Learn, Unlearn, Relearn: Alien Invasion
Every month on REFRAME Magazine, we tackle a Wicked Problem (a complex challenge that seems to grow worse with each attempt to solve it) and reframe it as a Wicked Opportunity (transformative visions of what is possible) by leveraging the tools within strategic foresight. We at The Futures School know that Wicked Problems are only seemingly impossible due to our outdated mindsets, and it’s up to us to Discover our assumptions and biases that preclude us from solving the problems.
Alien Invasion
The idea that aliens from distant planets are watching and visiting our world has increasingly captured humanity’s imagination. Fantastical stories of alien spaceships and civilizations reflect our curiosity surrounding the vast unknown of an infinite universe. However, these stories might conceal a darker myth about our fear of the “other.”
We define the Wicked Problem of Alien Invasion as the fear of external or unfamiliar influences that threaten to alter the homogeneous knowledge, beliefs and traditions of a community.
Alien Eyes
The Wicked Opportunity we call Alien Eyes is a mindset of embracing novel and unique ways of seeing the world as a means of challenging our outdated and antiquated mental models which are untenable in an environment of exponential complexity.
Content One
Listen to this week’s podcast to Discover the history of this wicked trope alongside Yvette and Frank.
Download the transcript here.
Content Two
As part of the Discover facet of the Natural Foresight® Framework (unconscious futures modeling), we introduce this NEW exercise that merges Fred Polack’s work from “The Image of the Future” with the idea of a mood board— the result is a new take on the “Where do You Stand” activity.
Your task is to place your personal image of the future within the collage. Use this link to add your Image of the Future for Alien Invasion / Alien Eyes to the Crowdsourced Mural.
The future covers an infinite spectrum, and you might have different mental images of what’s to come based on the situation, your experience, and even the timeframe.
Allow your creativity to take over, and place as many images and gifs on the collage as you’d like. Feel free to add sticky notes to provide context, to capture a potential future headline, or to provide your thoughts on the presented concepts.
