Foresight challenge - London Futurists in the Pub

What common or prevailing views about the future deserve to be challenged?

What are the tools, the sources of energy, the breakthrough technologies, the new operating models, the emerging campaigns, the creative thought patterns, the silent dangers, or the hidden stores of treasure, that people should be considering in different ways?

This informal Pub gathering of London Futurists provides an opportunity to take part in conversations with people who believe they have important sparks of foresight that are worth sharing and debating.

== Schedule ==

5:30pm: The room is available, for early get-togethers
6pm: Food is served; informal conversations
6:45pm-8:30pm: Sets of short talks, and discussion on each set of talks, interspersed with opportunities to visit the bar
8:30pm: Informal networking

== The speakers / challengers ==

Eva Pascoe, RSA Vice Chair, Chair of Cybersalon

Topic: "Abundance is already possible"

Eva writes:

• Visionary futures are necessary to inspire, but I would like to argue with a grounded counterpoint: Abundance is already possible, without leaving Earth or setting up a Mars colony as an escape route for tech billionaires.
• I will talk about examples like California's rapid progress in renewable grid, which shows we can scale clean energy here and now.
• Successes in environmental rescues like condor and Tule Elk rewilding, show that ecological abundance is achievable within current means and science in the labs today.
• The future isn't 50 years away, it is hiding in plain sight, covered by layers of bureaucracy, herd instincts of investors and a lack of courage by activists.
• The future does not need to be invented; it needs to be unblocked, 'vetocracy' removed, and the power of human ingenuity revealed
• Futures thinking overindexes on techno-utopias and underplays local, generative success stories led by people coming together to act as a collective.
• I will draw on Ezra Klein's 'Abundance' , Kim Stanley Robinson, and Stephen Oram's 'We are not anonymous"

Rohit Talwar, Global Futurist, CEO of Fast Future

Topic: "Faraway Futures? From Will it to What if - exploring societal impacts of potentially gargantuan disruptions"

Rohit writes:

• As future thinkers we naturally spend a lot of our time focusing on whether and how 'brain breaking' developments might play out. Indeed there has been a much welcomed widening consideration and exploration of concepts such as the end of democracy, radical life extension, human augmentation, environmental dystopias, artificial superintelligence, and the abundance economy.
• In this provocation, I will encourage us to think beyond the 'will it' to focus on the potential 'what if' impacts should some of the most radical scenarios play out.
• How might society adapt and evolve - what if it doesn't?
• What might the economic impacts be?
• How might governance evolve in a world where national boundaries, rules based order, and historic 'pillars of permanence' all have the equivalent status - and as much relevance - as floppy disks and boom boxes do to our children today.

== RSVP please ==

Registrations are capped at 45 people.

First-time attendees are welcome!

There's no charge to register or attend, but the pub will expect everyone to order at least one drink, and the majority of attendees to order some food to eat.

Please order your food on your arrival, so that all plates can be set aside by 6:45pm to allow everyone to concentrate on the main discussion!

== More about the venue ==

Ye Olde Cock Tavern, 22 Fleet Street, Holborn, London, EC4Y 1AA

See https://www.greeneking.co.uk/pubs/greater-london/ye-olde-cock-tavern

We'll be meeting in the room at the top of the stairs, though food and drinks should be ordered from the bar on the ground floor.

** Note that this is an in-person meeting, and there will be no remote access, sorry **