The Future According to Women

MISC, a foresight magazine from Canada by Idea Couture, recently put together a special summer feature called “The Future According to Women.” MISC brought together over 40 women from diverse industries on topics from the future of national security, the future of branding to the future of girlhood and the future of the oceans.

If you want to help move humanity forward – comprehensively and collaborative – on developing and implementing preferred futures, you would do well in sitting down and giving “The Future According to Women” a read.

Below are just a few points that captured my eye:

Future of National Security from Sharon Burke

Sharon Burke is a Senior Advisor to New America, where she focuses on international security. Previously, Sharon served in the Obama Administration as the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Operational Energy, a new office that worked to improve the energy security of US military operations.

On Technology & National Security

You’re seeing this democratization and globalization of weapons. You’re seeing cellphones, the internet, additive manufacturing, drones, and all this equipment of war becoming far more widespread.

On Energy

I’m also a big fan of looking at energy services or end users. How do people actually use energy? Rather than just looking at the supplies, look at what people really need in order to change. We’re going to need

Future of Gaming from Mary Flanagan

Mary Flanagan is a leading innovator, artist, educator, and designer whose works include game-inspired art and commercial games that shift people’s thinking about biases and stereotypes. She is also the author of the acclaimed books, Critical Play and Values at Play in Digital Games.

I’m really interested in the ways in which we can use popular media forms to actually improve the way we get along with each other, and make the world a better place. We can do that with games because they’re so dynamic, because they allow the player choice and agency.

Future of Fantasy from Adrienne Maree Brown

Adrienne Maree Brown is the Co-Editor of Octavia’s Brood: Science Fiction from Social Justice Movements, as well as a pleasure activist, doula, healer, facilitator, and writer.

On Feminism in 40 Years

Figuring out our relationship to our womanness is going to be a new horizon. A lot of people in my community are using “they” and “them” pronouns instead of saying “she,” “her,” or “he,” “him.” I grew up in an environment where it was all about being a strong black woman – but I can now feel that slipping away from me. The woman part feels less and less important; the feminism part, and the humanism part, feels more and more important. I’m in a community with people who don’t uphold gender as a way to tie our power. So I’m curious: would this issue even exist in 40 years? What is a feminist future, a feminist view of the world in 40 years, decoupled from gender? Things are shifting so fast in my lifetime that I feel that is definitely possible.

The Future of Science

Rita J. King is Co-Director of Science House, a cathedral of the imagination in Manhattan. She is also a futurist, writer, and jewelry designer.

On the Next 100 Years

100 years from now, imaginations are going to be at the forefront far more than physical spaces. There will be a convergence between hardware and software and the emergence of bioware. One of the reasons I’m so interested in science and technology is becames of the ethics involved – right now, most of our technologies are external, but what does the code of ethics look like when the tech is inside our bodies? What happens when the boundaries between internal and external break down? What it means to be an individual is going to radically change and become far more dynamic and fluid.


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