Chapter 3. Career Options - Great Ways to Be a Foresight Leader

3. Creative (Creator-Producer)

[Foresight Leader Examples, listed in alphabetic order by surname: Amara Angelica (KAIN), Felix Bopp (CoA), David Brin (SciFi/NonFic), Sergey Brin (Google X), Tim Brown (IDEO), Jessica Charlesworth, Brenda Cooper, Patrick Dixon, George Dvorsky (io9), Elina Hiltunen, Tom Kelly (IDEO), Ray Kurzweil (KurzTech), Gerd Leonhard, Alex Lightman, Tom and Jeanne Lombardo (CFC), John Naisbitt, Om Malik (GigaOm), Bruce Mau (MassiveChange), Ramez Naam (SciFi/NonFic), Ian Pearson, Faith Popcorn, Douglas Rushkoff, Heather Schlegel, Gray Scott, Jason Silva, Cecily Sommers, Bruce Sterling, Don Tapscott, Astro Teller (Google X), Jack Ulldrich, Natasha Vita-More (H+), Vivek Wadhwa (Sing U), Fareed Zakaria (CNN), Andrew Zolli (PopTech)]

Tom Kelly, IDEO

Tom Kelly, IDEO

The creative is perhaps the second most common organizational conception of the foresight professional, but possibly the most common social conception of the futurist: someone individually driven to imagine, find, describe, design, invent, curate, or produce promising new products, services, events, projects, behaviors, or ideas. Folks who get most of their income from speaking or writing creatively about the future, curating ideas, or designing new things, and who see themselves as creators first and other roles second would self-describe as members of this group.

Some express their creativity as designers of new products, services, events, or projects. Some are curators (creative arrangers) of others insights or primarily creators of their own work. Others act as producers of formal talks, print and other media or events. One rising example of a creative is the new media futurist, someone who uses emerging digital media tools and platforms to design, curate and produce content on the promise and issues of the future, either broadly or around specific issues they care about.

Creatives may or may not lead creative teams or organizations, or do community building. When they do, curation or creation remains the strongest self-identified drive for the individual in this role. When any of their creations or curations become market successes, creatives are also innovators. Many innovators, and most team leaders striving for market success from an innovation will prefer to self describe as Entrepreneurs, the fourth major social foresight role, to be discussed next. Creative team leaders that see their primary responsibility not as creation, but as managing an organization toward a preferred future are often better classed as Organizational Foresighters, also to be discussed shortly.

Examples of curators and creators include many idea generators, public speakers, writers, editors, event producers, artists, experimenters, coders, builders, designers, and inventors. They collect, arrange, and create fascinating and potentially useful new ideas and things, and this creation is usually an even stronger motivator than financial or commercial success.

Innovators are creatives whose products or services have achieved some degree of adoption success, either in an economic market or in a community or institution. Innovators tend to be more commercially or more adoption oriented than other creatives, and many are media producers, software and game developers, engineers, R&D staff, applied scientists, and product and service developers, or policy innovators in government or nonprofit sectors.

Creatives may fly solo, as with many foresight speakers, or be in a staff or consulting rather than management or market-facing roles within an organization. If they do run an enterprise or manage, they see this as secondary to their creative or curation role.

Groups helpful to foresight speakers, who view themselves most commonly as either consultants or creatives (as well as the other three social roles in lesser percentages) include the National Speakers Association (business development) and the Clarity Media Group (presentation training). There are also many groups that support other creatives, depending on your skill and interest (writing, media, design, events, activism, etc.).

Those that value their enterprise or management roles above their creative roles are better classified as entrepreneurs, consultants, or organizational foresight leaders first, and as creatives second. Many independent foresight speakers and authors see themselves as creatives or curators first, and as entrepreneurs or consultants second, especially if they have few to no employees. Many marketing and branding foresight professionals see themselves as creatives first, and as organizational foresight leaders second, even if they work in large organizations. In fast-changing technical fields, product and service R&D leaders may self-identify as creators, innovators, or entrepreneurs first, and as organizational foresighters second. Our social roles are best defined by asking social perception questions of ourselves, our colleagues, clients, and the general public.

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Table of Contents

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Chapter 2. Personal Foresight – Becoming an Effective Self-Leader

Chapter 2: Personal Foresight

Becoming an Effective Self-Leader

Chapter 4. Models – Foundations for Organizational Foresight

Chapter 4: Models

Foundations for Organizational Foresight

Chapter 7. Acceleration – Guiding Our Extraordinary Future

Chapter 7: Acceleration

Guiding Our Extraordinary Future (In Process)

II. Global Progress: 5 Goals, 10 Values, Many Trends

Innovation: Our Abundant Future
Intelligence: Our Augmented Future
Interdependence: Our Civil Future
Immunity: Our Protected Future
Sustainability: Our Rebalanced Future

III. Universal Accelerating Change

Great Race to Inner Space: Our Surprising Future
Entropy&Information: We’re Running Down & Up
The Puzzle of Meaning: We Have No Einstein Yet
Trees, Funnels & Landscapes: Intro to Evo Devo
Big Picture Change: Five Scales of Accelerating ED
Transcension Hypothesis: Where Acceleratn Ends?
IDABDAK: Social Response to Accel & Developmnt
We’re On a Runaway Train: Being Accelaware

IV. Evo Devo and Exponential Foresight

Seeing It All: Accel., Diverg, Adapt, Convrg, Decel.
Natural (I4S) Innovation: The Evolutionary Drive
Natural (I4S) Intelligence: The Human-AI Partnership
Natural (I4S) Morality: Why Empathy and Ethics Rule
Natural (I4S) Security: Strength from Disruption
Natural (I4S) Sustainability: The Developmental Drive
S-Curves: Managing the Four Constituencies
Pain to Gain: Traversing the Three Kuznets Phases
Hype to Reality: Beyond Hype Cycles to Reality Checks
Exponentials Database: Measuring Accelerations
TINA Trends: Societal Evolutionary Development
Managing Change: STEEPCOP Events, Probs, Ideas
A Great Shift: A Survival to a Sentient Economy

V. Evo Devo and Exponential Activism

Building Protopias: Five Goals of Social Progress
Normative Foresight: Ten Values of Society
Top & STEEPCOP Acceleratns: Positive & Negative
Dystopias, Risks, and Failure States
Three Levels of Activism: People, Tech & Universe
A Great Opportunity: Exponential Empowerment

 

Chapter 8. Your Digital Self – The Human Face of the Coming Singularity

Chapter 8: Your Digital Self

The Human Face of the Coming Singularity (In Process)

I. Your Personal AI (PAI): Your Digital Self

Digital Society: Data, Mediation, and Agents
Personal AIs: Advancing the Five Goals
PAI Innovation: Abundance and Diversity
PAI Intelligence: Bio-Inspired AI
PAI Morality: Selection and Groupnets
PAI Security: Safe Learning Agents
PAI Sustainability: Science and Balance
The Human Face of the Coming Singularity

II. PAI Protopias & Dystopias in 8 Domains

1. Personal Agents: News, Ent., Education
2. Social Agents: Relat. and Social Justice
3. Political Agents :  Activism & Represent.
4. Economic Agents:  Retail, Finance, Entrep
5. Builder Agents :  Work, Innov. & Science
6. Environ. Agents : Pop. and Sustainability
7. Health Agents :  Health, Wellness, Death
8. Security Agents :  Def., Crime, Corrections

III. PAI Activism & Exponential Empowerment

Next Government: PAIs, Groupnets, Democ.
Next Economy: Creat. Destr. & Basic Income
Next Society: PAI Ent., Mortality & Uploading
What Will Your PAI Contribution Be?

Chapter 10. Startup Ideas – Great Product & Service Challenges for Entrepreneurs

Chapter 10: Startup Ideas

Great Product and Service Challenges for Entrepreneurs (In Process)

I. 4U’s Idea Hub: Building Better Futures

Air Deliveries and Air Taxis: Finally Solving Urban Gridlock
Ballistic Shields and Gun Control: Protecting Us All from Lone Shooters
Bioinspiration Wiki: Biomimetics and Bio-Inspired Design
Brain Preservation Services: Memory and Mortality Redefined
Carcams: Document Thieves, Bad Driving, and Bad Behavior
Competition in Govt Services: Less Corruption, More Innovation
Computer Adaptive Education (CAE): Better Learning and Training
Conversational Deep Learning Devsuites: Millions of AI Coders
Digital Tables: Telepresence, Games, Entertainment & Education
Dynaships: Sustainable Low-Speed Cargo Shipping
Electromagnetic Suspension: Nausea-Free Working & Reading in Cars
Epigenetic Health Tests: Cellular Aging, Bad Diet, Body Abuse Feedback
Fireline Explosives and Ember Drones: Next-Gen Fire Control
Global English: Empowering the Next Generation of Global Youth
Greenbots: Drone Seeders and Robotic Waterers for Mass Regreening
High-Density Housing and Zoning: Making Our Cities Affordable Again
Highway Enclosures and Trail Networks: Green and Quiet Urban Space
Inflatable Packaging: Faster and Greener Shipping and Returns
Internet of Families: Connecting People Over Things
Kidcams: Next-Gen Security for Child Safety and Empowerment
Kidpods: Indoor & Outdoor Parent-Assistive Toyboxes
Microdesalination: Democratizing Sustainable Fresh Water Production
Noise Monitors: Documenting and Reducing Noise Pollution
Oceanside Baths: Sustainable Year Round Beach Enjoyment
Open Blood Scanners: DIY Citizen Health Care Sensor Tech
Open Streaming Radio: User-Centered Audio Creation and Rating
Open Streaming Video: User-Centered Video Creation and Rating
Open Values Filters: Social Rankers, Arg. Mappers, and Consensus Finders
Personal AIs: Your Private Advisor, Activist, and Interface to the World
Pet Empowerment: Next-Gen Rights and Abilities for Our Domestic Animals
Safe Closets: Fire-, Earthquake-, and Intruder-Proof Retreat Spaces
Safe Cars: Reducing Our Insane 1.3M Annual Auto Deaths Today
Safe Motorcycles: Lane Splitting in Gridlock Without Risk of Death
Shared Value Insurance: User-Centered Risk Reduction Services
Sleeperbuses and Microhotels: Demonetized Intercity Travel
Space-Based Solar Power: Stratellite Powering and Weather Management
Stratellites: Next-Gen Urban Broadband, Transparency, and Security
Touch DNA: Next-Gen Home Security and Crime Deterrence
View Towers: Improving Urban Walkability, Inspiration, and Community

Chapter 11. Evo Devo Foresight – Unpredictable and Predictable Futures

Chapter 11: Evo Devo Foresight

Unpredictable and Predictable Futures

Appendix 1. Peer Advice – Building a Successful Foresight Practice