Foresight Reports

Abstract: Society now faces many major, even existential, issues that threaten our future. At the same time that accelerating changes are converging to create enormous potential problems, prospective synergistic solution spaces are emerging that offer strategies—and hope—for the human future. By Dennis M. Bushnell

ABSTRACT: The tensions between privacy and security and between distrust of government and fear of hackers may not be relieved soon, but advancing technologies for digital identification and data storage make the possibility of national identity cards increasingly imminent. Potential benefits could include reduced fraud in tax and voting systems, but the “killer app” for a national ID card would be a solution for immigration reform. By Dr. Karl Albrecht

In this paper, adapted from a recent interview, Dr. Ulla Rosenström discusses key foresight projects and focus areas of the Prime Minister’s Office in Finland. She describes what other countries can learn from Finland’s foresight efforts, what the futures community can expect from new Prime Minister Juha Sipilä’s government in terms of foresight efforts, lessons learned from previous participatory foresight projects, and the importance of stakeholder engagement in the foresight process as a way to have more actionable results. By Ulla Rosenström and Nicolas Balcom Raleigh

Megafires are on the rise worldwide, due not only to climate change but also to approaches to combatting fires that paradoxically increase their likelihood. A panel of futurists and two wildfire professionals convened to analyze the complex, interconnected trends in wildland fires in the context of three different scenarios for the decades ahead. They concluded that wildfire managers and the communities they serve need a new approach for managing future fire risk, one that entails more resilience and a less combative relationship with nature. By Robert L. Olson and David N. Bengston.