The Futurists

In episode #4 of The Futurists, Regina Joseph talks us through the mechanics of the methodology known as Superforecasting. From her work with Pytho, Sibylink, the National Science Foundation, the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA) and beyond, we learn how forecasting extends well into the future through human collective intelligence techniques and statistical analysis. What does it take to see the trends of the future emerging as the world seems chaotic, disruptive and unpredictable?

In this week’s show, we’re joined by Nikolas Badminton, Chief Futurist at Futurist.com and author of Facing Our Futures: How Foresight, Futures Design and Strategy Creates Prosperity and Growth. We discuss what inspired Nik to become a futurist, what’s ahead for professional futurism, the backstory of Futurist.com, protopia and futures thinking towards 2100 and beyond.

In this week's show Robert Tercek joins Brett King and Richard Petty, the authors of a new book titled The Rise of Technosocialism, to discuss how 21st century economics will be reframed by inequality, automation and climate change. Right now inflation is a massive issue, but it's just the start of some seismic changes to core economics set to hit humanity over the next few decades. Which future scenario is likely? Luddistan, Failedistan, Technosocialism or the US’ Neo-Feudalism?

In Episode 19 of The Futurists, David Brin expounds on the interplay between scientific research and storytelling in shaping society’s future. An astrophysicist, prolific science fiction author and the winner of many awards, Brin also writes non-fiction about social dynamics and politics and contributes to NASA’s Innovative Advanced Concepts Program. In this playful and wide-ranging interview, Brin discusses all of his passionate pursuits. Brin sets forth the distinction between fantasy and science fiction, and he underscores the danger of romantic notions that inspire political movements. He ends the episode with speculation about a universe filled with planets and teeming with life.

Jerome Glenn is the CEO and co-founder of the Millennium Project, a global consortium of hundreds of experts in 70 nations, hailing from academia, government and private sector. Each year these experts collaborate on forecasting a consensus view of future trends. Jerome shares with The Futurists a summary of insights from this year's 500-page report, The State of the Future. He describes a range of forecasting tools and techniques invented at the Rand Corporation in the 1970s and tells how they were used to generate the trends analyzed in the report. And he shares findings about General Artificial Intelligence, nuclear weapon proliferation, climate change and global temperature, and pandemics.