Episode 9: Uncertainty in History, Teaching Futures, digital Information vs tech skills, Why we need more uncertain leadership

Future Intelligent Leadership Podcast: Exploring Foresight and Leadership for an AI-Augmented World

Today I am joined by Peter Bishop and Edward Tenner.

Dr. Peter Bishop is the Exec Director of Teach the Future, an initiative to encourage and support educators to introduce futures thinking into their classes and schools at all levels. He is a retired Associate Professor of Strategic Foresight and former Director of the graduate program in Foresight at the University of Houston. Dr. Bishop specializes in techniques for long term forecasting and planning, and he has published two books on the subject: Thinking about the Future (2007) and Teaching about the Future (2012),

Edward tenner is a distinguished scholar at Smithsonian institute and associate professor at Princeton. He is the Author of several books including “Our Own Devices: The Past and Future of Body Technology” and “The Efficiency Paradox: what big data can’t do” - released in 2018. He is a writer, speaker (TED), and consultant for newspapers, magazines, colleges and universities, research-oriented corporations, philanthropies, and professional associations.
About This Episode

After re-listening to this episode I am reminded of a series of books I loved to read as a child called “Choose Your Own adventure.” Each book followed a unique storyline and the reader was give the unique opportunity to choose which path a character should take at certain points in the story. Once they made a choice the reader would turn to the page the reflected that choice and continue the story. This model of storyline development was fascinating to me as a Child, because it allowed me to have some control over the direction of the story, and it also helped me realize that the past, present and future were not part of a single trajectory, rather there were multiple trajectories into he future. I could go back and read a “choose your own adventure book’ several times and each story would be similar, but different.

One point that Peter makes in the dialogue is that the 20th century mindsets about the future as part of a single timeline are not accurate and they are no longer useful in the current climate of rapid change. The future has many paths and the future s always uncertain. As Edward points out, Futurism is a tool kit for flexibility, that allows us to envision and prepare for possibilities on top of possibilities, that the future presents.

If you are interested in exploring, the role of history in the future, how to use history for the future, restoring the uncertainty of the past to realize that history was a series of choices within an uncertain future, just like today. How a feeling about the future drove Jeff Bezos to take the risk to create Amazon.com. Why information that is more difficult to access is being neglected, and how that is influencing the future. Why the current mindsets of education is limiting the future. The difference between transmitting knowledge and developing skills. The curse of knowledge, and why we need more uncertain leadership.

Then this episode is for you. Let’s listen.
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