Summing up the Summit Club of Amsterdam 28 January 2005 Closing Plenary

Rangefinding our vision. An open source approach begins with each of us articulating and clarifying our own visions. Let’s borrow a vision test format from opticians: –Focus your vision (preferred future) by comparing contrasting possible futures, and choosing among them:

Is this better? A rural future?

Or this? An urban future?

Is this better? A future transformed by technology?

Or this? A future transformed by mental and spiritual attainments?

A large-scale, nuclear energy future? Is this better?

Or this? A small-scale, solar-powered future?

Is this better? A future of increasing digital pervasiveness and invasiveness?

Or this? A future of biological manipulation and transformation?

Tough choices. Rangefinding our vision means making tough choices among alternative possibilities, guided by our values. What trade-offs are we willing to accept in choosing one path over another? What compromises? How do we share differentially distributed benefits and drawbacks?

Themes: Emerging win-win situations: cooperation, collaboration, e.g. liberalisation of trade Human approach: creating value, enhancing human creativity via new processes like open source, TRIZ, living laboratories Blurring of boundaries: in technology, in communities, in social and political roles Interconnection and integration -- must look closely at the nature of the connections

Missing: Global issues… was this just the summit of our future? Not just Europe, not just the rich… a positive future should address development across borders Differential impacts, access, control -- need for transparency of social, political, economic processes Recognition of the inevitable: e.g., energy crisis must be made personal for everyone in order to address lack of will to act

Missing: Long-term perspective in governance and private sector, not to mention true leadership A questioning of all our basic assumptions about society: capitalism, governance, even our definition of what is human in a coming post-human age

Take-aways: It’s NOT idealism, it’s NECESSITY that must drive us now. It’s the future -- and not the gadgets. It’s the IDEA that you can create the future that empowers you. Need to create our strategic infrastructure…and it’s not fibre optic cables, but values and ethics.

Take-aways: Let go! Decentralise! Multidisciplinarity! Transdisciplinarity! Diversity! Contradictions provoke good ideas, and good ideas are all around us! Question assumptions…all of them…do we need capitalism? Are our current nations obsolete? Are we still human if we’re augmented with nanotech? Vision, then do. Contradict, then create.

Dissemination: How do we excite people with these ideas, perspectives, conversations? What’s a high impact and effective way to convey our concerns, creativity, conversation? New media strategies for foresight. E.g., Job Romijn’s visual record<<<<

Informing our ideas: Briefings: –Club of Amsterdam seminars –Club of Amsterdam website and newsletter –Shaping Tomorrow: foresight portal Journals: –Foresight, Futures, Future Survey, Futures Research Quarterly

Finding fellow travellers: World Futures Studies Federation, World Future Society, Association of Professional Futurists,

Carrying on the conversation: Futures Insurrection, Association of Professional Futurists, Miami, 31 March - 2 April 2005 Foresight Management in Corporations and Public Organisations, Finland Futures Research Centre, Helsinki, June 2005 Future Tools for Growth, European Futurists Conference, Lucerne, July 2005

Carrying on the conversation: World Future 2005: Foresight, Innovation, and Strategy, World Future Society, Chicago, July WFSF World Conference: Generation -- Intergenerational Collaboration to Generate Preferred Futures, World Futures Studies Federation, Budapest, August and Budapest Futures Course, August 2005 And of course…..

Carrying on the conversation: … the 2006 Summit for the Future, Amsterdam. We look forward to seeing you again in the future! Thank you!