The Futurist Survey

In 2022 we invited dozens of Futurists to participate in research to gather the views of the futurist profession.

Many turned us down given contractual restrictions with their institutes or funders, given that their insights are reserved by agreement.

However, dozens of Futurists or professionals related to predicting trends and societal / technological innovation did participate.  

Here are some of the results and insights gleaned from those futurists, in 2022. 

Importance for re-shaping our systems in the coming decade: 

Out of a longer list, here are the top 3 issues with consistently strong support among participating Futurists. The theme here is that global abundance becomes achievable when decision making power becomes more widely distributed to more people.  

More centralization of power seen as a bigger threat to quality governance. This selection of Futurists lean in favor of increasing decentralization of power. 

Overwhelming support for localized economics rather than a global system. The reasoning here is that a unified singular global system has higher risk of failure as there are more dependencies. Where as, localized supply chains create a more anti-fragile system.  

Here are comments shared by Futurists, some of which you may find quite concerning: 

We need local governance and to decentralize everything before it is too late.

Google Apple Meta Amazon know more about us than any human could ever understand.

It's been proven that how people vote, shop, and even think can be controlled by algorithms and well-designed campaigns.

Our individual data is now on an open market to be sold to the highest bidder so they can direct our behavior to whatever ends they so desire.

Web3 needs to push ownership of one's data

As Futurists we need to empower more people into creating better, and not only probable futures.

We need to be more confident in our ability to create a better future 

Business is the greatest platform for change.

I don't believe we are limited by tools and technology. I believe we are limited by our ideas and courage to act on something and do something differently.

Strong frameworks and everyone's consideration (rich or poor; young or old; developed or developing) will help us be prepared for what is to come globally!