Futures Conversation 2023
The in-person Futures Conversation (FCx) on 1 September 2023 focused on the theme of “Ways of Seeing: Narratives Amidst Uncertainty”, which explored how societies construct meaning in today’s chaotic information landscape. FCx 2023 pursued three lines of inquiry, namely:
The blurring of realities due to new media and technologies and its implications;
How institutions should respond to uncertainty; and
Reconciling grand and small narratives in meaning-making
Participants included:
Dave Snowden, Founder and Chief Scientific Officer of the Cynefin Co
Venkatesh Rao, independent researcher, consultant, author of “Tempo” (a book about decision-making), as well as founder of the Ribbonfarm blog
Benjamin Bratton, Professor of Philosophy of Technology and Speculative Design at University of California, San Diego and Director of Antikythera, a think-tank on the speculative philosophy of computation at the Berggruen Institute
Peter Schwartz, Senior Vice-President, Strategic Planning at Salesforce
Mick Costigan, Vice-President, Salesforce Futures
Cho-Oon Khong, Associate Fellow at Said Business School and former Chief Political Analyst at Shell
Hafiz Rashid, Museum docent, and expert on narratives in the Malay World
Cissie Fu, Head, McNally School of Fine Arts and Co-Founder of the Political Arts Initiative, focusing on ways in which people interact and compose political ideas and actions through technology and the arts. Also works on organizational design
Cheong Koon Hean, Chair of the Lee Kuan Yew Centre for Innovative Cities, Professor of Practice at the Singapore University of Technology and Design, and concurrently Chairman of the Centre for Liveable Cities
Simon Chesterman, Dean of NUS College and Faculty of Law, Expert on AI regulation and governance
Aaron Maniam, Fellow of Practice and Director of Digital Transformation Education at Oxford University’s Blavatnik School of Government
Lin Suling, Straits Times Opinion Editor