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In 1909, H.G Wells predicted that aerial warfare would nullify the protection provided by geographical distance to the front line. His prediction has been borne out by the cheap, ready-to-use drones of contemporary conflicts in Europe and the Middle East, serving a lesson for technological foresight. Subscribe to FARSIGHT by becoming at the Institute. Author: Christian Kaarup Baron Narration: August Leo Liljenberg (with ElevenLabs AI) Published by the Copenhagen Institute for Future Studies

In the 14th century, Ibn Khaldûn opined that history moves in a cyclical formation, governed by the deterioration and rebirth of dynasties and civilisations. Other macrohistorians since have attempted to parse the rhythm of history. Grand historical narratives promise a future we can see coming. That is both their attraction and their defect. Subscribe to FARSIGHT by becoming a Futures Member at the Institute. Author: Casper Skovgaard Petersen Narration: August Leo Liljenberg (with ElevenLabs AI) Published by the Copenhagen Institute for Futures Studies

The history of ideas is a history of error. Prominent scientists once believed people lived on the surface of suns — a view we now find absurd. But folly comes in many forms, and its history may be less a catalogue of embarrassments than an unlikely guide to how far we have yet to go. Subscribe to FARSIGHT by becoming a Futures Member at the Institute Author: Thomas Moynihan Narrator: August Leo Liljenberg (with ElevenLabs AI) Published by the Copenhagen Institute for Futures Studies

The 20th century French philosopher Gilbert Simondon believed that humankind harbours a primitive and xenophobic attitude to the technologies it creates. Today, we are surrounded by conversations about acceleration and automation, with the philosopher’s thought offering a uniquely provocative take on alienation in the future Subscribe to FARSIGHT by becoming a Futures Member at the Institute Author: August Leo Liljenberg Narrator: August Leo Liljenberg Published by the Copenhagen Institute for Future Studies

On the long history and possible future of Europe's uneasy relationship to American automation. Subscribe to FARSIGHT by becoming a Futures Member at the Institute. Author: Tallulah Richards Narration: August Leo Liljenberg (with ElevenLabs AI) Published by the Copenhagen Institute for Futures Studies

After a long summer break, FARSIGHT co-hosts Casper and August get meta with the Swedish superfuturist, Anders Sandberg, in the studio, reflecting on the future of their profession. What kinds of societal conditions give rise to successful futurists? How has the role of the futurist changed over the past few decades? In what ways might using AI in futures studies either aid (or inhibit) the core tenets of working with the unknown? Hosts: Casper Skovgaard Petersen & August Leo Liljenberg Guest: Anders Sandberg Subscribe to FARSIGHT by becoming a Futures Member at the Institute Published by the Copenhagen Institute for Futures Studies

As generative AI disrupts the balance between effort and reward in writing and creativity, shame nevertheless remains at work, as a hidden mechanism of social control. Might a cultural backlash to generative AI cause widespread 'chat-shaming', and if so, how? Written and narrated by Toke Hanghøj Subscribe to FARSIGHT by becoming a Futures Member at the Institute. Published by the Copenhagen Institute for Futures Studies.

AI promises a pornography without abuse, without performers, without limits – and, apparently, without much imagination. Might the biggest disappointment of AI porn be how boring it is? This article was first featured in Issue 17: The Future of Vice. Subscribe to FARSIGHT by becoming a Futures Member at the Institute. Author: Josh Sims Narration: August Leo Liljenberg (with ElevenLabs AI) Published by the Copenhagen Institute for Futures Studies.

Expectations are that AI will automate a significant percentage of the knowledge economy’s workforce and make their jobs redundant. We dig into the futurist toolbox to interrogate this assumption – punctuated by a provocative scenario snippet from 2030. Subscribe to FARSIGHT by becoming a Futures Member at the Institute Author: Toke Hanghøj Narration: August Leo Liljenberg (with ElevenLabs AI) Published by the Copenhagen Institute for Futures Studies

Writing in the ruins of post-war Europe, Dutch futurist Fred Polak argued that societies rise and fall based on the vitality of their images of the future. By that measure, he believed, Western civilization was headed for terminal decline. In his 1953 masterwork The Image of the Future, Polak traced how magnetic visions of tomorrow, whether religious or revolutionary, had pulled history forward since the ancient Greeks. Without them, he warned, civilizations stagnate and collapse. Who was Fred Polak, and how well does his sweeping and pessimistic diagnosis of the modern world stand the test of time? Subscribe to FARSIGHT by becoming a⁠⁠⁠ Futures Member⁠⁠⁠ at the Institute. Hosts: Casper Skovgaard Petersen, August Leo Liljenberg, Tallulah Richards Published by the ⁠⁠⁠Copenhagen Institute for Futures Studies

From the utopian ideals of LSD in the sixties to the grunge-infused nihilism of heroin in the nineties, culture and intoxication seem to have always mirrored each other. Might uncovering the nebulous relationship between drug and zeitgeist help us predict our future high? Subscribe to FARSIGHT by becoming a Futures Member at the Institute. Author: August Leo Liljenberg Narration: August Leo Liljenberg (with ElevenLabs AI) Published by the Copenhagen Institute for Futures Studies

Time and technology are inextricably linked. For the first time since the Industrial Revolution, doing things slowly, inefficiently, and without precision looks existentially preferable. The Information Age is replacing sloth with speed as its new Deadly Sin. Subscribe to FARSIGHT by becoming a Futures Member at the Institute Author: Caitlin van Bommel Narration: Manya Lind (with ElevenLabs AI) Published by the Copenhagen Institute for Futures Studies

Mysticism meets Big Oil in the tale of Pierre Wack, the eccentric French economist who brought scenario planning to the corporate world during the geopolitically turbulent 1970s. Then, as today, a war in the Middle East upset global energy markets, showing the limitations of traditional forecasting. Yet not everyone was equally unprepared. Wack and his team of scenario planners at Royal Dutch Shell had highlighted the risks to Big Oil constituted by the rise of OPEC, public and political backlash to the industry, and other vulnerabilities ahead of the 1973 oil crisis. The story of how Wack and Shell were able to use scenarios to navigate the global shake-up of capitalism has become the mythologised origin point of corporate foresight. Yet Wack’s obsession with the mystical dimensions of scenario writing – his “spiritual documents” – is often glossed over. Subscribe to FARSIGHT by becoming a⁠⁠ Futures Member⁠⁠ at the Institute. Hosts: Casper Skovgaard Petersen, August Leo Liljenberg, Tallulah Richards Published by the ⁠⁠Copenhagen Institute for Futures Studies

Mythical stories of future doom have been supplanted by scientifically grounded ones, with the interconnectedness and complexity of our world-system pushing us closer towards a scenario of inescapable global collapse. Subscribe to FARSIGHT by becoming a Futures Member at the Institute. Author: Christian Kaarup Baron Narration: August Leo Liljenberg (with ElevenLabs AI) Published by the Copenhagen Institute for Futures Studies

Theories that inaccurately observe the present will inevitably fall short in predicting the future. Yet, our dominant frameworks for understanding international relations remain anchored in assumptions about power and sovereignty that no longer hold. If we want to grasp where geopolitics is actually heading, we need a new lens. Dr Parag Khanna argues that lens is entropy: the accelerating dispersal and dissipation of power across the geopolitical sphere, a patchwork of overlapping powers, jurisdictions, and alliances, similar to medieval Europe before the Westphalian concept of the nation state. Khanna is a global strategic advisor and the founder and CEO of AlphaGeo, an AI-powered geospatial analytics platform. In this episode, we explore his theory of the coming entropic world order, the relationship between cartography and epistemology, and which nations are best positioned to deal with the climate disruptions ahead. Subscribe to FARSIGHT in print by becoming a ⁠⁠⁠Futures Member⁠⁠⁠ at the Institute. Hosts: Casper Skovgaard Petersen & August Leo Liljenberg Published by the ⁠⁠⁠Copenhagen Institute for Futures Studies