Early warning tools

When having developed future scenarios, you may want to monitor indicators that can tell you towards which scenario things are developing. Today I will present a few tools that have two things in common; they are simple to use and free.

Remember to monitor not only “the nice” indicators that confirms your dream scenario, but also those which can give you an early warning of other outcomes.

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Is design becoming the ultimate thing?

laget-flymotor-med-3d-printerFuturists have for quite some time been discussing if design will be the only and ultimate thing. Introducing the personal factory, Mr Eric Drexler (Nanorex) envisioned a future where every one of us owns a molecular factory. Back in the 80´s designers started using 3D printing to make prototypes. This technology has also developed masterly, and today you may print fully functional products directly out of a 3D design file. The picture on this page shows how Stratasys made this engine with propellers. Although this is a prototype, it shows how large a product you can make. You may also have a look at this video showing Stratasys FDM (Fused Deposition Modeling) Process.

Exponential growth

The more I work with future studies, the more aware I become of the impact of exponential growth. Have a look at this video clip from YouTube. It gives you an idea of what we are talking about. For the first time ever, we have reached this point of development were things really speed up. To understand exponential development is probably the most important thing we do today. Research show that our intuition is linear which makes it difficult for us to “feel” exponential development. In other words; we have to actively correct our impression of development by use of intellect. In this case; do not follow your hart, follow your brain. Chris Martinson does also address this topic in his Crash Course chapter 3, which I highly recommend. Helge Hasvold :-)

Indications of a paradigm shift

brunstad-bjornMy good friend and fellow futurist, Bjorn Brunstad has been working on future studies, searching for paradigm shifts lately. He generously shared these indicators of a paradigm shift with me.

Prior to a paradigm shift we will observe the following:

  • Vested interests protect existing paradigm and deter challenging concepts
  • Some of the activities that prolong the existing, become absurd
  • Risk taking entrepreneurs and new technologies enable new solutions
  • Actors suffering from existing paradigm support new regime
  • Parent mindset about the new paradigm is not generally understood, and the new is often valued based on old measures

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The Future of Economy, Energy and Environment

Not often, but sometimes you stumble over articles or videos that really add value. This time I was overwhelmed. For several years now, I’ve been working on issues related to economy, energy and environment. Then I stumbled over Chris Martenson on YouTube. You should not miss it for the world.

Chris gives us an overview of the major issues concerning economic growth, the money system, energy consumption, resources and environmental consequences. Seldom you find people with such insight and ability to present complex content in an easy manner without oversimplifying it. Highly recommended :-)