The Dragonfly’s Pact with the Future
As many of you are probably aware, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Pact for the Future, an inter-governmentally negotiated and action-oriented agreement which U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres described as a “step-change towards more effective, inclusive, networked multilateralism.” This landmark pact was part of the larger Summit of the Future held in New York City that “brought world leaders together to forge a new international consensus on how we deliver a better present and safeguard the future.” The summit was attended by Futures Thinking and Foresight professionals from around the world who held various parallel events to bring awareness to the need for anticipatory governance, and many of whom helped to construct the details of the pact in advance of the gathering. Most certainly, a hearty and enthusiastic congratulations are in order. And now the real work begins – acting upon and implementing the pathways laid out in this groundbreaking document. However, that’s not where the story begins.
F𝗼𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸 𝗯𝘆 𝗶𝘁𝘀𝗲𝗹𝗳 – 𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗰𝗶𝗳𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗼𝗳 𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 𝗼𝘂𝘁𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲𝘀 – 𝗶𝘀𝗻’𝘁 𝗮 𝗺𝗮𝗴𝗶𝗰 𝗯𝘂𝗹𝗹𝗲𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝗲𝗻𝗮𝗰𝘁 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗹, 𝗹𝗮𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗻𝘀𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻.
fROM “DOING” TO “BEING” AND “bECOMING”
There’s a critically important element that precedes the “doing” of the hopes and dreams laid out in the Pact for the Future, and that’s the “being” and “becoming” of Futures Consciousness – the soul-shift, heart-shift, and mind-shift that alters our perspective about imagination, anticipation, co-creation, emergence, the human experience, and the sacred work we need to engage in to manifest transformational realities.
In order to truly transform the world away from our dominant narrative of extraction, exploitation, and extrapolation, we must first focus on internal and interstitial transformation, as opposed to emphasizing incremental or exponential actions. This means that the “who” and “what” of futures thinking and foresight (our philosophical approach to futuring) takes precedence over the “where,” “when,” and “how” of organizational, governmental, and societal change. In a world enamored with speedily producing efficiency, productivity, growth, evaluation, and evidence, I realize that this is an alien suggestion. Nonetheless, the only way to manifest the amazing hope in the pact is to first alter souls, hearts, and minds – the only place that change truly occurs.
This is not to say that philosophers, academics, and practitioners haven’t already written a good deal on the way we think about the future, and how those various ways impact our practice of foresight. Having spent decades in the field of foresight and futures, I’m familiar with many of the various pieces of work that aim to transform our worldview from that of separation to a more cosmic symbiosis,
However, in recent years, there has been both an increase of those concerned about the who and what of foresight, and at the same time a dichotomous increase of foresight as a means to making our present system more resilient.
In other words, futures and foresight has been increasingly defined by, co-opted by, reduced by, and shrunk by the dominant narrative of extraction and exploitation, instead of being grounded in and inspired by its biological, psychological, and sacred nature, which yields a more generative and transformative way of seeing, being, and becoming. It’s out of the matrix of the latter that we can realize transformation for the world.
Reading the Pact for the Future, you will find these familiar concepts used to describe the implementation of foresight and futures thinking:
- Leverage data and statistics
- Ensure evidence based decision-making
- Strengthen systems of national and global accounting
- Promote impact assessments
- Develop stronger risk analysis
- Encourage the use of measures of progress
- Complement Gross Domestic Product
- Prepare for global shocks and crisis
- Develop implementation and evaluation of policies that safeguard needs
I certainly understand why these ideas seem not only like important approaches, but also like the most logical ways to achieve the powerful purpose of the pact, to create the “promise of a better, more peaceful and prosperous future for people and the planet.” Moreover, I’m not suggesting that the hard work that went into creating that pact – much of it from friends and associates that I greatly respect – isn’t incredibly needful, motivational, and beneficial. However, I am reminded of a quote that I share with clients whenever I get the chance, “A new vision requires a new way of measuring.”
And I’m certainly not alone in advocating that “being” and “becoming” must be forerunners of “doing” if we are to escape the gravity well of dominant narratives.
“No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it.” Albert Einstein
“But to tear down a factory or to revolt against a government or to avoid repair of a motorcycle because it is a system is to attack effects rather than causes; and as long as the attack is upon effects only, no change is possible. The true system, the real system, is our present construction of systematic thought itself, rationality itself, and if a factory is torn down but the rationality which produced it is left standing, then that rationality will simply produce another factory. If a revolution destroys a systematic government, but the systematic patterns of thought that produced that government are left intact, then those patterns will repeat themselves in the succeeding government. There’s so much talk about the system. And so little understanding.” Robert M. Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
“In my inquiry into crisis over the last few months, I have come to realize that pathways to viable futures may depend less upon solving a crisis than freeing ourselves from the hold that the idea of crisis has on our minds. If we are stuck in crisis, we may need to let the idea of crisis go, or at least relegate it somehow. All of which is to say that there is also an imperative to start to move beyond crisis perception and mentality toward a more discerning relationship with the world… This subtle claim highlights why so much talk about ‘systems change’ is frankly bogus. Until we can see that systems are awash with emotions and epistemologies, there is little hope of really changing them. Again, we need to stand back, but also look within and see beyond… The point is not that political problems have spiritual roots and therefore spiritual solutions, but that political problems arise in a cultural context with spiritual dimensions, and without attending to them we will continue to flounder.” Jonathan Rowson, Prefixing the Crisis
In other words, foresight that operates from the previously listed bullet-points of “system-oriented thinking” that produced those problems in the first place will only exacerbate the problems it claims to address.
Without transforming souls, hearts, and minds, no foresight method or tool is going to stop the system from simply resurrecting itself again and again. And yes, you read me and Pirsig correctly – thinking in systems may be popular in the foresight field and elsewhere, but it’s systematic thinking itself that actually keeps us from moving inside, between, and beyond. This is why many of today’s most impactful philosophers have spoken against ALL systems as being non-generative by the very nature of being a system, period.
From the foundations of a different narrative – one that fosters a healthy individuation that unlocks a “We, Us, and All of Us” (biome, planetary, cosmos) perspective that produces futures of diverse integration and intentional evolutionary consciousness, we would likely see very different trends and issues that were inherently generative, regenerative, pluriversal, transrational, and co-creatively empowering. (In other words, a different context produces a different outcome, and a different matrix gives birth to different metrics.) What technologies might emerge in such a world, and for what purpose? What governance models would emerge, and how would we even define governance? What, why, and how is learning defined? What would the “human experience” look like from such a perspective? What questions might be asked in such a narrative that we can’t even think to ask within today’s specious and illusory way of life?
To that end, we began increasingly sharing several years ago about the futures philosophy of Holoptic Foresight Dynamics – the cooperative evolutionary trait of perceiving emerging novelty that fosters the co-creation of transformational realities – and we even launched the Transformations of Natural Foresight® retreat in 2022 as a vehicle to unlock this shared universal dynamic of care, empathy, diversity, collaboration, and love within all who are ready to move beyond futuring as a systemic method, and into futuring as a cooperative, life-giving consciousness. Such a foundation makes all the difference in the world, liberating us from the efficient tyranny of circular “doing” into the kinship, the relational emergence, the meadowverse, the pluriversiality, and the cosmovision of “being” and “becoming.” With such a foundation, our work becomes human, symbiotic, meaningful, spiritual, and aligns with a reality outside of our delusory system. As a matter of fact, we had an amazing Transformations of Natural Foresight 2024 retreat from September 16-19, and now we want to invite you to jump into The Dragonfly Journey in the weeks ahead as we expand this important way of engaging the future!
What is The Dragonfly Journey, and How Can You Get Involved?
Even though this year’s retreat has ended, the dragonfly’s cooperative evolutionary trait of perceiving the emergence of transformational realities filled with care, hope, and love has only just begun.
• The Dragonfly Journey is an expansion of our learning ecosystem that focuses on Holoptic Foresight Dynamics as a heart and soul-centered foundation for a “holoptic” or “whole eyed” perspective – like the eye of the dragonfly that is made of thousands of individual nodes coming together to cover the entire head. Such an eye exponentially enhances the visual acuity of the dragonfly, allowing it to see up, down, forwards, backwards, side-to-side, ALL AT AT THE SAME TIME. This holoptic eye unlocks the dragonfly’s ability to perceive time as practically standing still, granting it the gift of seeing events unfold at the moment they begin to emerge. Humans don’t have such a physical holoptic eye, but we ARE imbued with the evolutionary trait of chronesthesia – the capability to perceive ourselves in alternative times, spaces, and experiences, as well as the ability to imagine the transformative dynamics of those experiences. When that ability is “swarmed” through collective, cooperative, and co-creative intentionality, it unlocks the evolutionary trait of imaginal anticipation in our species.
• Like the dragonfly, humanity’s evolutionary “holoptic eye” allows us to do more than simply mitigate, manage, measure, analyze, assess, evaluate, plan, and prepare for the future – it allows us to sense, feel, intuit, and imagine “what wants to emerge” for the health of the symbiotic whole. This is much different than our industrial age interpretation of foresight as another measurement tool for efficiency, productivity, and crisis avoidance. Instead, a “holoptic foresight” perspective awakens the life-giving embodiment of transformative awe, wonder, and enchantment that our soulless systems of extraction work tirelessly to suppress.
• Remember the thousands of parts that make up the “whole-eyed” vision of the dragonfly? This gift of imaginal anticipation is ONLY REALIZED THROUGH THE COLLECTIVE, COOPERATIVE, AND CO-CREATIVE. Our modern focus on and fascination with individualism is a toxic anti-life equation. Evolution is primarily cooperative, meaning that transformational change takes place through cooperative dynamics – the mutual interaction toward the interconnected good. Like the dragonfly’s holoptic eye that only manifests its amazing capabilities by combining thousands of individual parts into an ever emerging whole, humanity can only sense, feel, intuit, and imagine what wants to emerge for greater symbiotic and cosmic health through the learning, unlearning, and relearning of the cooperative whole. The diverse parts speak to the healthy emergence of the “whole”, and the whole as an emerging entity in turn communicates to the diverse parts what is needed for imaginal anticipation.
Now that you have been introduced to the dragonfly and her incredible journey into cooperative evolutionary transformational futuring, we are excited to invite you to join us in an extended online community of practice known as The Dragonfly Journey. This year-long journey will consist of six 90-minute gatherings in which we will learn more about the importance of Holoptic Foresight Dynamics in giving birth to transformational realities; hear from those who have attended a previous Transformations of Natural Foresight retreat and how it has altered the way they perceive and practice foresight; discuss previously recorded interviews with philosophers and activists whose voices build upon an HFD perspective; build a database together of books, articles, and music that express an HFD spirit; and co-construct the next Transformations of Natural Foresight retreat.
Our first gathering of The Dragonfly Journey will take place December 10, 2024 at 2-3:30 pm (UTC -5), and will be open to the public. During this event, TFSX co-founder Frank Spencer will give a brief introduction to Holoptic Foresight Dynamics, and detail the agenda for the community of practice during 2025. We will also hear from retreat alumni, participate in Q&A, and share how you can subscribe to the next 12 months of The Dragonfly Journey. To attend this free event, register here.
Join us on Dec 10th if you are you ready to liberate foresight and futures thinking from extraction, exploitation, extrapolation, and exponentiality, and reframe “imaginal anticipation” as an ancestral, ecological, symbiotic, co-creative, “many-eyed whole” that generates a fundamental shift in the human experience.
References:
- United Nations Summit of the Future
- Holoptic Foresight Dynamics®️
- Holoptic Media Reading List
- Transformations of Natural Foresight®️
Frank Spencer
Co-Founder
Creative Director
In 2009, Frank founded Kedge – a global foresight, innovation, and strategic design firm which pioneered TFSX. Throughout his career, Frank has worked as a leadership coach and developer with entrepreneurs, social communities, networking initiatives, and SMEs, helping them in areas such as development, innovation, and networking.
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