So... why "recovering"?

Well, it usually gets a laugh. And, historically speaking, I've most often served as the defacto techno-geek/contextualiser (read: futurist) in the room.

We are sometimes called strategists, or innovators, or innovation strategists; equally vague terms, alas. My stock in trade is questioning our underlying assumptions. My field is that very, very dynamic place where disruptive tech, innovation, entrepreneurship, and culture converge.

It is my great joy to get to work with those who are out at the frontiers of positive change. These are not just the people who think, communicate, and behave in "out-of-the-box" ways, but the people for whom there is no box, and never was. They are also the people who care, deeply and vulnerably, about far more than themselves.

Reason the Second for recovering from futurism: given how massive a tsunami of technological and cultural change we now face as a global species—and how utterly crucial our current choices are to the future of life for humanity and our planet—I've become far more of a present-momentist.

What does that even mean? Well, to me it means actively pulling the future we actually want into our present by allowing ourselves to imagine and inhabit it as vividly as possible; placing ourselves, our descendants, and our planetary home inside that picture; and then, from knowing that place, making our moment-by-moment choices accordingly.

(Now building our future-positive muscles as individuals living our own lives is hugely important; yes, absolutely so. But we must also—and with as much kindness and respect as we can muster—do so collectively. As families and friends, communities, organisations, and groups of human beings across an ever more closely-knit planet.)

When it comes to the future, we must believe it in order to see it. Our capacity to imagine the shape and scope of the future we desire is what will determine the future we share.

(N.B.: This may require switching off the autopilot, and flying manually.)

As for me and my own choices: I'm now on a mission to rescue our future from the flames of dystopia and collapse. It's about creating a protopia, not a utopia. It's not too late. It's never too late. And yes, it can be done.

And finally... I'm in recovery from futurism because I believe it is time for all of us to become futurists.

(Scenariology is not difficult; it is, in fact, an essential skill for living in the 21st century.)

So let us write a whole new scenario for a whole new world, shall we? From the very heart of our humanity. Together.