Scenario Publications

28/12/2021

Irini Papadimitriou has made a career as a leading curator and cultural creator with vast expertise across museums, art juries, and festivals like Ars Electronica. She draws on interdisciplinary and critical discourse to explore the impact of technology in society and culture, as well as the role of art in helping us engage with contemporary and future issues.

We met with Irini to learn about her curatorial practice from the Victoria and Albert (V&A) Museum in London to Future-Everything, an innovation lab that uses art and participatory experiences as a lens to explore new ideas for the future.

Q&A with Irini Papadimitriou, Creative Director of FutureEverything

21/12/2021

Why are multinational corporations and military agencies hiring science fiction authors to help them understand the future?

In this story from the latest SCENARIO Report, we chart the recent rise of the 'sci-fi industrial complex' and what it tells us about the power of worldbuilding and storytelling to effect change.

Why are multinationals and militaries using science fiction to understand the future?

11/11/2021

Issue 62 of SCENARIO Magazine out now! Get your copy: https://cifs.dk/p/issue-62

Inside this issue: Time is of the essence: The challenge of time-scaling and forecasting / Behaviour: Spotlight on selected behavioural patterns worldwide / Q&A: Paolo Rizzatto on inspiration and lifelong creativity / Article: Data dumb / Scenario article: Fat futures / Photo series: The Smart City Research Network: Portraits by Tilde Bay Kristoffersen / The Futurist: Nicklas Larsen / Column: The mobility pyramid / Column: The metaverse / Column: Compost futurism / Applied futurism: Teaching futures / Tech brief / Futures Past: The Red Net.

24/08/2021

Brand-new issue of SCENARIO Digest out now! Available to all subscribers at cifs.dk and on the SCENARIO app.

TECH WASTE - With the coming of the Internet of Things and 5G, the number of internet-connected devices is set to explode over the next few decades. So too, most likely, will the amount of electronic waste generated from discarded technology. What needs to change, and what can consumers do (if anything) to make it happen?

SPACE TOURISM FOR ALL? - After touching down with the SpaceShipTwo in July 2021, Virgin Galactic owner Richard Branson ecstatically proclaimed that ‘space belongs to all of us’. Are we really seeing the beginning of a new era of the democratisation of space travel, or will space primarily become a playground for those with the means to go there?

DO WE NEED A 'UNIVERSAL BASIC DATA INCOME?' - Despite the large amounts of valuable data we all produce every day, we receive very little value in return apart from access to free online services. Is it time to start taking the idea of a ‘universal basic data income’ seriously?

THE END IS NIGH - A new analysis of the Limits to Growth scenarios from 1972 shows that we may be on track for some of the more dire ones. Should we be worried?

22/06/2021

In the future, artificial intelligence will be able to do many things that benefit us. But there are also some more sinister futures and risks ahead related to the emergence of intelligent machines. In fact, AI may be able to some day control our minds - not through telepathy, but by subtly manipulating our views and actions.

Story from the latest issue of SCENARIO Magazine.

Will artficial intelligence be able to control our decisions in the future?

08/06/2021

As the global urban population swells, the challenge for urban planning not only lies in creating living spaces and infrastructure for growing populations, but also to do so in a way that makes cities liveable while also addressing climate change.

In this piece from the latest issue of SCENARIO Magazine, we explore four scenarios for our urban futures.

The world is facing a series of extreme challenges in the 21st century which will both influence and challenge urban living.

28/04/2021

The significance of Professor Minik Rosing's research is likely to become more and more apparent in the years to come. He is already known and respected around the world for having found the oldest traces of life in 3,800-million-year-old rocks in 1999, which pushed the known origin of life about 200 million years back in time. But what is even more remarkable, but perhaps less well known, is his overall theory of the origin of life and its impact on our planet.

Read the interview with Minik Rosing from the latest issue of SCENARIO Magazine here:

When did life arise? Professor Dr Minik Rosing has an answer, and it comes with some remarkable implications: Not only is life significantly older than we believed just a couple of decades ago, but…

08/04/2021

New issue out now 🔥 Subscribe at cifs.dk/personal

Photo and video credits

17/03/2021

What does African development mean to Africans, and how is Africa an invitation to start seeing futures differently?

Our latest instalment in the Applied Futurism article series explores an inside-out perspective on African Futures together with futurists Kwamou Eva Feukeu and Dr Geci Karuri-Sebina.

Read on here:

Q&A on anticipation and what development and growth means to Africans

25/02/2021

A new vanguard of 'space billionaires' are leading us into an era of privatised space flight. At the front of the pack is Elon Musk, who was recently declared the richest man on Earth. Musk claims to have found inspiration for his cosmic ventures in science fiction, particularly in Isaac Asimov's Foundation saga, in which scientist Hari Seldon helps guide humanity through a dark age via the power of scientific prediction. Musk has made clear that he sees his own role in history in a similar way, meaning that his goal is to take a 'set of actions' that helps prolong civilisation and minimize the risk of a new dark age occurring.

But will commercial space exploration benefit civilisation in the way Asimov imagined?

Read the full story "Foundation or Empire?" below:

How Elon Musk gets Isaac Asimov wrong

15/02/2021

Will we ever find life out there?

Proxima Centauri would be a good place to look next. This star has two planets orbiting it, one of which is about the size of Earth and situated in the star’s so-called habitable zone. And it just so happens that radio signals were captured last year, possibly originating from that exact planet.

Did aliens do this? Not very likely. SETI, the organisation monitoring the cosmos for intelligent life, believe with 99.9 percent certainty that the transmission is human radio interference. But one can hope that it is something more.

Is there alien life on Proxima Centauri b?

09/02/2021

SCENARIO Digest issue 05 is out now! Get your subscription @ https://cifs.dk/personal/

Read about why Elon Musk gets Isaac Asimov wrong, why there is a 0,01% chance that Proxima Centauri b hosts intelligent life, whether or not 'post-traumatic growth' could be a way to deal with personal trauma in the future, why we are living in the 'Age of the Trickster', and if it's possible to imagine a future where the city is entirely car-free.