Jamais Cascio: Wired for Anticipation

Contemplating the future is a distinctively human ability. Language isn't unique to humans; neither is tool use. What makes us human is our ability to look ahead and puzzle through future possibilities. Our brains are wired to anticipate, to sort through options, and to build alternative worlds. Foresight is a fundamental human capacity -- and it will be the key to making it through a complex and dangerous century.

I'll talk about foresight from three different perspectives: aspirational foresight as a way of setting challenges and goals for ourselves; evaluative foresight as a way of testing our strategies; and anticipatory foresight as a kind of civilizational immune system, sensitizing ourselves to the disruptive changes ahead.