Futures

by Delphi Carstens. Hyperstition is a neologism that combines the words 'hyper' and 'superstition' to describe the action of successful ideas in the arena of culture. Akin to neo-Darwinist Richard Dawkins' concept of memes, hyperstitions work at the deeper evolutionary level of social organisation in that they influence the course taken by cultural evolution. Unlike memes, however, hyperstitions describe a specific category of ideas. Coined by renegade academics, the Cybernetic Culture Research Unit (CCRU), hyperstition describes both the effects and the mechanisms of apocalyptic postmodern 'phase out' or 'meltdown' culture.

In a complex world, foresight methodologies offer an alternative to prediction. This approach can help map new possibilities to plan for future disruption.

Meet UN Global Pulse, the Secretary-General’s Innovation Lab

AI and Future of FuturesCall for Papers This special issue looks at AI and Futures in light of transformative developments in the fields broadly described as artificial intelligence (e.g., machine learning, natural language processing, Large Language Models, or expert systems). How will AI help reimagine the practice of Futures? How would it shape the ways in which communities imagine and build Futures?  How might Futures evolve in an AI dominated environment? How might this emergence of knowledge shape the body of knowledge? Important Dates: Extended Abstract submission deadline: August 30, 2023. Notification of acceptance for submission to JFS: November 30, 2023. Final paper submission to JFS: February 29, 2024

Our own adjunct professor Adam Cowart was recently published in the Journal of Futures Studies. Living Between Myth and Metaphor: Level 4 of Causal Layered Analysis Theorised Abstract The purpose of this paper is to propose the inclusion of emplotment and what we might call “situating metaphors'' while