Module 05 of 6
Psychology of Future Minds
How our minds picture, fear and plan for the future.
Draft, to be confirmed by Dr. John.A Wednesday, not a Saturday.
What you’ll do.
- Map the pull of the future, the push of the present, the weight of history.
- Work out which of the three is actually holding a decision still.
- Apply it to a choice you are facing yourself.
The method
Futures Triangle
Three forces act on any future at once. The pull is the image of the future drawing people towards it. The push is what is acting on them right now. The weight is everything history makes hard to move. Mapping all three tells you which one is actually holding a decision still — and that is rarely the one people argue about.
Worked topic: acting on climate change, a thirty-year problem. Weigh each force and watch where the plausible future settles.
- A net-zero Dubai by 2050
- Clean, quiet electric cities
- Cheaper solar power
- Record summer heat
- Youth climate activism
- Economies built on oil
- Car-centred city design
- Short political cycles
Reading the triangle
Two forces are evenly matched. Expect a contested, slow-moving future until one gives way.
Method source: Sohail Inayatullah, Six Pillars: Futures Thinking for Transforming, Foresight (2008)