In previous posts, we’ve introduced the ESPELETIA dimensions (Ethics, Society, Politics, Environment, Legislation, Economy, Technology, International and Arts) and the ‘key drivers’ (AI, IoT, Big Data, Robotics, Communications and the ‘X Factor’). We now build this into a complete futurology tool for projecting into the future, and provide a complete set of documentation for research and/or classroom exercises.
The previous post introduced the ESPELETIA futurism tool. Here this is combined with key emergent and future technology drivers to deliver The Futurology Grid, a useful framework for practical futurism.
The nine dimensions of the ESPELETIA tool are the coloured column headings in the table below.
The details of each are as follows:
Continue readingOver the decades, we’ve seen PEST extended to PESTLE to STEEPLED, but have we now got all the angles covered for practical 21st century futurism? Perhaps not.
We’ve used the STEEPLED model before several times on this site, with some success. It’s undoubtedly a useful tool. But it’s not perfect: it’s time to recognise its limitations and introduce something new.
Continue reading“ERIC”
How a Bad Think-Thing Destroyed the World
A short story by Vic Grout
Download as a PDF: https://vicgrout.files.wordpress.com/2020/10/eric-1.pdf
On the planet ‘Arth’ (which, if it helps, you can think of as being like Earth but without the ‘E’), things were going pretty smoothly. Arth society was organised roughly into three groups of people: doers, thinkers, and leaders. There was no great difference in status or esteem among the three groups but there were a good many more doers than thinkers and a lot more of both than leaders.
So, yes, most people were doers: they did things. They found raw materials and turned them into what people needed; they made clothes, built shelter, grew food; they moved it all to where it had to go; they repaired and cleaned. They cared and treated mind and body; kept people safe; raised families; looked after the young, the old and the ill; they taught new generations. There were also doers that entertained; made nice things to look at, told stories, played music or sport. All of these doers together made Arth a comfortable and happy place to live.
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Turing's Radiator 