Thoughts in stimulating future idea

The latest @Hamburg Futures Network was great, as we both talked about the role of games in
futures thinking, and then played one – “Thing From the Future”.
The concept is relatively simple – There are four categories (Archetype, Terrain, Object, Mood). Each
category has a pile of cards, and each card has one word written on it. One card is randomly selected
from each category, and the job of the players is to combine the words into a “Thing from the
Future” – something that does not exist today, and indeed, which may never exist.
Three things strike me after our little experiment today:

1. Very often quite deep emotions were attached to the “thing” that individuals created. Given
that emotions shape our world views and choices much more than facts, this makes me
wonder if we can tap that to counteract some of the more lunatic narratives running around
the world right now.

2. We often referred to films or other sources of popular fiction to describe a part of what we
were presenting as being the “thing from the future”, or at least to describe how we viewed
it.

3. We agreed that a slightly different set of cards could really be useful when applied to a
particular problem. For instance, one pile containing mobility related words could be linked
to a pile containing particular locations in a local area, and then also with archetype and
mood, and hey presto, we could have some interesting discussions about how to re-design
mobility in a local area…

In any case thanks to @Kai for having brought the cards and inspiring us to play, and @Stewart
Candy for having developed the game (ages since we last met Stewart in Singapore!).
#Strategy #Foresight #Games