[Spotlight Post] Futurists
Today is spotlight day. Not sure what to do today… I head over to ConDFW in just a few hours. Then it’s the last of the February show marathon! Woo Hoo! I hope to see many of you there. And of course it doesn’t help that I’ve had … SQUIRREL… focus issues this week. But hey, I started a new story yesterday…and not the point of this Spotlight.
Did you know that “Futurist” and “futurism” is NOT just a style of art? And not something applied to Science Fiction (though it can be – and I didn’t want to use “just” again). There’s a whole society out there of professionals in all kinds of fields – science, marketing, engineering, and even defense – that are part of a futurist society. I met some of them back in January through my friend, Tim Morgan – who learned of it through previous FenCon GOH Karl Schroeder.
I love these people. They’re “mainstream” (aka “mundane”) people who do what I do as a writer. They take a whole bunch of scenarios and play a global version of “What If”. There’s more to it, of course. But you see a little of it here and there in TV, movies, and in most of science fiction. They play the “linch pin”/butterfly effect thing. If “X” event happens here, what’s the result in location “Y” and how does that effect “Z” and “Q”.
In fact the story I started yesterday was inspired by one of the guys who uses this kind of futurist thinking (also called “Strategic Forecasting”) in marketing and design in an exercise he calls “time collider” (it’s my plot bunny… I’m doing something with it, but hey, I’ll share – because we all know YOUR story won’t be anything like mine). And dude, BEST. PLOT. BUNNY EVER.
And you want to talk about an inclusive group? I’ve never come from a “mainstream” even feeling more encouraged and accepted than I did from that party – and those were (in a lot of ways, ie, “society”) NOT my people. Yet, they were. These lawyers, marketing, and oil & gas guys were amazing to talk with and get to know. They’re excited about potential and what could happen.
So if you get a chance, get to know some of these folks. They’re the ones actively trying to envision and plan the future in a real life sense – while I play in the fictional realms.