Is it time to put the future out of our misery?

Design can be valuable as a forecasting tool, and designers are great hunter-gatherers of ideas. We should develop that role further.

But we should not just look ahead in time, and not just look for technology trends.

In particular, we should look to nature for inspiration: it has been innovating for three billion years.

We should also learn from other cultures beside western ones.

And we should learn more from the here and now. Inspiring things are happening just outside the door.

Read more in an article (5.4 Mb) written for the June Royal Society of Arts Journal.