SBS TV is currently airing an interesting grab bag of documentaries under the rubric of "Future Focus." As a futurist, I'm interested to watch, of course. I suspect, however, that many professional futurists would have sighed, and changed channels. Why is that?
Well, it’s a sad reality that most popular futurist work is consigned to the simplistic level, something bereft of logical coherency, likely impractical in assisting organisations for strategic planning, and more often than not riddled with biased, wish-fulfillment assumptions that are so flimsy it really is just the stuff of a child's first science fiction novel (not that there's anything wrong with sci-fi!). Disturbing that SBS describes the 3 part documentary series most exemplifying this as
A combination of drama and state of the art science, this documentary creates the world of the future with accuracy and relevancy.
The interesting inclusions in the line-up have been two documentaries squarely focused on one key issue each. One issue, one hour, and plenty of careful questions and reasoning about the possible and probable ways the issue may play out in the future. These have been on where bird flu is currently at from the very well executed BBC Horizons series, and the potential for abrupt climate change in the form of the North Atlantic ocean conveyer belt being disrupted – likely causing a mini ice age in the northern hemisphere (as dramatically presented in The Day After Tomorrow).
But, whether you wanted more the grab bag of potential technological wizardry, and don't mind suspending belief as well as logic, or if you actually prefer a considered look at an issue and the actual range of outcomes we might face in the future, the Future Focus series is, on the whole, a good thing I think. If more people start engaging with futures thinking, no matter how trite, perhaps it will exercise that mental muscle and lead to them asking better questions about their futures, our futures, and who knows where that could lead? At least we'll be better prepared, and perhaps we'll even take more prudent actions in our lives and as a community and maybe even species.
I must admit though, that my partner was not at all interested. Quite boring she said, would rather watch CSI Miami (the CSI she likes the least!) Oh boy, that brings up 'unconscious futures'…another topic altogether.