Games transport us to imaginative scenarios. They empower us to alter future outcomes based on our ability to think ahead and make strategic choices. Shermon Cruz, Chair of the Association of Professional Futurists, shares the inner workings of “Dreams and Disruptions,” his newly released scenario-building game.

Cruz’s methods are based on about two decades of futures work. To construct and stress-test unthought-of futures, Cruz incorporates time horizons, emerging issues of change (including sentient AI, food poverty, etc.), indigenous and cultural drivers of change, planetary-wide disruptions (nuclear winter, supervolcanic eruptions, etc.), plus leaders and movements using Sarkar's Law of the Social Cycle. For the Foresight Talk, Cruz discussed his efforts to accentuate certain elements in scenario development and futures discourse, including the value of randomness; systems thinking; anti-fragility; and decolonial perspectives.

Learn about Cruz’s mission to create a global network of players sharing and uploading their most spectacular futures imaginings — and more about the game that’s been played more than 100 times around the world.

Speaker bio:
Shermon Cruz is the UNESCO Chair on Anticipatory Governance and Regenerative at Northwestern University, Philippines. He holds leadership roles as Chair of the Association of Professional Futurists and The Millennium Project Philippines. Prof. Cruz is the CEO, Founder, and Chief Futurist of the Center for Engaged Foresight, a strategic foresight and futures innovation firm with global operations headquartered in Manila. Additionally, he serves as Adjunct Faculty and Director of the Futures Thinking
Program at the Asian Institute of Management.

Additional Info:
Center for Engaged Foresight: https://engagedforesight.com/
Dreams and Disruptions: https://www.dreamsanddisruptions.com/
Association of Professional Futurists: https://www.apf.org/
Center for Engaged Foresight: https://engagedforesight.com/
"A 'Serious Game' to Explore Alternative Forestry Futures" (a journal article in the Journal of Forestry): https://academic.oup.com/jof/article/...

Learn about the variety of ways to learn foresight here: www.iftf.org/foresightessentials/

© 2023 Institute for the Future. All rights reserved.
Aired November 16, 2023.