foresight

Memoires of a magnificent future: Flying cars and the shape of things to come.

As the director of the Swiss museum of science-fiction, Patrick Gyger has access to a large variety of documentation concerning the past representation of the future. In his Lift09 talk, he revisits these visions and describes the reasons why they fail to materialize.

As the director of the Swiss museum of science-fiction, Patrick Gyger has access to a large variety of documentation concerning the past representation of the future. In his Lift09 talk, he revisits these visions and describes the reasons why they fail to materialize

Remember Scott Smith? Scott is a changeist and a regular at LIFT.

This year Scott spoke at LIFT in the Foresight track, which was all about how organisations identify and attempt to benefit from current and future trends. In his role as a changeist Scott helps organisations to understand and to plan for new consumer behaviours as well as the technologies that are likely to have an impact on their lives.

What's Scott up to these days?

Scott will be speaking next in Toronto at the Interactive Content Exchange Conference (ICE08) which will take place from 26-28 March.

And, we'll be looking forward to his book on emotional connectivity which deals with the next frontier in digital communication. Keep your ears to the ground for this one. It is scheduled to be published in 2009.

Scott Smith, founder of foresight firm Changeist, explains that his job is about "helping people see change clearly" and offers seven tips of foresight like "understanding the role of values" or "having a view, not an ideology".

William Cockayne's ongoing research dissolves the socially constructed membrane used to separate "real" and "virtual" lives. His findings indicate that the concepts we hold about our relationship with mediated social environments may need to be re-evaluated.