The Future is First Person

As I think about plausible futures, I believe one thing is truly apparent. The future will be all about individual experiences. Now that "individual" could be a singular person, a family, a group, a corporation, nation etc.. so yes its kind of a stretch. But if you think about it, as futurists, when we start discussing plausible future scenarios, the most often question we get is "so what, what does that mean for me?"

Because of this, I propose we start looking at futures from a first-person perspective. I am tentatively calling this first-person foresight. First-person foresight refers to the act of envisioning and anticipating potential future scenarios from an individual's personal perspective, leveraging the immersive and world-building techniques of storytelling. It involves constructing detailed and plausible depictions of how the world might evolve, and exploring the implications and impact of those futures on an individual and the individual's circumstances. While traditional world building often employs a third-person perspective to provide a comprehensive view, focusing on a first-person perspective can offer unique advantages.

All that to be said, we start with World Building - what do we think the world may be like in the next whatever horizon, and use storytelling techniques to help the individual(s) visualize the world, and decide what their role will be in it, how to thrive in it and what innovations and disruptions they need to create to influence that future today.

World building starts with thinking about the future world holistically. Tapestry is a great framework to use for this. Tapestry is a methodology to be used as that deliberate approach to working with signals, forces and trends; it focuses on their interconnectedness across seven categories (technological, political, economical, social/cultural, trust/ethics, regulatory/legal and environmental [TPESTRE]). These categories weave together a story about the plausible future world.

Secondly, we use immersive storytelling. By narrating the future through the eyes of an individual, we can place our audience directly into this envisioned world, allowing them to experience it as they feel is important. This creates a sense of immediacy and emotional resonance, making the future more tangible and relatable. For instance, in scenario planning workshops, we could use first-person narratives to help participants vividly imagine living in different future scenarios, which enhances their engagement and understanding.

This also allows for a personal connection. A first-person perspective fosters a personal connection between the individual and the futurist. This connection is crucial when exploring futuristic worlds, as it helps the individual understand from their perspective of challenges, hopes, and fears. For example, in foresight exercises, we might create personas that represent different stakeholders in a future scenario, allowing participants to step into their applicable persona and see the world from their perspective.

First-person foresight, utilizing these personas, can provide detailed and specific descriptions of the world, filtered through the persona's unique viewpoint. This specificity can bring the futuristic setting to life, as the individuals's observations and interactions with their environment reveal the intricacies of the world. For example, in a foresight project exploring the future of urban living, a first-person approach might describe the daily life of the individual as a resident in a smart city, highlighting the technologies and social dynamics that shape their experience.

While the first-person perspective offers many advantages, it also presents challenges. The limited viewpoint can make it difficult to convey events and information that the individual is not directly aware of or apart of. As futurists, we must find creative ways to incorporate necessary details without breaking the overall world building and storytelling flow..

Clearly this is very new and just an idea, but I think it's an important idea to flesh out.