Dr Joseph Voros ’Futures Thinking in Real-World Contexts’

Series Five 

This episode of The New Abnormal podcast features the famous physicist and futurist Dr Joseph Voros, who helps people and organisations think about the future in serious ways through futures-orientated intelligence and strategic foresight capability-building. 

He’s been a professional futurist for over 25 years, initially as a practitioner of and lecturer in strategic foresight, but increasingly in the Defence and National Security context, including participation in NATO’s Strategic Foresight activities.

We therefore discuss his views on issues including the various categories of futurists (with a nod to 'Synoptic Generalists'), linkage between futurists and intelligence analysts ('cousins or twins?'), why futurists are lucky that they don't have to persistently deal with counterintelligence, and a thought-leadership paper he's just presented to a gathering of officers from that sector. 

Joseph has a strong belief in the need for both rigorous intellectual discipline as well as practical pragmatic utility in ‘real world’ contexts, and this belief lies at the heart of his renowned approach to Futures Studies and strategic foresight. 

And before you ask, yes we do discuss the “Futures Cone” that he so popularised, regarding a range of ‘nested class’ futures i.e. Potential, Preposterous, Possible, Plausible, Probable, Preferable, Projected, and Predicted. Meanwhile, and indeed as what was satire becomes ever more a lived reality, Joseph stresses that one must never forget Wildcards…

So, we cover all of the above, in what I hope you’ll agree is a fascinating interview.