Futurist Foresight - How to analyse and strategise for tomorrow's world with London Futurists' David Wood

In Episode 2 of our Planet Hope series we speak to David Wood. David is the Chair of the London Futurists, a board director at the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies and a Principal at Delta Wisdom, an independent futurist consultancy and publisher. His new book “Vital Foresight” explores future scenarios of technological disruption, superabundance and existential threat as well as the case for active transhumanism and principles for navigating the future.

In this podcast David touches on several of these issues in considering how to adopt a futurist mindset in considering how key trends in AI, Climate Change and convergent technologies are shaping the future and key principles and lessons from history you can use in seeking to understand the same.

Link to "Vital Foresight" E-book

4:09 - Superforecasting, Foxes and Hedgehogs

9:19 - Malthus and the population forecast

16:00 - A short history of technological ages -The 4th Industrial Revolution vs previous ones?

19:14 - Frontiers of new converging technologies

25:43 - Considering downsides to new tech/analogies to DDT and the Silent Spring

27:30 - AI and the Singularity Game

34:26 - AI and Technonationalism - A historical case for hope?

39:09 - Transhumanism and new frontiers of humanity and society

46:06 - Technology and Inequality in Society

51:25 - Corporate Innovation Strategy - A Futurist Lens and Playbook

55:07 - Case Studies - How Microsoft almost missed the Internet!

57:05 - Key corporate principles on why Microsoft was able to pivot

1:00:25 - Public Sector Innovation