Hindsight | Foresight | Insight

Earlier this year scientists discovered something remarkably close to the fictional speculation called Kryptonite – Superman’s inert nemesis. This week, Russian scientists reported that they have discovered a few grams of a mineral that apparently absorbs radiation from water. While they don’t say what type of radiation, nor what the mineral is like, it’s a pretty startling possibility – so much so, that I think everyone needs their skeptical hat on when reviewing any news about it;) The implications, however, are yet to be mined…

Russian scientists in the Khibinsky Mountains in the Arctic Circle have made an important scientific discovery. They’ve found a new mineral which absorbs radiation. It does not yet have an official name and is known only as number 27-4. It can absorb radioactivity from liquid nuclear waste. (more…)

Okay, so posting this copied text below is against the rules, so if the author, Michael Pascoe, or the publisher, represented my beloved Crickey.com.au complain, I’ll pull it down immediately. But, it’s so damn good, so adroit, that I feel I can’t quote one sentence without quoting it all.

My commentary, before the Crikey’s editorial, is that Pascoe has nailed the core problem with Australia’s current state of democracy. Forget the important issue of Federalism, the voting system we have and anything else you can think of, and (in my not-so-humble opinion) go straight to the fact that Howard and co have systematically muzzled civil society in Australia over the past 11 years. (more…)

The Age today carries a truly inspiring story of what many might now consider “getting it right” with balancing the economy, the environment and society generally. Or in a word, a viable sustainability.

Vaxjo in Sweden started heading for fossil fuel independence in 1996. They hope to finally be free from oil by 2020 (they have no real fossil fuel resources themselves to speak of). And, while there are challenges ahead, they seem basically on track. The interesting lesson for other Western countries (although the article emphasises the interest that China is showing in their success) is that they have done it while keeping growth at 5%, unemployment at 4% and they’ve also been phasing out nuclear energy along the way.

Admittedly the Swedish culture is quite different from other nations of the world – its communal, progressive, nature loving features are hard to find so deeply embedded in other countries. But while their collective value system may be playing a huge role in their success with transitioning to sustainability, it isn’t something that can’t be compensated for to some degree by novel approaches in other areas . Innovation being something that most Western countries pride themselves on.

So, instead of the doom and gloom, take a break, and be refreshed by the arctic fresh air of one viable pathway to a desirable, sustainable and prosperous future.

I was chatting with a potential client the other day…I like to use provocation to engage and test the quality of my clients… and on this occasion there was one topic where I got to really grab their attention. Asked about the importance of strategy documents, I said I consider them basically useless.

Their value, I proposed, rests only in capturing and reminding people of the meaning making that has already occurred amongst those generating the strategy. The important part is the meaning making process, as like it or not, a) strategy needs to be understood and shared by those implementing it for it to actually be followed and b) strategy needs to be a living, dynamic management of overall direction, that responds to an ever more complex operating environment, something a very dead document can never do. Blindly following a document that you might not understand or that you don’t agree fits the changing context for the organisation is the opposite of strategic thinking and action: it invites only petty political plays and overall, strategic blindness on behalf of the organisation. (more…)

In describing what I actually do as a futurist, and as ever, trying to fit into the 30 second elevator pitch at parties, I’ve often come back to a joking stance: “I’m a rigorous imagination technician. Not engineer, that you do for yourself. But technician, helping explain how things work, yes, that I do with imagination, vision, images of the future and how to get there or avoid going there.”

Despite the critical-reflexive, self/client empowering, non-deterministic and inherent action orientation of this stance, I still get dumbfounded by the level of magical thinking in our society when it comes to the future. Whether it be techno-optimists who religiously fantasise and proselytise that we will create technology beyond our dreams and solve every problem and open up impossible means of transcendence, all at the flick of a psychic switch, or new-age retro-romantics who have read the cards, studied their sun signs for the year and, in the middle of a primal scream session had a sudden realisation gifted by an animal spirit that their future would require we do away with all technology, they all have one thing regularly in common: magical thinking. (more…)