I put together a short video summary of the essential info about Imagining After Capitalism including (1) why I wrote it (2) the need for positive guiding images of the future (3) the disintegration of capitalism (4) seven key drivers of change and (5) the three guiding images: Circular Commons, Non-Workers Paradise, and Tech-Led Abundance. […]

E-Book Now Available [limited]  & Paperback Launching February 10, 2025. It took over a decade, but perhaps that timing is perfect? There is much concern and plenty of gloom-and-doom about the future. I’m reminded of one my favorite M*A*S*H episodes in which Hawkeye jumps upon on the table, bangs his tray, and leads a chant […]

Thinking about what the election results mean for After Capitalism (plz, no current politics … important, but not here). A few years back I set the timeframe for After Capitalism at 20-30 years. Part of me thought, don’t be so timid. The other part of me recalled my own frequent warning that transformation scenarios avoid […]

Here is the third installment of a quarterly check-in on what the signals are saying regarding After Capitalism. (See Q2 2024 here.) Drum roll please! [NOTE: For many years I captured my hits in Diigo, but it has become unreliable and I have been trying out Factr. So far, so good.] Parametric insurance gains traction […]

I believe in good marketing as much as the next person. Maybe more so. We constantly implore our students at Houston Foresight and our clients to “make it memorable.” BUT … I am concerned by what I see as the “cool jazzy” phenomenon. A client takes some a mundane, perhaps interesting, and often “new” foresight […]

I think we have to check in with ourselves now and then on this question. The first thing we have to do is check our assumptions on the health of the systems we are working in or with. I have noticed in our work with clients that more and more of our Baseline scenarios (present […]

We specialize in introducing foresight to people and organizations to foresight at the University of Houston Foresight program. We’ve been on a somewhat maniacal quest to find ways to improve the applications and results of foresight work. In the feedback we get about our work, we often hear something along the lines of some participants […]

It’s been a decade now that I’ve been leading the Houston Foresight Program. We’re preparing the next generation of the program’s leadership. This provides a great opportunity to reflect and really focus in on what to carry forward as we consider improving, updating, upgrading, and redesigning. There are many things about Houston Foresight that “we […]

I’m sure every futurist has been asked this question. Maybe lots of times. We may have developed a stock answer. We may vary it. I was asked recently and I thought back to 2007, when I was fresh off the publication of the first edition of Thinking about the Future with Peter Bishop. We gathered […]

We at Houston Foresight are always tweaking our core Framework Foresight process. The short version of the process is the first 3 steps map the future and second 3 are about influencing the future. We have seen much more client emphasis on the influencing piece, basically in the form of “what should we do?” We […]

Oh wow, a definitions discussion … how exciting. Bear with me. I think there is some juicy stuff here! We futurists all know the struggle with different interpretations of key terms. Variety is the spice of  life, but it can be a pain when trying to explain our work. Let’s start with good news. I’m […]

More from our “Mapping Archetype Scenarios Across the Three Horizons” research. Today, we look at how to apply it. Conveniently, we have the After Capitalism research, which is a domain for which we are looking ahead to the long-term future. “Mapping Archetypes” starts with the Baseline that describes the current system in Horizon 1 (H1). […]

There is no doubt that the work of the futurist can be frustrating. We see opportunities or threats ahead but our advice is not taken. We fret about how we might have communicated better and redouble our efforts to be more successful next time. Looking back over three decades of experience doing this work, I […]

The tub of goo refers to the scene in The Matrix when they pull Neo out of the pod. For those who haven’t watched the Matrix 50 times like me, the humans are literally plugged into a computer simulation that presents a fantasy world as they lay in a pod filled with goo. I think […]

Here is the second installment of a quarterly check-in on what the signals are saying regarding After Capitalism. (See Q1 2024 here.) Drum roll please! Recent Trends in U.S. Labor Mobility: Not So Fast “U.S. labor mobility has declined steadily since the 1980s. This decline spans demographic categories of age, income, and education levels. This […]

Futurists suggest change … and most people/clients would rather not. Sometimes I think it is helpful to get back to basics and really grasp this simple essence of what we do — persuade people to do things they’d rather not do. We can be like the nutritionist urging people to eat their vegetables and take […]

I promised more from our Mapping archetype scenarios across the three horizons research (still free at  https://authors.elsevier.com/a/1jMPT3jdJop3o). Let’s geek out a little bit. I will answer the question if you’ll hang in there and let me explain. Table 6 summarizes the results of where our 78 scenario set pathways “ended up.” What that means is […]

Followers of After Capitalism are familiar with concepts such as post-work, UBI (Universal Basic Income) and UBS (Universal Basic Services). In a Horizon 3 Transformation future, these types of concepts are in play. The number one objection: how are we going to pay for it? (Admittedly, this question comes up with Horizon 1 and Horizon […]

I am so happy to be able to provide free access to our just published article in Futures: Mapping archetype scenarios across the three horizons.  Futures has created a Share Link providing 50 days’ free access to the article, which you are welcome to read or download. No sign up, registration or fees are required: […]

I seem to be hearing that “college isn’t for everyone” more frequently these days. Being in a university setting these days, that is would seem to be a troubling development. What’s behind it? I think it relates to an outdated mission. Universities, motivated by the understandable desire to be more useful, have been morphing into […]

The National Review’s ”Degrowth Is a Dead End” suggests that degrowth as an approach to environmental stewardship “isn’t an excuse to abandon economic growth with the resulting large-scale decline in living standards and increase in material suffering” that will destroy the economy. Oof, right? Actually, to the contrary, this kind of attack could be seen […]

It’s been great to see the rise of Communities of Practice in the Foresight field. They are popping up both within individual organizations as well as in industry or sector-based communities coming together — with the Federal Foresight Community of Interest being one of many examples.   I’m happy to share my experience in helping […]

I’ve thought a lot about what we might do in the post-work future of After Capitalism: One response, captured here, is to imagine all the great things we could do that we don’t currently have time for. A second response, was to muse about, the wonderful possibility of just doing nothing. And now, we have […]

… or , another reason why After Capitalism is going to take longer than it should. I/T is supposed to be the vanguard of change ushering in a wonderfully convenient future. [I will not rant here that this future seems to consist of laying on the couch, watching one of several dozen streaming services, flipping […]

It’s a somewhat bitter irony that just as many organizations are finally committing to developing a community of horizons scanners, the paywalls are going back up. More and more frequently, one finds a teaser that looks pretty interesting and start to read it then either you’re asked to subscribe, or sign in and wait for […]

I’ve been horizon scanning for After Capitalism for more than a decade now, albeit a bit sporadic in some years. The book is in the hands of the publisher but I continue to scan and plan to do so after the book launches as well. I capture each signal in a scanning library with 880 […]

Those who have worked in a volunteer organization probably have witnessed that it’s a small percentage of people who do the bulk of the work. They open the doors, turn on the heat, brew the coffee, set up the chairs, etc., etc. I’m guessing, but 20-80 seems close enough. If we’re part of the 20, […]

It’s hard to believe I’ve been doing this Foresight Spring Gatherings at the University of Houston for 10 years now. When I took over the program in 2014, I really wanted get a regular Gathering on the calendar at the same time each year and hopefully build it into a must-attend event. The range of […]

I’m usually not very timely here in terms of commenting on hot-off-the-press type of events, but I’m going to do it today! Canadian futurist Ruben Nelson shared a piece from the Cascade Institute called “Introduction to Polycrisis Analysis.” I have not reviewed it yet in the appropriate detail it deserves, but my initial reaction is […]

Last week we talked about some typical resistances to information about change we see on the client or public side. Lest we get arrogant and focus on “them” being at fault, let’s take a look at some problems from the futurist side. UH Foresight alum Mary Jane Naquin reminded me of a wonderful piece that […]