Futures Seminars

The Copenhagen Institute for Futures Studies hosts freely accessible online Futures Seminars exploring the topics covered in FARSIGHT. Watch our most recent streams below and follow us on social media for updates on upcoming seminars.

Have you ever wondered how we might calculate the ‘size’ of the future? How might we use exploratory engineering to determine what technologies are actually plausible in the future? And with the truly long-view in mind, are there specific things humanity ought to coordinate about? In this Futures Seminar, Junior Editor August Leo Liljenberg is joined by Dr Anders Sandberg, a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Oxford’s Future of Humanity Institute (FHI) for a discussion on how grand the future could possibly become.

Head of Publications Casper Skovgaard Petersen is joined by Future Generations Commissioner for Wales, Sophie Howe, and Associate Professor of conservation biology at the University of Hong Kong, Dr Alice Hughes, for a conversation about the practicalities of implementing the interests of future generations into policymaking, as well as a critique of the supposed looming threat of ‘overpopulation’ amid biodiversity decline and climate change.

Marking the release of Visions of a Connected Future, Junior Editor August Leo Liljenberg is joined by AI-Artist Cecilie Waagner Falkenstrøm and tenure-track Assistant Professor Daniel Hershcovich in discussing the societal consequences of rapid technological advancements in artificial intelligence.

Featuring live Q&As with Adjunct Professor Katrin Nyman-Metcalf of TalTech about the increasingly adversarial geopolitics of outer space, and Timothy Shoup, one of the lead authors of the recent issue of FARSIGHT.

To mark the release of Futures for the Living World we were joined by eco-psychologist Pella Thiel in discussing whether or not the exploitation of the natural world can be reduced by providing it with legal personhood. Our discussion with Pella is followed by a conversation between our Head of Publications, Casper Skovgaard Petersen and resident futurist, Martin Kruse, on the attitudes Danes have towards the climate.

In celebration of FARSIGHT’s launch, our Futures Seminar “Entering the New Age of Work” featured author Jonathan Malesic who discussed whether the ‘end of burnout’ is in sight, as well as resident futurist Tamira Snell in examining the demands new generations will make of their employers, and how workplaces might change as a result.

In February 2022 we released our last SCENARIO Report – a survey of 15 megatrends shaping the future. Using the report as our vantage point, this seminar dives into some of the major and interconnected global changes and challenges we see on the horizon and adresses how we can use megatrends to see the long-term picture through the short-term fog of uncertainty.