Future Shock--TDS style

Kurzweil fails the Turing Test of satire!

Jamais reviews Hawaii 2050

A clear, thoughtful, and useful review of the Hawaii 2050 Kickoff by Jamais Cascio can be found at openthefuture

Mahalo Jamais. We were thrilled to have you here.

Also check out Stuart's excellent entry at The S(h)ceptical Futuryst

Stuart is currently on his way to Burning Man to pluralize every instance of "Future" on the Playa, in the name of the HRCFS, Jim Dator, and all that is sacred.

All hail our 'S,' making chaos fun for 5,000 years.

..and a few more from 2050

More images from 2050

a few more...

Some images from Hawaii 2050

We will all be posting our observations on this exciting and highly successful event las Saturday, but in the meantime, here are a few images.

Cascio rocks the Rafters

Yesterday evening, HRCFS ran its sixth Futures Salon, hosted by Jackie Ward at the fabulous Ward's Rafters in Honolulu, with guest Jamais Cascio. Jamais, a futurist and scenario specialist based in the San Francisco Bay Area, presented and went on to lead a great discussion about the historical development of the scenario methodology in futures, the current state of play, and emerging varieties of immersive scenarios, including "artifacts from the future". Their crucial role in improving futures thinking, he suggested, lay in offering "provocation and evocation": encouraging us to think more deeply and creatively about our options. Rather than trying to predict the most likely future, they instead (at their best) describe plausible, compelling, internally coherent visions of, and stories leading from the present into, potential future worlds in which we could find ourselves. He offered some excellent insights into the "democratisation of futures", which is what he sees as the gradual supplanting (or supplementing) of broadcast-model "genius forecasting" with collaborative exploration.

An interesting method Jamais used to illustrate the useful application of this collaborative approach was a "futures mash-up", in which we each wrote down, on separate post-it notes, a trio of the next decade's possible trends, or events in the social, environmental, economic, political -- and yes, technological -- realms, then partnered with another participant to brainstorm on a fourth piece of paper some interesting possible consequences of matching any random pair. The future, he pointed out, is both exhilarating and frightening to consider, but, like the exercise, is best seen as a synthesis -- the result of what we do together.

All this is, not coincidentally, highly relevant to the "Hawaii 2050" kickoff happening in Honolulu on Saturday 26 August, where HRCFS is staging four alternative immersive futures, reflecting divergent possible paths for change in Hawaii, out to the year 02050, for participants to use as a basis for more meaningful discussion about decisions in the present day. At this event, Jamais (together with 500 of our closest friends) will have an opportunity to witness a Hawaiian take on the cutting edge of immersive future scenarios, as a provocation aimed at improving our collective futures conversation. More on this to come, but for now, mahalo nui loa to Jamais for joining us in Hawaii to share his ideas.

(A post from The Sceptical Futuryst weblog, "Honolulu Futures Salon: Jamais Cascio".)

HRCFS on Radio New Zealand

On Wednesday, the futures center's Jake Dunagan was interviewed for Radio New Zealand's evening program (Thursday night NZ time). Broadcast nationally as well as online, Jake spoke to Radio NZ's Bryan Crump, describing the HRCFS team's current efforts for the Hawaii 2050 immersive futures workshops, to be held in Honolulu on Saturday 26 August. The audio archive will be available for one week at www.radionz.co.nz/nr/programmes/nights/20060817 (click "Global Segment"; media player required). This was the first of a series of HRCFS interviews requested for the show.

Futures Salon: Jamais Cascio

We are pleased to announce our next Futures Salon will be held Thursday August 24th at Ward's Rafters (3810 Maunaloa Ave.) at 6:30pm with WorldChanging founder and all around brilliant futures thinker Jamais Cascio. We will be discussing his work with a focus on the complexities of communicating alternative futures and the futures of futures communication. Join us for this exciting event.


Jamias will also be a participant observer in the Hawaii 2050 Kickoff event (and immersive futures workshop) on Saturday August 26th.

Ward's Rafters is on the Kahala side of the Kaimuki hill, mauka of KCC. The block is between 15th & 16th, Kaimuki & Kilauea Avenues. Look for the green, "Wards' Rafters" street sign in the driveway, go up the outside stairs. That will take you to
the attic.
if coming from Honolulu, take the Koko Head Ave. exit . Turn left onto Pahoa Ave. & right on 15th.

If coming from E. of Kahala, get off at Waialae Ave. Turn left on 16th Ave.

For detailed directions call Jackie Ward at 734-0397.