The Futures Foundation

The reported discovery of an accurate map of Asia by a 15^th century Chinese explorer could create the context for Asia to transform its self-image, according to Professor Sohail Inayatullah of Tamkang University in Taiwan and the University of the Sunshine Coast in Australia.   Speaking at a meeting of Bristol-Myers Squibb in Singapore (January 7^th, 2006),  Dr Inayatullah said that the discovery of the map could change the future for Asia.

Parents in today's western societies are cheating their children by funding their own lifestyles from the future, says Ian Lowe, emeritus professor at Brisbane's Griffith University and president of the Australian Conservation Foundation.
In a powerful presentation to an international audience at the Global Mind, Global Soul, Global Action conference at Tamkang University in Taiwan, Professor Lowe emphasised that the future is not somewhere we are going, but something we are creating.
"There are many possible futures.  We should be trying to establish a future that can be sustained, even if not for the four to five million years that the earth is expected to last.   Not doing that is selling short our children by funding our lifestyles from the future."

WANT  TO  BE  A  PROFESSIONAL  FUTURIST?
2006 Masters of Strategic Foresight course at Swinburne University

Why is it significant?
Foresight can check and ‘refresh' strategy. Strategy seeks the best way to get from here to there. But what if ‘there' isn't where you really ought to be?   Strategic foresight challenges assumptions that may be embedded in corporate cultures, brings into play a range of creative resources, methods, options and strategies that are otherwise untapped. 

Who takes the Strategic Foresight Masters?
The program attracts people who have completed first degrees, who generally have a good deal of work experience and who are looking for an innovative 21st century specialisation.  It appeals to those currently working in a range of forward-looking roles such as sustainability; strategy; triple bottom line implementation, measurement and reporting; corporate social responsibility; ethics; culture change; values consulting and foresight functions in public and private sector organisations.

"Strategic foresight will be a cornerstone of
organisational success in the early 21st century."

"We should set limits to our innovation, our ingenuity and our technological expertise. I think it is the responsibility of future studies to find out what these limits should be." 
Presentation by Ashis Nandy, Professor, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, New Delhi at the Tamkang Conference on Global Soul, Global Mind, Global Action (Taiwan November 2005). 

Alternative visions and interpretations of the global soul/mind are crucial if we wish to engage in global action that does not reproduce yet another nightmare.
Most pressing is moving away from the discourse of universalism, as the dominant strand of universalism is grounded in a European worldview that accepts as absolute the superiority of the human, the masculine, the adult, the historical, and the modern/progressive over the non-human/sub-human, the feminine, the child, the ahistorical and the traditional/savage.  Thus in present times, the dream of 'one world' has become a nightmare and a threat to the survival of non-modern/western cultures.  It portends a homogenised, hierarchised world that is sharply categorised - into the modern and the primitive, the secular and the non-secular, the scientific and the unscientific, the normal and the abnormal, the developed and the underdeveloped, the vanguard and the led, the liberated and the salvable.

Michio Kaku, professor of Theoretical Physics, City University of New York, spoke at the Tamkang University conference on Global Soul, Global Mind, Global Action (Taipei November 5-7, 2005)

No-one can predict the future, but perhaps the most authoritative and authentic description of the future comes from interviews with the world's leading scientists.  I have interviewed the 150 top scientists who are inventing the future, in three areas:  life, the mind, and matter, which are the three pillars of science.

The next 20 years
Moore's Law says computer power should double every 18 months for the next 15 years.  In 2020 computer chips will cost about a penny [and] will be everywhere and nowhere, hidden by the billions in the environment, our clothes, the walls, the furniture, even our bodies.  The destiny of the computer is to become invisible. Even the word will gradually disappear from the English language. Computation will be quiet, seamless and invisible, the internet following us unnoticeably as we move from house, to car, to office and back.

The best future is the created future, says Clement Chang, founder of Tamkang University in Taipei. It's easy to see his point, in a country that is currently located at a dramatic point between the future and the past.
Speaking at an international futures conference held to mark the university's 55th birthday, he noted that Taiwan had transformed itself from an impoverished nation to a developed nation in just a few decades. Now, he says, the next task lies ahead.  "As the world moves to the knowledge economy we must learn how to transform ourselves from a manufacturing economy to a more high end information and knowledge economy.
"But our challenge is deeper than that.  We have a neighbour across the Taiwan Straits - only 100 miles away - which is always putting pressure on our very existence here. So for us futures thinking is not a luxury but a necessity.  

Opening remarks from Flora Chia-I Chang, President, Tamkang University, at the start of the three-day conference held there from November 5-7 2005.

What is unique about our time is three-fold. First, dramatic developments in technology are driving from genetics to artificial intelligence to breakthroughs in the body-mind arena.  Second is the process of globalisation, not just at the economic level but more deeply in the capacity of humanity to reflect upon itself, to question its direction.  This is different from the question 'why?':  it is the question of 'where to next?'.  What do we want the world to be like? Third is the notion of 'we' - who is asking this question?  Is the 'we' that is exploring the future our individual selves, or is there a collective 'we'?   If so, what is the appropriate language to describe this 'we'?  Do we use the eloquent work of Pico Iyer, who talks about the new emerging global self?  Or do we use the language of Willis Harman, who wrote about the global mind?  Or H.G. Wells and the global brain?   I leave this crucial distinction to you, learned scholars.
But as a university president, my concern is not just research and inquiry but global action. What do we do with our new knowledge, our new technologies and our collective consciousness?
And this becomes the crucial question.  Can we make the shift from survival - the jungle - to the vision of thrival, of working together to create a new future for the planet?   Using our collective wisdom to make different types of decisions; decisions that do not jeopardise future generations, that reduce environmental pollution, that do not create a divided world - a world in conflict with itself - and ultimately, a world that while keeping the dignity of the individual understands that our soul, our mind and our actions are, and indeed must be, global in scope.

"...the search is on for agreement around a global ethic and instruments of inter-religious cooperation"

The coming century is shaping as one in which religion will continue to play a central role, both in its interaction with the secular world, and in the way relationships among particular religions will shape events, writes Peter Stuart, an Anglican priest and theologian in New Zealand.
"At the heart of what is called ‘secularisation' in the west is the separation of Church and State.  In the ensuing ‘secular states' religion may decline, but it may also be enabled to flourish more freely. The extent of secularisation is thus distinct from the question of whether or not religion is declining, anywhere.  
"Globally, the scene is complex, with some fall-off from some particular religions in some places, and growth in others.  It certainly looks as though religion will continue to shape the lives of individuals and societies."
Noting that particular religions come and go, he points out that the major religions show no sign of disappearing, though their geographical distribution is changing (for example, the strong growth of Christianity in Africa and China). Westerners, he says, are often unaware of these trends.