"Sophisticated clients such as Corning and others who commission this work should take note: despite the widespread attention given to videos like this, consumers see right through the special effects and glitzy production to the substance beneath. If there is no real substance beneath, it will come back to haunt you…

That said, we still need more video in futures work and more futures work in product design.  So instead of discouraging the use of video to engage and communicate, designers and futurists working on these projects should consider the follow criteria for making high-quality futures videos that are also profound and thoughtfully reflective of future change.

1. Don’t stare at your navel: …

2. Don’t extrapolate to infinity: …

3. Don't fetishize technology: …

4. Don't ignore what people care about: …

5. Don't dumb it down: …"

"Every technology is embedded within society and the factors which contribute to a certain vision of the future are complex while its promises may be simple and alluring. … We do not know what happens when technological dreams don’t come true, both on a cultural and on an individual basis. The assumption is that ideas, once they have been part of the public imagination, do not go away. They might go to another place we do not have an expression for, a cultural limbo from where they might be materialized at another point in time. This place might be shared with ideas from science fiction, a pool of possible futures which engineers and entrepreneurs are tapping into. There might, however, be futures that for various reasons may never materialize, which appear to be speeding away and thus stay at a certain distance from us. Phantom futures that some even feel a certain nostalgia for, because they may have been part of the dreams and wishes of their life."

“…we badly need more utopian speculation. The consensus future we read about in the media and that we’re driving towards is a roiling, turbulent fogbank beset by half-glimpsed demons: climate change, resource depletion, peak oil, mass extinction, collapse of the oceanic food chain, overpopulation, terrorism, foreigners who want to come here and steal our <strike>women</strike> jobs. It’s not a nice place to be; if the past is another country, the consensus view of the future currently looks like a favela with raw sewage running in the streets. Conservativism — standing on the brake pedal — is a natural reaction to this vision; but it’s a maladaptive one, because it makes it harder to respond effectively to new and unprecedented problems. We can’t stop, we can only go forward; so it is up to us to choose a direction.” [via: ªªhttp://magicalnihilism.com/2010/12/05/work-as-if-you-lived-in-the-early-days-of-a-better-nation/ ]ºº

"This is what we do, humans. We tinker and change and endlessly imagine a more perfect future. And, at the same time, we idealize the past. So, we’re trapped. Progress’ constant companion is nostalgia for the way things used to be.<br />
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The thing we forget about progress: there is no master plan. It lurches forward, in the dark, accidentally, and you’re never sure where it’s taking you. There’s no going back, whether it wants to or not."

"The revolutions of the future will appear in forms we don’t even recognise—in a language we can’t read. We will be looking out for twists on the old themes but not noticing that there are whole new conversations taking place. Just imagine if all the things about which we now get so heated meant nothing to those who follow us—as mysteriously irrelevant as the nuanced distinctions between anarcho-syndicalism and communist anarchism. At least we can hope for that. As the cybernetician Stafford Beer once said to me: “If we can understand our children, we’re all screwed.” So revel in your mystification and read it as a sign of a healthy future. Whatever happens next, it won’t be what you expected. If it is what you expected, it isn’t what’s happening next."

"Bookfuturists refuse to endorse either fantasy of "the end of the book" [bookservativism and technofuturism] -- "the end as destruction" or "the end as telos or achievement" as Jacques Derrida would have it. We are trying to map an alternative position that is both more self-critical and more engaged with how technological change is actively affecting our culture.<br />
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We're usually more interested in figuring out a piece of technology than either denouncing or promoting it. And we want to make every piece of tech work better. We're tinkerers. We look to history for analogies and counter-analogies, but we know that analogies aren't destiny. We try to look for the technological sophistication of traditional humanism and the humanist possibilities of new tech."

"This is Sitra: Building a successful Finland for tomorrow<br />
<br />
Sitra, the Finnish Innovation Fund is an independent public fund which under the supervision of the Finnish Parliament promotes the welfare of Finnish society. Sitra’s responsibilities have been stipulated in law.<br />
<br />
Since its establishment, Sitra’s duty has been to promote stable and balanced development in Finland, the qualitative and quantitative growth of its economy and its international competitiveness and co-operation. Our operations are governed by a vision of a successful and skilled Finland. We have always approached our operations with strong belief in the future and in the ability of the latest technology to generate well-being.<br />
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Promoting systemic changes as a visionary and an enabler"

"set of postcards feature clues to an open & happier Helsinki. As collaboration btwn Sitra & OK Do, Clues to Open Helsinki is bundle of hints about what might make Helsinki best World Design Capital to date, & in doing so redefines role of design in contemporary city.<br />
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Helsinki has shown world what design means in 2012—& you had starring role! To make our city best design capital in world required active involvement & commitment from many people, some of whom didn’t consider themselves designers…So who did make this happen? Designers, but also farmers…Have you ever thought about decisions you make as acts of design?<br />
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From vantage of future, WDC2012 has surely been an economic driver for city, but also gave Helsinki an opportunity to test out new ideas about how city itself operates. This was essential in aligning economic activity w/ quality of life & real innovation in urban living. All were considered in concert to develop a harmonious municipal platform for transformation…"

"what would it look like if we're enabling next instead of present?…What happens to cognition & collective memory, when every student at every age has phone in hand linking them universally & able to connect intimately & via projection?…augmented reality. To ask any question of anyone? These are present, not yet ubiquitous, technologies. As they appear & cognition changes…what do we educators do?

"Founded on November 20, 2004, Education Futures explores a New Paradigm in human capital development, fueled by globalization, the rise of innovative knowledge societies, and driven by exponential, accelerating change."

"Games wield enormous power in our culture. They’re controlling the attention and getting the most energy and passion out of many, many people."

"These aren't games, like the industry thinks of games, these are something a little less, these are Barely Games. And these, are what I wanted to talk about.

"1. How many startups fail...2. How much startups' ideas change...3. How little money it can take to start a startup...4. How scrappy founders are...5. How tech-saturated Silicon Valley is...6. That the speakers at YC were so consistent in their advice...7. How casual successful startup founders are...8. How important it is for founders to have people to ask for advice...9. What a solitary task startups are...By inverting this list, we can get a portrait of the "normal" world. It's populated by people who talk a lot with one another as they work slowly but harmoniously on conservative, expensive projects whose destinations are decided in advance, and who carefully adjust their manner to reflect their position in the hierarchy.

"What will our world be like in 2050? This set of cards identifies some of the leading drivers of change that affect our future.

"Vision Mapper, part of the Beyond Current Horizons programme, is designed to help examine the future of education beyond 2025. It supports the UK education system in preparing for and responding to the challenges it faces as society and technology rapidly evolve.

"I gave a presentation called “inflated deflated futures” about a phenomenon that fascinates me: failed futures and the underlying causes for mistaken predictions and visions for the future. You can find the slides and notes of my talk in slideshare. Julian addressed similar issues in his Design Fiction presentation. The talk was, sort of, a structured rant against failed futures. I tried to collect some examples of “failed futures” (which correspond to failed products) as well the causes of these issues. What I mean by failure is generally the lack of adoption for a great idea, more or less feasible technically speaking."