World Future Society 2004 Conference Volume

Thinking Creatively
in Turbulent Times

Foreword

Executive Summaries

Contributors

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FOREWORD

Creating the Future in Times of Turbulence Order book

We face the future in the midst of a tumultuous present that makes thinking creatively about human prospects as difficult as it is urgently necessary. Futures thinking offers hope, for it is among the most creative forms of thinking and can be applied to any human endeavor, from improving business innovation to understanding political change.

This collection of outstanding, forward-looking essays—prepared in conjunction with the World Future Society's conference WorldFuture 2004: Creating the Future Now!—provides a rich variety of ideas from some 40 thoughtful futurists. The men and women whose insights are assembled here bring their unique perspectives from all over the globe—Venezuela, Finland, New Zealand, Italy, Ireland, Peru, the Netherlands, Great Britain, the United States, and Canada—and from a cross-section of disciplines—biomedical science, economics, governance, business management, education, space research, psychology, engineering, and, of course, professional futures research.

The volume begins with an exploration of key technological change drivers and possible scientific breakthroughs in the years ahead, and then considers the need to deploy our foresight for improving the human environment: The urban future is an essential issue today because growing numbers of the world's people are flocking into cities that are already straining to provide adequate resources to accommodate everyone.

Other aspects of the human future that will benefit from an injection of creative thinking—futurist style—are education, work and retirement issues, governance, health, space exploration, and even sports.

But the most profound questions challenging creative futurist thinkers have to do with our own humanity, the values we cherish, and the truths that may change as we pass through this age of white-hot turbulence.

The volume closes with reflections on sustainable development, for no human future can be created without attention to the planet, the homestead, on which we will build it.

The purpose of this volume is not just to lay the intellectual groundwork for those attending the conference, but also to keep these significant trends and ideas fresh in all futurists' minds afterwards. And the specific applications of creative futuristic thinking described in these pages should serve as an inspiration to all people setting out to create a better future for themselves, their businesses, or the world.

THE EDITORS

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