An Example of Self-Amplification: How to Use the Butterfly Effect to Your Advantage I would like to share with you an example close to my heart of self-amplification, one of the gifts of chaos, better known as the butterfly effect: how to use the butterfly effect to surround yourself with reliable and trustworthy people. The […]
Growing Up, What a Pain! Feel like you have new problems in your life? This could be good news! Do you feel like you have the same problems in your life over and over again? This could be bad news… Indeed, each progress or evolution in our life brings its share of problems to a […]
My Mission When I meet a person who asks me what I do for a living, I usually answer: My mission is to convince people who are not yet convinced that we (humans) are going through an unprecedented transition in the history of humanity. And that this transition can be good news if we understand […]
The fear of becoming an old fart I’ve always been afraid of becoming an old fart. I have always been afraid of oldfarting! That would indeed be the ultimate shame for a futurist… The warning signs The main warning signs of oldfarting are quite easily recognized and I identified them very early on: I began […]
Emergence, The Universal Property That Shapes Us and our World! Two concepts work hand in hand: chaos, the scientific theory whereby unpredictability is the only predictable reality, and complexity, the process through which adaptation leads to evolution. Specifically, whereby chaos is about the unpredictable outcomes that develop when a butterfly flaps its wings in a remote area […]
Collapse or Breakthrough? As I describe in this article, chaos “is not a mess”, there is a hidden order in chaos: what is called a strange attractor. The theories of chaos can thus help us to identify the “patterns”, the orders hidden in the events which sometimes seem to us “chaotic” or without having direction. […]
Why Has the World Become Chaotic? A question I am often asked is, “Has the world become more chaotic? ” And besides, wasn’t it already before? The world, especially the natural world, has undoubtedly always presented chaotic aspects. Meteorology is a very good example. I observe that the human world has, on the other hand, […]
The Gifts of Chaos Chaos theories offer us 3 totally new and innovative tools. These 3 tools are: The strange attractor The Butterfly Effect Fractal images Let’s take a closer look at the butterfly effect. Edward Lorenz and the Weather Forecast Edward Lorenz, a mathematician and meteorologist working at MIT in 1961, used state-of-the-art computers […]
Create or/and clarify your dreams! As I have shown in this article, to create breakthroughs and good surprises in your life rather than collapses and unpleasant surprises, the theories of chaos teach us that it is important to have a beacon in the storm, a dream, a strange attractor. This is especially true in times […]
The gifts of chaos Chaos theories offer us 3 totally new and innovative tools. These 3 tools are: The strange attractor The Butterfly Effect Fractal images Today I would like to come back to the importance of the strange attractor, the least known of the three, very useful especially in the crisis situations that we […]
The 2 Mostly Asked Questions The 2 mostly asked questions I hear during these times of COVID crisis are: Is it going to come back as before? Will it be better afterward? Let’s have a look at these 2 questions with the help of Chaos Theory. Why Chaos Theory? Why Chaos Theory? Because it is one […]
Will it get better? I have just been interviewed by Alex Hickman from Project Sovereign. We had a conversation about the COVID crisis, and how it can (or can’t) accelerate the emergence of a new world. Will our life go back to “normal”? Is it going to get better? How can we thrive in uncertainty and […]
How Do I Process Information in a Chaotic World When I give a keynote, the public can usually ask questions after my talk. Questions fall into two types: Public questions asked when the public can speak and as a microphone goes from hand to hand Questions asked privately when the talk has ended and most attendees […]
What’s Next? The Lighthouse in The Storm In a previous article, I wrote that if the COVID crisis has started as a health crisis, the real crisis, partly still to come, will be social, political, and economic. It is also, like all crises, a question of meaning, that is to say also spiritual (in the […]
The Yesbut and the Letstry. I made my first trip around the world at 26 years old… and I then traveled to many countries (note for the youngest ones: before there were in the sky what is called airplanes and we didn’t care about our carbon footprint ..) Strangely, I met in almost all the […]
Crisis, What Crisis? As a specialist in chaos, uncertainty, crises, and resilience, I have read, reflected, consulted, talked a lot about the situation following the Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. I already shared my vision and insights with my family, extended family, and clients, and I decided to share with you my vision of the current situation as […]
The Meaning Of Life: Five Shades Of Meaning What is the meaning of life? The question may seem abstract and somehow removed. Yet, as many philosophical questions, this one has very practical effects. Depending on your answer, if you have any, you will have different ideas on what the “good life” is, what the “bad” […]
Who Are You? Where Do You Stand? A friend of mine told me an enlightening story. He was sharing a few beers with another friend of his. Suddenly, the pal asked: “who are you, where do you come from?” It was asked half-jokingly, half-seriously, as a sort of sh*t test—to borrow an Internet-spread expression. The […]
Two Ways Of Adapting To Uncertainty “What am I doing tonight?” “Is what I’m doing at work really useful?” “What is likely to happen on this or that market I have a keen interest in?” “What…?” A chaotic world is hugely characterized by uncertainty. If you start asking yourself some questions, even seemingly trivial ones […]
The Future of Cryptography and Cryptocurrencies in a previous article, Jean-Baptiste Prunel spoke about the 42 IT school, a ground-breaking school with neither classes nor teachers yet teaching through projects, trainings and the willingness to get the job done. We also spoke about Poleon.co, Jean-Baptiste’s first startup venture, which tried to track and predict a number […]
An Introduction To Chaos Engineering With Christophe Rochefolle Christophe and I have met for the first time in October 2017. He organized a meet-up on Chaos Engineering. To my delight, among the helpful reading list was my book Chaos, a User’s Guide, and Christophe was kind enough to invite me as well. He is a […]
The 42 IT School: in France’s First Nursery for IT Talents I met Jean-Baptiste Prunel at the Parisian IT school 42, on the sidelines of a conference I was invited to give there. If you haven’t heard about 42, don’t worry: the school opened only a few years ago and is still fairly new. And […]
Go-Bag: Get Ready to Leave Home in a Minute A chaotic world means more potential catastrophes and black swans at your doorstep. To be resilient, be prepared. Having a secure hideout is great, and I did the video below in my resilient home, but first, everyone doesn’t have the means to buy one, and second, […]
Come to Visit my Resilient Home In a chaotic world, fragility comes at too high a cost. If you are fragile, chances are you may get badly hurt. If another financial crisis comes in, a crisis so huge the banking system might tank, how will you pay for your expenses with a credit card and […]
Fractal Ethics This article draws from my book Chaos: a User’s Guide, chapter “The evolution of our cultures and our social relationships.” This article is the ultimate part of the “transcendental trilogy.” The two other parts allowed me to dwell on the True and the Beautiful. These three heads are more than predicates applied to […]
Beauty and the Fractal This article draws from my book Chaos, a User’s Guide, chapter “Our Species Is Evolving: And You? (Beauty)”. Remember assisting Beauty and the Beast when you were a child? Or, perhaps, as an adult? I do remember the 1991 Disney version. My smaller siblings enjoyed it, and they were right. Not […]
The Truth of a Fractal World This article draws from my book Chaos: a User’s Guide, chapter “The Collective: a more fractal society, institutions, learning and organizations?” In the second Matrix movie, the heroes Neo, Trinity and Morpheus venture to a restaurant unlike any other. Settled on top of a skyscraper, though seemingly fully enclosed, […]
The Futurist Monk’s Fractal Day Some of us follow a mostly rigid pattern through their days. Work, eat, sleep, repeat. A slight variation of that one—train, eat, sleep, repeat—has been fashionable among the fitness fans for years. Make your day revolve around great, well-defined steps, maintain the routine and that’s it. As you may have […]
Dreams, Rituals, Resilience: My podcast with Maria Franzoni I had a great time in this interview with Maria Franzoni. We had a lot fo fun! A good and easy way to discover my work… and to discover me 🙂 Listen to the podcast: This week Maria’s guest on the show is Bruno Marion. […]
The Evolution of Consciousness with John Perkins Today, on the occasion of the Meltingpot Forum where both of us were invited to speak, I met with John Perkins. He is a famous bestselling author in the US, and the least I can say is that he’s a colorful character. Referring to himself as an “economic […]
Change and Deception: the Future of Magic My guest is a young Frenchman who defines himself as an offbeat magician. His passion for sleights of the hand led him to become, not only a professional illusionist, but a keynote speaker on familiar themes such as change and creativity. Watch the Interview (in French) Off the […]
Discover The Futurist Monk’s Clothes The science-fiction tales of old were obsessed with going to space. In the 1950s, sci-fi writers imagined those of our times living in spacecrafts, bent on conquering the Milky Way. Men and women of the 2000s were supposed to stroll in shiny synthetic space suits. However, as enthralling as it […]
Go Further and Faster with Agility and Luc Taesch If you are into IT, you must have heard at least every now and then of the Agile development method. If your work is about something else, agility may sound unfamiliar—and perhaps it will come to you shortly. Unless you take a proactive approach to find […]
The Future of Public and Private Transportation with Gabriel Plassat Today, I have the pleasure to introduce you to a long-standing personal friend. If you are into transportation, which is a rather huge and important topic in an interconnected world, read on! Watch the Interview (in French) From Smaller To Larger Systems As a student, then trainee, […]
David Friml on the Future of AI David Friml is a young techy entrepreneur. He co-created a startup specializing in artificial intelligence (AI) with a bent towards automating tasks. I initially met with him to talk about the growth of machines and its effect on our jobs, but the encounter quickly shifted towards a more […]
The Future of Plastics with Jeannette Garcia I met with Jeannette Garcia in the aftermath of the Reaction Conference. This young lady is a living proof that, as the saying goes, value does not await the passing of years. Garcia makes a living as an engineer, a scientist, a researcher, has initiated a research program […]
Philippe Joannis on Conscious Leadership In his own words, Philippe Joannis is “a magician gone wrong.” Fueled by a youthful passion for prestidigitation, he spent his teenage and young adulthood years performing sleights of hands for many audiences. Then, willing for a more “serious” professional life, Philippe had himself hired by Apple to take the […]
Will Singularity Happen in 2217? On José Díez Faixat’s Neo-Neodarwinist Theory of Evolution Future is a broad theme. Most of the time an attempt to get it means going through the prism of one particular field or set of trends. For example, I once focused on the integration of children to the workplace, our little […]
Mario Varvoglis and the Future of Parapsychology (or Psychophysics) Unlike most futurists, I not only focus on technology, singularity, IT and economy. I also focus on what could bring a Consciousness Singularity.Today I would like to share something a bit different—something that has been laughed at, derided, hastily lumped together with the numerous kooks who […]
Marek Kempka on The Future of Shopping Just like me or Gerd Leonhard, Marek Kempka is a futurist. He started by studying chemistry and is now Director Shopper Technology Europe with Nielsen. Watch the Interview From Chemistry to Big Data When Marek Kempka got out of a high school in the 1990s, he was not sure of what […]
Gerd Leonhard on the Societal Impact of IoT Gerd Leonhard is a futurist, a lifelong familiar of IT, and a friend. He is one the the very few futurists that does not look at the future only through the technology aspects. And not unlike your humble servant, he tries to guess what the future holds […]
Luis Miguel Samperio About Neurocinematics And Empathy I met Luis Miguel Samperio in Madrid. Before we dive in, let me make an important point: I made a number of interviews with very different individuals throughout the world, and yet this one may be the most interesting and inspiring I ever did. Watch the Interview From […]
How Will Public Relations Evolve In The Five Years To Come ? As a futurist, I spend much time thinking about what technologies have the higher potential growth. The Internet of things (IoT) is a prime example of this. Yet, beyond technology, subtler issues affect more and more people daily. One of these is what has […]
Sam Yu and the challenges for a Secure Internet of Things I met Sam Yu in Seoul. A native Korean, Sam moved to the United States at age 17. He studied at the State University of San José and at the prestigious Stanford University where he got a Master degree in Engineering Management. Back in […]
Shawn SH Suh: How Hope and Change Saved my life! I met Shawn SH Suh in Seoul for this interview. Shawn is an amazing social business entrepreneur. He tells us how “Hope and Change” saved is life and how he is now changing other people’s life for the better. Watch the interview: From Suicidal […]
Ahmed Elsheikha and the Future of Change I met Ahmed Elsheikha in Cairo. He has an amazing personal history of successes and his views about the future of commerce, Egypt and Africa are very inspiring. He is dedicating his life to change. He is co-founder of Brimore, a very innovative business model to overcome the economical situation by […]
Lisanne Buik and the Future of Innovation, of Love and Relationships I met Lisanne Buik in Amsterdam. She has an amazing experience, sold her start-up and 25, travelled around the world and wrote a book about innovation! One of the most inspiring interview I made. And one of the longest 🙂 An embodied Futurist I live […]
Adriaan Wagenaar Helps Companies with Kids! I met Adriaan Wagenaar in Amsterdam. With Open Minds Open World Adriaan is helping companies to find new ideas, new products, new services with the help of kids. For the benefit of the companies, the school and the kids. This is one of the most futurist ideas and projects I have ever […]
Futurist Marcel Bullinga tells us about our future with Robots Marcel Bullinga is futurist based in Netherland. At the early stage of internet he had 2 out of 20 first websites in Netherland. He is now passionate about the impact of robots on our future. It’s Fun to be a Futurist these Days! it’s fun to […]
Benjamin Butler and the Emerging Future Benjamin Butler is a futurist, a friend an the founder of the Emerging Future Institute Benjamin shares with us his ruling about our near, and not so near future From the financial World to the Future I was born in the UK, educated in London. I had a career in […]
