Futuring: The Exploration of the Future

An excellent read...........hard to believe that you can get a book for a college class for under $20 new and for it to be such an enjoyable read.

Ed Cornish is a leading thought leader in the futures industry and has written an excellent overview to understanding what futures work is all about. As a practicing futurist who also teaches futures forecasting, this book has been valuable for my clients and students to better understand theory, practice and methods. I would highly recommend this book for business, social or public leaders who want to know how to use the futurist lens to better understand what's next. This book is an invaluable tool for examining the how futures practice can empower yourself, your organization, company or nation. As we move into the 21st century we need books like this to enable our civilization to chart a new more positive future for humanity. Dr. James Canton CEO & Chairman Institute for Global Futures

First, I want to say that the topic of "futures" is not for all people. One must want to be able to think beyond and use available tools in the area of forecasting. Cornish's Futuring - The Exploration of the Future is one of those tools. Cornish truly has written a book that assists the Future's reader in forecasting the future via exposing risk and the effects of that risk on one's managing or potential management of either their own life's future or that of their respective organization.. Second, Cornish's Futuring - The Exploration of the Future is written in an understandable format that could draw unsuspecting readers in to future forecasting by providing the foundation for folks to remove their inhibitions about controlling their future. This book is more than just about scenarios, offering a convincing and comprehensive understanding of how scenarios can and should be used as a form of strategic management. Along the way, the reader is treated to clear and helpful explanations of such things as "the history of futures explorers" (ch. 1), "the great transformations" caused by change (ch. 2), "the six supertrends shaping the future" (ch. 3), and "various futures methods of change" (ch. 6), among others. Overall, methodologies such as scenarios are examined and understood by Cornish (the founder of the World Future Society and the editor of its "flagship" publication the Futurist Magazine), are useful tools. They are foremost forecasting tools which are best used by both organizations, as well as the solitary planner at their workbench. If you want to understand how the future can be more accurately perceived (though not predicted) then this is a worthy addition to the library of any management strategist or student of the future.

Edward Cornish is editor of The Futurist Magazine, and while his Futuring: The Exploration Of the Future could easily have been featured in our nonfiction columns, it's recommended here for science fiction fans used to considering the future. Cornish's focus is upon the trends, ideas, and innovations driving the world: his Futuring envisions the job of exploring the future as a trailblazing pioneer of prediction, considering how futures are influenced, how they change, and the patterns of choice, chaos and cycles which influence them. Hard to easily categorize, but any science fiction reader interested in future worlds will relish Cornish's approach.

Thinking ahead is the great need of our times as the rapid pace of technological and social change affects work, home, education, health, amusements, environment and even religion. Futuring helps to understand trends, identify opportunities, and avoid dangers; it is a powerful way for individuals and organizations to create a better future. We cannot predict the future in detail but long-term shifts in population, land use, technology and governmental systems provide vital clues. We can all benefit by doing what futurists do, namely:- preparing for what we will face in the future- anticipating our possible future needs, problems and opportunities - identifying possible situations that might be encountered- expecting the unexpected- thinking long-term as well as short-term- dreaming productively- using even poor information if that is all that is available- learning from our successful predecessorsFuturists have identified many trends but for simplicity Cornish limits discussion to six super trends shaping our future: - technological progress- economic growth- improving health and longevity- increasing mobility- environmental decline- increasing deculturationAssuming no big surprises these super trends allow us to create a picture of what the world might look like under a 'continuation scenario'. This picture of the future is not a forecast but a way of thinking how we might prevent certain things happening and how we might create a better future. We tend to feel powerless and that we have little control over our future. Chance or even trivial events can have enormous consequences and the possibility that a butterfly flapping its wings in Brazil could cause a tornado in Texas high lights the chaotic world we live in. The butterfly effect also highlights the enormous effect even our simple actions can make to the future. Once we recognize our power over the future, we have the responsibility to exercise that power as well as we can. We must seek to understand the possibilities of the future and how to work toward influencing events in a way that will be beneficial. Myriad potential futures lie before us; we can only imagine them and many lie beyond our wildest imagining. Reconstructing humanity's response to his environment and the astonishing number of ways in which different groups of people express themselves in language, music, art, objects of worship, food and housing would have been beyond our most creative brainstorming sessions. Yet each cultural pattern represents a series of choices that a given people has made during its social and cultural evolution. Each people has carved out a different destiny for itself. Likewise, we have enormous freedom to shape our lives. We must abandon the notion that we must have absolutely certain knowledge before we can act; we must base our actions on probabilities and highly uncertain knowledge. We need to train ourselves to think realistically and creatively about the future by simplifying complexities an