Saturday, June 10, 2017

Hogs and the Self-Driving Car, Another Futurist at Ford, Moves in the Field, and more



Vol. 3, No. 8 | June 2017 | AAI Foresight



How Autonomous Vehicles Could Affect Hog Farming

From the department of unexpected consequences.... The rise of self-driving cars could alter the future of hog production, Canadian futurist Nikolas Badminton [http://nikolasbadminton.com/] recently told an audience of swine farmers. Reason: Autonomous vehicles will be safer, resulting in fewer deaths and therefore fewer human organs available for donation. Enter the medical pig.

Gene-editing technologies under development could create pigs with organs suitable for use in humans, Badminton said. With the trend toward vegetarianism already affecting demand for pork, hog farmers may instead raise the animals for medical consumption.

Read “Self-driving cars could affect pig production: futurist” [http://www.producer.com/2017/05/self-driving-cars-could-affect-pig-production-futurist/] by Mary Baxter, The Western Producer (May 4, 2017). Note: Badminton has opened a new speakers bureau, Futurist Speaker Agency. [https://futuristspeakersagency.com/]


Ford Hires (Another) Futurist

The Ford Motor Co. praises its new CEO, Jim Hackett, [https://media.ford.com/content/fordmedia/fna/us/en/people/james-hackett.html] as a “visionary” who will help the company move forward in developing autonomous vehicles. Hackett joined Ford in 2016 to lead its mobility services division.

Previously, Ford’s futures-orientation had manifested itself in sustainability efforts such as lightweighting the popular F-150 trucks with aluminum instead of steel. But the vehicles have become so popular that, as more are manufactured, more resources are consumed (including both virgin and recycled materials), points out sustainability scholar Carl A. Zimring in a new book, Aluminum Upcycled.

The most sustainable automobile design of the twenty-first century is not an automobile at all, but a system to distribute transportation services,” Zimring writes. “Automobile-sharing programs such as Zipcar and IGO, and the bicycle-sharing programs of several European and North American cities distribute the services of driving to a wide clientele without the damage of mass production and disposal.”

Comment: If this is what Hackett’s vision is for Ford, and if he can monetize that vision into services Ford can provide, he may truly earn the name of futurist. But Hackett isn’t the first futurist at Ford. It’s actually in Sheryl Connelly’s [https://media.ford.com/content/fordmedia/fna/us/en/people/sheryl-connelly.html] job description. Connelly is the company’s manager for global consumer trends and futuring and has given numerous presentations on futurism in her industry. (Disclosure: This writer owns a few shares of Ford stock and has owned only Ford vehicles since the early 1980s.) —CGW

Read Aluminum Upcycled: Sustainable Design in Historical Perspective by Carl A. Zimring of the Platt Institute (Johns Hopkins University Press [www.press.jhu.edu], 2017).

Credit, Hackett and Connelly photos: Ford Motor Co.


Opportunity: Startups for Smart Cities

The Singularity University has issued a call for startup companies and entrepreneurs “that apply exponential technologies to help shape better cities,” starting with Columbus, Ohio. “In this intensive 10-week program, you’ll receive high-velocity training, relevant mentoring from the best minds around the world, and help preparing to scale your company,” according to SU. “Finally, you’ll also receive up to $100,000 in seed funding, provided by NCT Ventures.” The accelerator will be from September 12 to November 17 in Columbus. The deadline to apply is July 17. Learn more at Singularity University. [https://su.org/smart-city-accelerator/startups/]


Recent Publications

The Future of Britain 2022: A Pre-Election Survey on Electoral Priorities” by Rohit Talwar, Alexandra Whittington, and April Koury, Fast Future Publishing [http://fastfuturepublishing.com/main/] (June 5, 2017).
More than 79 percent of respondents to Fast Future’s survey stated that creating a more representative electoral system was a major priority for the future of Britain, with nearly 28 percent suggesting that decentralizing authority and decision making to the local level would help achieve this goal. “The scale of interest in electoral reform may come as the biggest surprise but is a clear reflection of the desire for more representative governance models,” the report states. And despite the Brexit victory a year ago, nearly 42 percent of the Britons responding to the survey said assuring Britain retains access to the European single market is a priority.

See also Joergen Oerstroem Moeller’s analysis of the recent elections: “Time for UK to practise humility: Tarnished May's unnecessary gamble,” [https://www.omfif.org/analysis/commentary/2017/june/time-for-uk-to-practise-humility/] OMFIF—Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum (June 9, 2017). Moeller is senior research fellow, ISEAS Yusof Ishak Institute, and Singapore Management University, and a former state secretary at the Danish Foreign Ministry.

The Internet of Things Connectivity Binge: What Are the Implications?” [http://www.pewinternet.org/2017/06/06/the-internet-of-things-connectivity-binge-what-are-the-implications/] by Lee Rainie and Janna Anderson, Pew Research Center, Internet & Technology (June 6, 2017).

Despite fears of widespread cyberattacks, “The Internet of Things (IoT) is in full flower,” Rainie and Anderson write. This report on Pew’s “nonscientific canvassing” of more than 1,200 IT professionals, futurists, and others found that 85 percent would choose more connectivity rather than less. But we will increasingly be unaware of that connectivity, commented Jamais Cascio, [http://www.openthefuture.com/jamais_bio.html]] distinguished fellow at the Institute for the Future. “Think of it as the ‘electricity’ effect,” he said. On the other hand, “the attacks will get much worse,” said writer Cory Doctorow, co-owner of Boing Boing.

At present, the Internet of Things is more a series of missteps than a grand design, if for no other reason than many of the large players are competitors versus cooperators and accepted protocols are still not agreed upon,” commented Timothy C. Mack, managing principal at AAI Foresight. “As well, the ‘gold rush’ quality of such areas as ‘smart homes’ has led to shoddy design and poor construction of the physical and the digital aspects of this brave new world. As for the loss of critical safety and security through networks trying to interconnect and protect and the same time (with largely the same tools), we should expect many more disappointments in the IoT development saga.”


Moves in the Field

RAND opens Bay Area office: The RAND Corporation has opened on office in San Francisco “to foster collaboration with the region's leaders and researchers working to solve today’s complex problems—issues including technological change and innovation, social inequality, water resource management, and transportation.” Senior information scientist Nidhi Kalra [https://www.rand.org/about/people/k/kalra_nidhi.html] will lead the new office. Learn more at RAND. [https://www.rand.org/blog/2017/04/rand-opens-office-in-the-san-francisco-bay-area.html]

Sweeney joins humanitarian organization: Futurist John A. Sweeney has joined the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (Geneva, Switzerland) as global futures and foresight coordinator. Learn more at IFRC. [http://ifrc.org/innovation]


Honors and Milestones

XPRIZE names authors to Science Fiction Advisory Council: The XPRIZE will seek inspiration from more than 60 “visionary storytellers who will lend their expertise in honing our vision of the future.” Among those on the council are Margaret Atwood,[http://margaretatwood.ca/] Cory Doctorow, [http://craphound.com/bio/] Madeline Ashby, [http://madelineashby.com/] David Brin, [http://www.davidbrin.com/biography.html] Brenda Cooper, [http://www.brenda-cooper.com/about/] and Greg Bear. [http://www.gregbear.com/bio.php] Learn more at XPRIZE. [http://www.xprize.org/about/scifi]

Silicon Valley Honors Tech Investors: The Silicon Valley Forum has bestowed its annual Visionary Award on five technology investors: DFJ partner Steve Jurvetson; [http://dfj.com/people/steve-jurvetson] IBM nanotechnology pioneer Don Eigler; [https://www.research.ibm.com/theworldin2050/bios-Eigler.shtml] Megan Smith, [https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/administration/eop/ostp/about/leadershipstaff/smith] chief technology officer of the United States under the Obama administration; Neri Oxman [https://www.media.mit.edu/people/neri/overview/ ] of the MIT Media Lab; and Linda Rottenberg [http://endeavor.org/global-board/linda-rottenberg/] of Endeavor. Learn more at Silicon Valley Forum. [http://siliconvalleyforum.com/event/29130789977]


In Memoriam

Jacque Fresco: Venus Project founder Jacque Fresco died May 18 in Sebring, Florida, at the age of 101. Like Buckminster Fuller before him, Fresco was a big-picture thinker whose passion was solving the world’s greatest problems, including equitable resource distribution. The Venus Project, set about two hours south of Orlando, Florida, realized his vision, with partner Roxanne Meadows, of a cybernetically sophisticated city featuring elegant, spaceship-like buildings. Read the open letter by Roxanne Meadows

Richard Solomon: RAND Corporation senior fellow Richard H. Solomon died March 13 in Bethesda, Maryland. He was 79. Solomon was a China scholar and is credited with helping open U.S.-China relations and ending conflict in Cambodia. He also led the U.S. Institute of Peace for 19 years, where he helped promote nonviolent conflict resolution. Read the RAND press release [https://www.rand.org/news/press/2017/03/14.html] and the Washington Post obituary. [https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/richard-solomon-kissinger-aide-involved-in-ping-pong-diplomacy-with-china-dies-at-79/2017/03/14/a8866d74-ef03-11e6-b4ff-ac2cf509efe5_story.html?utm_term=.859cfce33c5c]

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Send us your signals! News about your work and other tips are welcome, as is feedback on Foresight Signals. Contact Cynthia G. Wagner, consulting editor.

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Feel free to share Foresight Signals with your networks and to submit any stories, tips, or “signals” of trends emerging on the horizon that we can share with other stakeholders and the foresight community.

__________

© 2017 AAI Foresight

Foresight Signals is a publication of AAI Foresight
1619 Main Street, #1172
Freeland, WA 98249

Managing Principal: Timothy C. Mack
tcmack333@gmail.com | 202-431-1652

Webmaster and IT Consultant: Tom Warner

Consulting Editor: Cynthia G. Wagner

Designer: Lisa Mathias

Friday, May 12, 2017

Getting Ready (or Not) for Future Jobs, a Summer of Futuring, and Moves in the Field


Vol. 3, No. 7 | May 2017 | AAI Foresight


Hot Topic: Future Jobs—Or Not

The Pew Research Center [http://www.pewresearch.org/] has released the results of its survey of technologists, scholars, practitioners, strategic thinkers, and education leaders on the future of workplace training in the next decade. More than 1,400 participants responded to the survey, which Pew conducted with Elon University’s Imagining the Internet Center [http://www.elon.edu/e-web/imagining/] in summer 2016.

In addition to addressing how disruptive technologies such as IT, AI, automation, and robotics may develop, Pew asked respondents to focus on the potential disruptions these technologies may have on capitalist systems and particularly on jobs.

While a narrow majority (52 percent) of the respondents said technological advances will create more jobs than they destroy, that doesn’t mean things will be easy for tomorrow’s human workers. For the 30 percent of respondents expressing pessimism about people’s prospects in a tech-dominated economy, a major concern is how people will meet their basic needs and the impacts of these needs on economic systems.

Credit: Geralt/Pixabay 
If, as Microsoft researcher Jonathan Grudin says, “People will create the jobs of the future, not simply train for them,” education and learning will need to adapt to new priorities. Human skills that will be required include creativity, collaboration, abstract thinking, complex communication, and social and emotional intelligence. But, Pew reports, about “a third of respondents expressed no confidence in training and education evolving quickly enough to match demands by 2026.”

Among the recommendations for adapting education and learning was to emulate the environments human learners already exist in, such as those of gaming and social media. Psychologist and futurist Dana Klisanin of Evolutionary Guidance Media R&D, wrote, “Educational institutions that succeed will use the tools of social media and game design to grant students’ access to teachers from all over the world and increase their motivation to succeed.… Online educational programs will influence the credentialing systems of traditional institutions, and online institutions will increasingly offer meet-ups and mingles such that a true hybrid educational approach emerges.”

The bottom line, according to AAI Foresight’s Timothy C. Mack, is that, “In the area of skill-building, the wild card is the degree to which machine learning begins to supplant social, creative and emotive skill sets.”

Read “The Future of Jobs and Jobs Training” [http://www.pewinternet.org/2017/05/03/the-future-of-jobs-and-jobs-training/] by Lee Rainie and Janna Anderson, Pew Internet (May 3, 2017).

art credit: Geralt/Pixabay


Europe’s Summer of Futuring

Futures-oriented groups across Europe are planning events in conjunction with the Antwerp Museum of Contemporary Art’s exhibition “A Temporary Futures Institute” [https://www.muhka.be/programme/detail/660-a-temporary-institute-of-futures-studies] running through the end of September. Organized by Agence Future, [http://www.agencefuture.org/] the events include:

Humankind 2050, June 7-10, Jondal, Norway. The World Futures Studies Federation’s [https://www.wfsf.org/] annual meeting, themed “Peace, Development, Environment,” seeks to “envision, design and work towards creating peaceful, ecological and equitable futures for humankind for the next fifty years and beyond.” The event also marks the 50th anniversary of the Mankind 2000 meeting in Oslo, which “put futures research on the global map” and led to WFSF’s formation. Details at the WFSF conference page. [https://www.wfsf.org/our-activities/wfsf-conferences/22nd-wfsf-world-conference-june-7-10-2017]

Futures of a Complex World, June 12-13, Turku, Finland. Celebrating its 25th anniversary of academic research, the Finland Futures Research Centre at the University of Turku is holding its 18th international futures conference, organized in cooperation with the Finland Futures Academy, the National Foresight Network, Finland, and Foresight Europe Network. Among the keynote speakers will be John L. Casti of The X-Center. Details at the center’s conference page. [https://futuresconference2017.wordpress.com/ ]

Design - Develop - Transform, June 15-17, Brussels and Antwerp, Belgium. Organized by the knowledge center Applied Futures Research-Open Time and the Museum of Contemporary Art of Antwerp, this event invites academic and professional futurists from around the world to look at how futures are designed, developed, and transformed. Teach the Future [http://www.teachthefuture.org/] and the Association of Professional Futurists [https://apf.org/] are co-creating content for this “unconference,” and Jim Dator, founder of the Hawaii Research Center for Futures Studies, [http://www.futures.hawaii.edu/] will be the keynote speaker. APF will also conduct a professional development day workshop during the event. Details at the conference page. [https://ddtconference.org/]


Moves in the Field

James Dator is retiring as director of the Hawaii Research Center for Futures Studies. [http://www.futures.hawaii.edu/] He will be succeeded by Jarius Grove, who is on sabbatical until summer 2017.

Jamais Cascio [http://www.openthefuture.com/jamais_bio.html] was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Advancing Technology in Tempe, Arizona. “The technologies and tools we make are as much artifacts of our culture as artifacts of our science,” Cascio said. “What a technology means—its social utility, its ethical footprint, its role in our lives—increasingly matters as much or more than what a technology does.” Watch UAT’s commencement, featuring Cascio’s speech, online. [http://www.uat.edu/commencement

Maria H. Andersen is co-founder and CEO of Coursetune Inc. [http://coursetune.com/] She was previously director of learning design at Western Governors University.

Marco Bevolo, PhD, is a member of the editorial board of the journal Research in Hospitality Management. [https://www.ajol.info/index.php/rhm] He is also partner, foresight and design thinking, at Amati & Associates. [www.amati-associates.com] He was previously research principal at Philips.

Michael Lissack is chair of Vistage Worldwide Inc. [http://www.vistage.com/]

Manjul Rathee is senior service designer at Shift - Product design for social change. [http://www.shiftdesign.org.uk/]. She was previously service designer at Mind of My Own.


Recent Publications

Always Tomorrow Now,” [https://doi.org/10.1177/1946756717697336]an interview with Luiz Alberto Oliveira (Museum of Tomorrow) by Stuart Candy, World Futures Review [http://journals.sagepub.com/home/wfr] (March 2017). Opening in Rio de Janeiro in December 2015, Museu do Amanhã (the Museum of Tomorrow) received more than a million visitors in its first nine months. In this article, museum fellow Candy interviews curator Oliveira, exploring the “the story and thinking behind a cultural institution of foresight dedicated to questions rather than answers, experiences rather than artifacts, and multiple possible futures rather than an unalterable past.” See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at ResearchGate. [https://www.researchgate.net/publication/313391057]

Anybody out there? The Future of Tax” [http://jfsdigital.org/2016-2/vol-21-no-2-dec-2016/articles/anybody-out-there-the-future-of-tax/] by Gitte Heij (Melbourne University Law School), Journal of Futures Studies (December 2016), 21(2): 35–50. This paper uses the Three Horizons model of analysis, exploration, and futures imagination to consider “possible futures for raising tax revenue in an environment of rapidly evolving technology, automation, globalization, the rising power of powerful interest groups, and the trend of increased accumulation of wealth in the hands of fewer taxpayers.”


Special Offer: Futuristic Education Archives

In celebration of his 80th birthday (May 11) Arthur Shostak, emeritus professor of sociology, Drexel University, is offering to share many of the educational items he has collected since learning about futuristics as an undergraduate in the 1950s.

The materials available include books, magazines, and academic articles “of continued value in the study of the probable, possible, preferable, and preventable future.” He only requests reimbursement for shipping costs. If interested, contact him at arthurshostak@gmail.com.


In Memoriam

Robert William Taylor, 85, computer networking pioneer whose early work in the 1960s as director of the Information Processing Techniques Office at the Advanced Research Projects Agency is credited as a significant contribution to the development of the Internet. Read more in the New York Times. [https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/14/technology/robert-taylor-innovator-who-shaped-modern-computing-dies-at-85.html?_r=0]

Donald Kitchell Conover, 85, a former vice president of corporate education for AT&T who led the Corporate Education Center at Princeton. He was also a member of the World Future Society, among many professional and civic organizations. Read more in the Bucks County Courier Times. [http://www.buckscountycouriertimes.com/obituaries/bcct/donald-kitchell-conover/article_47075802-bf12-5903-8c58-207703a44296.html]

__________


Send us your signals! News about your work and other tips are welcome, as is feedback on Foresight Signals. Contact Cynthia G. Wagner, consulting editor.

Want more signals from AAI Foresight? Check out the blog! Log in to add comments.
Feel free to share Foresight Signals with your networks and to submit any stories, tips, or “signals” of trends emerging on the horizon that we can share with other stakeholders and the foresight community.

__________

© 2017 AAI Foresight

Foresight Signals is a publication of AAI Foresight
1619 Main Street, #1172
Freeland, WA 98249

Managing Principal: Timothy C. Mack
tcmack333@gmail.com | 202-431-1652

Webmaster and IT Consultant: Tom Warner

Consulting Editor: Cynthia G. Wagner

Designer: Lisa Mathias

Saturday, April 8, 2017

Futures Fellows, the Rise of Floating Nations, and When Uhura Met Martin


Vol. 3, No. 6 | April 2017 | AAI Foresight


WFSF Names 2017 Futures Fellows


The World Futures Studies Federation has named 15 new Futures Fellows, an honorary title that confers higher status of WFSF membership in recognition of significant contributions to the field and/or the organization. The 2017 honorees are:

- Guillermina Baena-Paz, IAPEM, Mexico
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Robert Burke, Futureware Consulting and Melbourne Business School, Australia
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Stuart Candy, Situation Lab, United States 
- Patrick Corsi, Cayak Innov, Belgium
-
Natalie Dian, The Vision Centre, Sweden
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Ted FullerFutures, United Kingdom
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Dana Klisanin, Evolutionary Guidance Media, United States
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Tom Lombardo, Center for Future Consciousness, United States
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Pero Mićić, Future Management Group, Germany
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Victor Vahidi Motti, Vahid Think Tank, Iran
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Erik Øverland, Subito, Norway
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Mei-Mei Song, Tamkang University, Taiwan
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Maya Van Leemput, Agence Future, Belgium
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Verne Wheelwright, Personal Futures Network, United States
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David Lindsay Wright, Text-Tube Futures Studio, Australia

All the new Fellows far exceeded the minimum requirements set out in the current WFSF Constitution,” the organization states on its website. The 2017 fellows join 30 previously recognized WFSF members who were selected on the basis of their professional futures activity and original contributions to the knowledge base of futures studies.

Seasteading: A Blue Revolution or a Bluetopia?

Book Review by Randall Mayes

Seasteading: How Floating Nations Will Restore the Environment, Enrich the Poor,Cure the Sick, and Liberate Humanity from Politicians by Joe Quirk with Patri Friedman. Free Press/Simon and Schuster. March 2017. 384 pages. $27. ISBN 9781451699265.

In Seasteading, Joe Quirk and Patri Friedman of the Seasteading Institute [https://www.seasteading.org/] envision a new frontier—a future with homes and even cities located on the oceans. The idea of living on the ocean does not appeal to everyone, and many are skeptical.

Although it is not a novel idea, the authors have acted on their vision by developing The Floating City Project. Its three primary objectives are to provide evidence of market demand, produce designs and a feasibility study, and find host nations to harbor and offer political autonomy within their protected, territorial waters.

In the book, the authors provide interesting discussions of the feasibility study, which outlines a business model and proactively addresses the concerns of skeptics. The Dutch firm DeltaSync performed the study, which was funded by philanthropist Peter Thiel and crowdfunding and is posted on The Seasteading Institute’s website.

For those who are drawn to the concept, it is typically for two reasons. One is that 2050 is the estimated date when the Earth’s population reaches 8 billion. From a societal perspective, some people are interested because of the related issues with food, water, energy, and rising sea levels. Since we are running out of land, alternatives are appealing. Water covers over two-thirds of the Earth’s surface. On several occasions, the authors refer to the Earth as “Planet Ocean.”

The other reason is an increasing discontent with politics and government. Those who have given up on the idea of their government changing are intrigued by the possibility of living in an autonomous seasteading community.

Fortunately for the authors, they did not have to start engineering their seastead community from scratch. Research by oil and gas companies for platforms and by the cruise ship industry, along with maritime law, provided a framework upon which they could adapt seastead communities. Graphics from the design contest for seastead communities are also available on The Seasteading Institute’s website.

For platform structures, the construction companies will use three main materials--steel, composites, and concrete. Why concrete? It is durable, and since steel corrodes, the concrete can shield the steel from the harsh environment. With its low center of gravity, it also provides stability. For those concerned about hurricanes and tsunamis, Shell engineers have built what is the currently the largest floating structure that can withstand Category 5 weather conditions.

In certain parts of the world, pirates are a concern. While the authors cannot be responsible for crimes and acts of terror, they partner with countries with sites that are protected and advise others to avoid seasteads in areas such as the Somalia coast.

For the initial host country, the French Polynesian government has signed an agreement with The Seasteading Institute to create a legal framework for the development of The Floating Island Project. The Seasteading Institute has formed Blue Frontiers to construct the Floating Island Project, which will also advance French Polynesia’s Blue Economy initiative and provide a backup plan for countries such as Tahiti as sea levels rise.

While oil company platforms and cruise ships currently provide amenities such as medical services, other aspects of seastead living remain experimental. Seasteading could accelerate innovation in Silicon Valley for self-sufficient and sustainable food systems such as aquaculture and hydroponics. It could also speed up the development of bioengineered microbes to produce fuel, increase the yield of sea plants, and abate pollution. In the future, the authors expect seastead communities to power themselves almost entirely with renewables, such as solar, wind, and wave energy.

Similar to the settling of the western United States, thousands of individuals could potentially migrate to seasteading communities. Initially, the purchase of housing units could be relatively expensive, and banks would probably not be eager to provide financing. Rather than purchasing a unit, some communities could provide the option for modular and mobile platforms with living quarters for renting.

Each future seasteading community/city will have its own unique personality. For permanent seasteaders, citizenship is a complex legal issue. Depending on their home country’s laws, they could either retain their citizenship and pay taxes or renounce it. The authors do not discuss how employment, taxes, or public amenities that governments traditionally provide might work in seasteads. Attorneys and legal scholars have designed a portfolio of possible legal systems. Rather than assess these constitutions themselves, the authors will let seastead communities determine which ones attract immigrants.

Randall Mayes is a technology analyst and author of Revolutions: Paving the Way for the Bioeconomy (Logos Press, 2012). He may be contacted at randy.mayes@duke.edu.

Resources


New Future Fiction and Nonfiction


- The Future: A Very Short Introduction by Jennifer Gidley, president of the World Futures Studies Federation and adjunct professor at the Institute for Sustainable Futures at UTS Sydney. Oxford University Press, March 2017. An overview of how we came to view the linearity of time, extend it forward in order to predict or control it, and imagine a multiplicity of outcomes. Concludes with an exploration of “the grand global futures challenges.”

- New York 2140, a novel by Kim Stanley Robinson, multiple-award-winning and bestselling science-fiction author. Orbit/Hatchette Book Group, March 2017. Rising sea levels have turned the streets of New York into canals and its skyscrapers into islands.

- Walkaway, a novel by Cory Doctorow, co-editor of Boing Boing. Tor/Macmillan, April 2017. A science-fiction thriller envisioning the possibilities for a post-society utopia.


When Lt. Uhura Met MLK

Commentary by Cindy Wagner

Speaking of books, I highly recommend last year’s extraordinary Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly (William Morrow, 2016). Though it is a book about history—the role of African American women “computers” in the late days of Jim Crow and the early days of aerospace research—it is also an inspiring story about future-making on many levels.

One passage that surprised me touches on the impacts of science fiction and popular culture. Shetterly tells the story of Star Trek actress Nichelle Nichols (Lieutenant Uhura), who handed creator Gene Roddenberry her resignation in 1967 after only one season on the television series so she could return to her Broadway career.

Then she met Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. at an NAACP fundraiser. “You can’t leave the show,” King told the actress. “We are there because you are there.”

Shetterly writes: “Black people have been imagined in the future, [King] continued, emphasizing how important and groundbreaking a fact that was.... ‘This is not a black role, this is not a female role,’ he said to her. ‘This is a unique role that brings to life what we are marching for: equality.’ … Nichols returned to Gene Roddenberry’s office on Monday morning and asked him to tear up the resignation letter.”

And the rest is science and social future history. —CGW

__________


Send us your signals! News about your work and other tips are welcome, as is feedback on Foresight Signals. Contact Cynthia G. Wagner, consulting editor.

Want more signals from AAI Foresight? Check out the blog! Log in to add comments.
Feel free to share Foresight Signals with your networks and to submit any stories, tips, or “signals” of trends emerging on the horizon that we can share with other stakeholders and the foresight community.

__________

© 2016 AAI Foresight

Foresight Signals is a publication of AAI Foresight
1619 Main Street, #1172
Freeland, WA 98249

Managing Principal: Timothy C. Mack
tcmack333@gmail.com | 202-431-1652

Webmaster and IT Consultant: Tom Warner

Consulting Editor: Cynthia G. Wagner

Designer: Lisa Mathias