The Future Starts Now

"The Future Starts Now" is a call to action for those who are tired of being caught up in someone else’s future.

The truth is, the future is not fixed. “Exponential growth” is not guaranteed, UBI is not the “only solution” to surviving the “robot uprising”; moving to a Mars colony is not the only way to “save” the human race from climate change; you will probably never own a flying car; and submitting to an omniscient surveillance state is not the only way to protect our babies from the big bad world outside.

We are better – deserve better – and can do better than these limited overly optimistic and overly pessimistic visions will have us believe.

With that thought in mind, Theo Priestley and Bronwyn Williams, together with a carefully selected group of disillusioned futurist colleagues from all over the world, have put together the book "The Future Starts Now", as an apology to future generations – and a warning to our own.

Theo and Bronwyn, along with two of the other authors, Craig Wing and Kate O'Neill, will be joining us to share key recommendations from their chapters, and to answer questions from the London Futurists audience.

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This event will be hosted on Zoom. To register, visit https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_QvcUoDxYTNSy53prGwpnQg

The Zoom registration fee (UKP £2.50) helps cover London Futurists running costs. The webinar can also be viewed, without charge, on the London Futurists YouTube channel, but without the option to participate in the live Q&A.

(The Zoom registration page opens a PayPal interface, but there is NO requirement for attendees to use a PayPal account.)

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Brief notes on the speakers:

Theo is the world’s first anti-futurist.

In the beginning Theo was a strong advocate for technology, having held Vice President and Chief Evangelist positions at large, global enterprise software companies. However, over the years, having analysed the trends and software eating the world, he realised that technological advancement at all costs is not necessarily in the best interests of humanity. https://thefuturestartsnowbook.com/contributors/theo-priestley/

Bronwyn is an opinionated futurist, economist and trend analyst.

Bronwyn is cautiously optimistic that the more people who know about what could go wrong, the more chances we have to make the future go right. The future is too important to leave to the experts. There is no one-size-fits-all utopia. What the future needs most is more individuals taking individual responsibility for the impact of their individual choices on the world around them. In other words, the future needs YOU. https://thefuturestartsnowbook.com/contributors/bronwyn-williams/

Craig is a futurist, imagineer, entrepreneur and speaker.

Craig’s chapter is titled "Homo Augeretis" and explores the implications of genetic engineering for social stability and individual identity. https://thefuturestartsnowbook.com/contributors/Craig-wing/

Kate is known as both the “Tech Humanist” and “Optimistic Futurist”.

Kate’s chapter is titled "Everything is Connected" and looks at human meaning in a digitised world. https://thefuturestartsnowbook.com/contributors/kate-oneill/

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For 25% off the book "The Future Starts Now", use the discount code FUTURISTS25 at https://www.bloomsbury.com/thefuturestartsnow

That page also contains more details about the book and many endorsements for it.

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The webinar will start broadcasting at 4pm UK time on Sat 24th April. To find this time in other timezones, see https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter.html?iso=20210424T150000&p1=136

You are advised to log into Zoom up to 10 minutes ahead of the publicised start time of the event, so you won't miss the start of the live broadcast.

As the discussion proceeds, attendees will be welcome to raise questions and vote to prioritise questions raised by others.

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To register for this event, visit https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_QvcUoDxYTNSy53prGwpnQg