Collaborative Foresight: How to Game the Future
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Collaborative Foresight: How to Game the Future
This course is part of Futures Thinking Specialization
Instructor: Jane McGonigal
16,994 already enrolled
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What you'll learn
Design and run a multiplayer forecasting game
Game out hard-to-predict consequences in any future scenario
Anticipate long-term harms of new technologies and how to prevent them
Create diverse, inclusive futures thinking communities
Skills you'll gain
Tools you'll learn
Details to know
See how employees at top companies are mastering in-demand skills
Build your subject-matter expertise
- Learn new concepts from industry experts
- Gain a foundational understanding of a subject or tool
- Develop job-relevant skills with hands-on projects
- Earn a shareable career certificate
There are 5 modules in this course
You’ll never have a complete picture of what's possible in the future if you look at it from just one point of view. The best way to expand your vision? Engage as many people as you can, and “game out” the possibilities together.
In this course, you’ll learn how to use collaborative gaming techniques to go beyond your own thinking and see many, many different sides of the same future. Over the past decade, the Institute for the Future has pioneered new methods in “massively-multiplayer foresight.” You’ll learn how to adapt these methods to get diverse, surprising views of what’s possible, build your empathy for other people’s futures, and reduce your risk of being “blindsided” by the future. This course features content from the Ethical Operating System, a tool created by the Institute in collaboration with Omidyar Networks’ Tech and Society Lab. It’s designed to help technology companies anticipate risks and prevent unwanted consequences of the things they build. Whether or not you work in tech, the Ethical Operating System will give you the chance to participate right now in an urgent future forecasting game. The stakes of the game are the future of truth, privacy, democracy, security, and our collective well-being. It’s a unique opportunity to join creative and strategic forces with people who are making the tech that’s inventing the future, and with fellow futures thinkers like you. Many thanks to the Enlight Foundation and the Enlight Collaborative, which provided a grant to support the creation of this course.
Welcome to Collaborative Foresight. Shall we play a game? This week, you'll learn the basics: What is a future forecasting game? How do you run one? And who should you invite to play? At the end of the week, you'll choose your own future scenario that you think would make for a great game.
What's included
4 videos7 readings1 peer review2 discussion prompts
4 videos•Total 34 minutes
- Welcome to this course - Meet your professor, Jane McGonigal•2 minutes
- Why the Future is Like a Game•6 minutes
- Expert Gaming Versus Everyone Gaming•15 minutes
- Example of a Massively Multiplayer Forecasting Game•11 minutes
7 readings•Total 68 minutes
- Take a two-minute survey about the future!•2 minutes
- Collaborative Foresight Skills Brief: Your "cheat sheet" for this course•15 minutes
- Important notice for Collaborative Foresight learners•1 minute
- Asteroid Scenario: Day 1 Press Release•5 minutes
- Asteroid Scenario: Day 5 Press Release•5 minutes
- Asteroid Scenario: Day 5 Briefing/Results•15 minutes
- Forecasting Games (Excerpt from Reality is Broken)•25 minutes
1 peer review•Total 60 minutes
- Create a scenario for your own game•60 minutes
2 discussion prompts•Total 30 minutes
- Introduce yourself!•10 minutes
- Asteroid Incoming! What would YOU do?•20 minutes
How can you spin up a new forecasting game, fast? This week, you'll learn how to use a future wheel to collect lots of surprising ideas from many different people. You'll be challenged to game out five different scenarios using the future wheel platform. And, of course, you'll have the chance to design your own future wheel! Let's play!
What's included
3 videos2 readings1 assignment1 peer review1 discussion prompt
3 videos•Total 21 minutes
- What's a Future Wheel?•9 minutes
- Examples of Surprising Consequences•5 minutes
- 5 Scenarios to Game Out•7 minutes
2 readings•Total 55 minutes
- TOOL: Future Wheel•10 minutes
- Ethical Operating System•45 minutes
1 assignment•Total 5 minutes
- Future Wheel Basics•5 minutes
1 peer review•Total 60 minutes
- Play a Future Wheel and Share Your Results•60 minutes
1 discussion prompt•Total 10 minutes
- What change or event would you put at the center of YOUR future wheel?•10 minutes
Let's add another tool to your gaming toolkit. This week, you'll learn about positive and shadow imagination. What is it, and how can it help you run a successful future forecasting game? While you're practicing this new skill, get ready to take a deep dive on two exciting future topics: the future of space settlement and the future of neurosensing social networks!
What's included
4 videos6 readings1 assignment1 peer review1 discussion prompt
4 videos•Total 42 minutes
- Two Sides of Every Future•11 minutes
- The Future of Empathy•12 minutes
- SCENARIO: The FeelThat Network•12 minutes
- Advanced Positive and Shadow Imagination•7 minutes
6 readings•Total 95 minutes
- Why Thousands of People are Willing to Die on Mars•20 minutes
- The Case Against Going to Mars•5 minutes
- Would it Be Ethical to Colonize Mars?•5 minutes
- Future of Reading and Writing the Brain•15 minutes
- Future of Mind and Body Technology•30 minutes
- OPTIONAL: Results from the Feel That Future Forecasting Game•20 minutes
1 assignment•Total 10 minutes
- the Future of Empathy Technologies•10 minutes
1 peer review•Total 45 minutes
- Use Positive and Shadow Imagination•45 minutes
1 discussion prompt•Total 15 minutes
- Should we settle Mars?•15 minutes
This week you'll get to practice two more tools for seeing the future from massively many points of view: Leading-Edge interviews and the Four Future Feelings tool. Get ready to meet new people and organize your own playful conversations about the future!
What's included
3 videos4 readings1 peer review1 discussion prompt
3 videos•Total 31 minutes
- Mini-Masterclass: How to Find Leading Edge Behaviors•7 minutes
- How to Explore Four Future Feelings (Part 1)•6 minutes
- How to Explore Four Future Feelings (Part 2)•18 minutes
4 readings•Total 55 minutes
- 5 Questions to Start a Conversation About the Future•5 minutes
- Leading Edge Behaviors in Social Virtual Reality•25 minutes
- BONUS: Voices from the Leading Edge of Work•15 minutes
- TOOL: Explore Four Future Feelings•10 minutes
1 peer review•Total 60 minutes
- Explore Four Future Feelings•60 minutes
1 discussion prompt•Total 15 minutes
- What's a leading edge behavior YOU are interested in?•15 minutes
You've created and played a future forecasting game. Now what? This week, you'll learn how to take your game findings and propose innovative solutions to our most urgent challenges today. You'll also get everything you need to organize and play one more kind of futures thinking game: The Equitable Futures Card game. Ready, set... win!
What's included
6 videos3 readings1 peer review2 discussion prompts
6 videos•Total 34 minutes
- What's an Epic Win?•8 minutes
- Epic Wins from the Future of Technology•8 minutes
- Tips on Creating Epic Wins•2 minutes
- How to Play the Equitable Futures Card Game (Part 1)•5 minutes
- How to Play the Equitable Future Card Game (Part 2)•8 minutes
- Congratulations on finishing the course!•2 minutes
3 readings•Total 47 minutes
- Epic Wins from the Future of Tech•20 minutes
- TOOL: Equitable Futures Card Game•25 minutes
- An invitation to join our free Alumni Network•2 minutes
1 peer review•Total 60 minutes
- Design your own Equitable Futures card deck•60 minutes
2 discussion prompts•Total 25 minutes
- What problem do you think needs an epic win?•10 minutes
- What's your biggest "a ha" moment from this course?•15 minutes
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Reviewed on Nov 14, 2022
Absolutely loved it. I loved the Four Futures Feeling tool. It is great for helping you think outside your default parameters.
Reviewed on Jul 12, 2020
Very good course, But the review takes some time. Waiting for the review result make us unrestful. Good. Happy to move forward
Reviewed on Jan 7, 2022
wonderful courses throughout - super informative, thought-provoking and helpful to proactively shape the future
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