Foresight thrives when creativity meets discipline. Yet in recent years, the field has seen a growing tendency toward rhetorical flourish and motivational metaphors. This reflection argues for re-centring foresight on its methodological foundations – so that anticipation remains a tool for shaping futures, not for performing them. The allure of rhetoric As foresight gains visibility, […]| Rafael Popper's Blog
A Collective Vision for Inclusive Innovation After months of collaboration, dialogue, and deep analysis, I’m proud to share the latest ITU Foresight Brief, “Shaping the Future of an African VC Land…| Rafael Popper's Blog
Futurist Dave Bengston The Pyrocene is the age of fire in which we live. Coined by fire historian Stephen Pyne in 2015, the term has been adopted by environmental scholars and journalists who focus on the impacts of climate change, the increasing frequency and intensity| Houston Foresight
“What I liked most about the workshop was getting to experience a framework for discourse between different stakeholders where everyone was approaching challenging ideas with an amount of vul…| matt finch / mechanical dolphin
What does it mean to imagine a future that is not your own? As foresight practitioners, we are asked to inhabit the hopes, fears, and worldviews of people we may never meet, in places we may never go. This radical exercise in empathy is powerful, but it carries a quiet contradiction: the more we dissolve [...]| Houston Foresight
Insight-led feels like a baseline for how businesses say they operate right now: in particular, design thinking has popularised the idea that to grow or do good things in the world, an insights-led approach is critical. I don’t disagree, having built my career in the market research industry up to now, I love that more| Houston Foresight
“Uncertainty, agency, and the future context of internet governance: a foresightful conversation” is an article I co-wrote for the Journal of Internet Technology and Politics with colle…| matt finch / mechanical dolphin
If you’ve been meaning to add foresight to your toolkit - scenario building, scanning, drivers, implications, and strategy - October is your moment. The University of Houston’s Professional Certificate in Foresight (Virtual) runs Wednesdays, October 1–29, 2025, 9:00 AM–12:30 PM (CST), with collaborative small-group work between sessions. This is an intensive, project-based boot camp built [...]| Houston Foresight
We are complex, multilayered individuals, experiencing a constant push and pull between the various versions of ourselves. Call it a quarter-life crisis or just an ongoing cycle in life, but every time I think I’ve figured out who I am and what| Houston Foresight
“In times of uncertainty, what we can imagine ahead of us matters.” I write on Kaliane Bradley’s wonderful novel The Ministry of Time for the British Science Fiction Association&#…| matt finch / mechanical dolphin
The 2025 APF Student Recognition awards were announced and, once again, we had some winners! It is quite an amazing set of projects. You can take a look at them here (and the Houston Foresight Awards as well!) Jen Stumbles WON FIRST PLACE!!! in the Master’s Individual category of this year’s APF Student Recognition awards [...]| Houston Foresight
The 1st Annual Houston Foresight Awards took place last year and the winners presented at the 2025 Spring Gathering celebrating our 50th anniversary. It’s high time we recognized them publicly! The individual winners were: Stephen Dupont with Profiles in Organizational Foresight Jess Robbins with Entangled Tomorrows: Harnessing Quantum Insight for Dynamic Foresight| Houston Foresight
The Future of Horizon Scanning: Embracing Emergence through Grounded Theory In a world defined by deep uncertainty and accelerating change, identifying signals of change won’t be enough. The future of horizon scanning will lie in Anticipatory Futures Intelligence; measured by how well we can engage with| Houston Foresight
Ecosistema prospectivo para la gobernanza anticipatoria On July 2025 the Centre for Foresight Studies of Cuyo (Argentina) and Centro ProspectivaChile launched Ecosistema Prospectivo para la Goberna…| Rafael Popper's Blog
Reshaping our approach to sustainable innovation has never been more urgent. Since our 2017 paper “Towards a more responsible sustainable innovation assessment and management culture in Europe” – w…| Rafael Popper's Blog
After months of enriching discussions, rigorous thinking, and truly international collaboration, we’re happy to share that our paper, “The Need for Synergy in Foresight Research for Healthcare and …| Rafael Popper's Blog
I’m speaking at the UCL Languages of the Future conference on 6th June, presenting a paper titled “Are we even talking about tomorrow? Uncertainty, agency, and the encounter with the su…| matt finch / mechanical dolphin
You know when it’s baking and the heat is just bouncing off everything, you step in the shadows and the temperature instantly drops ten degrees? It ain’t sticking around, just bouncing right back. Anyway, I withstood this onslaught for ten minutes at London Bridge station before cramming into a train full of half-cut sweaty football fans and heading home. As the train meandred between the rooftops of Bermondsey, I caught sight of, for no more than half a second, a seagull nesting in a chi...| The Bounding Box
The "sex team" from the Houston Foresight community just keep on rolling. What started as a Design Futures class that was first exhibited at a Spring Gathering was literally parlayed into a world tour. The next chapter, and I really appreciate that they took the time to| Houston Foresight
I’m pleased to be presenting at the University of Oxford’s Human-Algorithm Interaction Workshop 2025, on “Governing the futures you didn’t see coming: artificial intelligence scenarios“. Do join us in Oxford, 5-8 July, for an interdisciplinary event delving into the complex and evolving relationship between humans and algorithms. The annual workshop is a gathering of industry leaders, AI pioneers, … Read more Oxford Human-Algorithm Interaction Workshop 2025| matt finch / mechanical dolphin
On June 9th, I’m hosting a discussion about dual use technologies for Oxford’s Emerging Threats Group. A wide range of items are now recognised as “dual use”, capable of being employed for both civil and military purposes. From drones, robots, and software including AI to chemical and biological tools, the term has evolved beyond its … Read more Webinar: How Dual-Use Tech Is Redrawing the Global Power Map| matt finch / mechanical dolphin
The editorial team at Issues in Science and Technology invited me to submit a response to Ed Finn’s excellent recent article on using science fiction to stage conversations about science and technology policy. You can read my letter, “Looking Beyond the Ghost Scenario”, at the Issues website.| matt finch / mechanical dolphin
I’m pleased to be delivering two sessions as part of the University of Oxford’s contribution to the Right Here Right Now Global Youth Climate Summit, a 24-hour virtual event presented b…| matt finch / mechanical dolphin
"We are still here," cried special guest Morpheus at the UH 50th Anniversary Celebration from May 1-3. Higher education has not been kind to foresight programs. Ours is the first grad program dedicated to foresight to make it to 50 years. Many have come and gone over the years, and we had our own near-death-experience [...]| Houston Foresight
The world is facing unprecedented convergence across seven domains, with over 1,700 interacting forces identified between 2025 and 2030. This convergence is complex and accelerates change, reshapin…| Reimagining the Future
The content outlines a framework to understand historical cycles of buildup and transformation. It highlights how systemic pressures lead to significant change, illustrated by past crises. Key conc…| Reimagining the Future
This Friday, the Foresight Club of the European Parliamentary Research Service hosts a presentation from Sophie Mitchell, Chief Communications Officer of Australia’s domain name regulator auDA. Sophie will talk about the 2024 auDA scenarios, looking at the future of Internet governance, which are just coming up on the first anniversary of their publication, and can … Read more auDA Scenarios @ European Parliamentary Research Service| matt finch / mechanical dolphin
The past few years have taught us a critical lesson: the future is unpredictable and often takes very unexpected turns, but that doesn’t mean we can’t prepare for it. In foresight, we don’t just explore one future, we prepare for many possible futures. Last year, one of the scenarios we examined in our masterclasses was […]| Rafael Popper's Blog
The user’s Web browsing history is usually defined as a list of websites the user has visited, such as “google.com, facebook.com, reddit.com, bbc.co.uk, random-site.org, etcetc.org.uk”. On its own, it may seem innocuous. It turns out browsing history can be processed to| Security, Privacy & Tech Inquiries
I had a great morning today; got up early, got in an early run, had a good breakfast, showered, and got to Starbucks right when they opened. Then I had a few hours of really productive work. All in all, a fantastic start to the week. And it was really pretty easy, but not because [...]Read More...| RyanWaggoner.com
