to know about the future
Nobody can predict the future, but that doesn’t mean we can’t imagine possible futures that might emerge as a present reality at some stage. The BBC show ‘Horizon’ recently offered their version of ’10...
View ArticleForecasting: With weather and business, forewarned is forearmed
While watching the live broadcast of Hurricane Irma smashing its way through Florida on CNN yesterday, it really struck me as to how powerful forecasting is, in many aspects of life. Without the...
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A glimpse at the future of motor vehicles from Tokyo
Motor companies have an exciting tradition of experientially imagining the future of their products by producing radically imaginative concept cars. Concept cars are just that – concepts of what might...
View ArticleJeff Bezos’ thoughts on the future
In this first-of-its-kind conversation, Mark and Jeff Bezos have a fireside chat and discuss their early influences, habits for success, and predictions for the future. Topics that are covered include...
View ArticleWhy context matters for South African business in 2018
Now that 2018 is well underway and the long. lazy holiday is all but forgotten, it’s back to business and, for most senior management anyways, a deep-dive into the consumer trends, scenarios and...
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Design fiction: The business value of designing imaginative new worlds
Over the years we have prided ourselves on having produced numerous great examples of ‘futures world building’ for innovative clients like BAT, Dimension Data, UCT’s Graduate School of Business,...
View ArticleNike selling virtual Air Jordans in a partnership with Fortnite
The holy grail for any clothing brand is if they can sell virtual merchandise at scale without ever having to manufacture anything, which is exactly what Nike have managed to achieve with their newly...
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What happens when the ‘born frees’ start to live up to their name?
In South Africa, children born after 1994 are known as ‘born free’. Born free of an experience of Apartheid…born into a free, democratic country. Now it’s unclear as to whether it was a consequence of...
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Blackberry is finally no more
The classic business school bell-curve. At one stage, Blackberry was the hottest brand in South Africa. Every kid wanted to own the device which was a symbol of the new mobile age. But Blackberry was...
View ArticleWhat might a city look like in the future?
Flying cars, robot cops, crime-ridden city streets – all of these ideas and more have been portrayed in fictional movies and books which are set in the future. Personally we’re still hoping for a Buck...
View ArticleA remarkable revolution in manufacturing is upon us
The way we manufacture products these days is crazy. A massive factory half way across the world – hires cheap, low-skilled human labour to bang out a product and then dumps this stuff on a big ship...
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The future of streetlights
Looking like something out of a science fiction movie, these futuristic streetlights are an actual product prototype made by a UK insurance company. UK insurer Direct Line has partnered with drone...
View ArticleAdidas portray a dystopian future
Adidas have released a powerful piece of brand communication which very much aligns their image with a dystopian future. Shot in Cape Town and channelling the same creative treatment that you would...
View ArticleEs Devlin on the evolution of the smartphone
As regular readers of this blog – and followers of our own practical past work in the field of the manifestation of the imagination – will know, for good reason – we’re huge fans of Es Devlin. As a...
View ArticleNike wants you to dream with us for a minute
Great brands – like Nike – sign you up to take part in a revolution; and then sell you the uniform. For some time now, the brand have taken the position of injecting themselves deep into the heart of...
View ArticleSources of inspiration for innovation
What are your sources of inspiration for innovation? Personally we use Feedly as a source aggregator and have around 2000 feeds that we have access to on that platform. There are a good combination of...
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