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FUTURE OF XYZ is a bi-weekly interview series that explores big questions about where we are as a world and where we’re going. Through candid conversations with international experts, visionary leaders and courageous changemakers- we provoke new thinking about what's coming down the pipeline on matters related to art & design, science & innovation, culture & creativity.
Future of XYZ is presented by iF Design, a respected member of the international design community and host of the prestigious iF DESIGN AWARD since 1953. The show is also a proud member of the SURROUND Podcast Network. For more information, visit ifdesign.com/XYZ.
00:00:04:00 - 00:00:16:24
Speaker 1
Hello and welcome to this week's episode of future of XYZ. We are speaking about the future of foresight with Radha Mistry. Radha, thank you so much for being with us on future of XYZ today.
00:00:17:00 - 00:00:20:07
Speaker 2
Thank you so much for having me. I'm thrilled to be here.
00:00:20:09 - 00:00:44:16
Speaker 1
Well, I'm really excited about this episode because, first and foremost, you were recently promoted at Arup. Arup is a global design and engineering consultancy. You were recently promoted to associate principal and head of foresight. thought leadership there. you've been in the foresight to business, trending in in industry, I guess, for a very long time.
00:00:44:17 - 00:01:11:10
Speaker 1
You have your Bachelors of Architecture and your Masters of architecture from Tulane, and an Ma from Central Saint Martins. You're based in LA. You've taught, classes in futures design and transdisciplinary design and, and a number of other things at various universities in California and elsewhere. so I'm excited to talk about the future foresight, especially because it's coming on the back side of two days ago.
00:01:11:10 - 00:01:23:23
Speaker 1
iF Design, who I work for and who presents this podcast. We released our annual fifth annual in this case Trend Report. so it's very timely. so again, Radha, thank you so much for being here.
00:01:24:00 - 00:01:25:09
Speaker 2
Of course. Of course.
00:01:25:11 - 00:01:38:23
Speaker 1
We're going to start like we always start future of XYZ with defining the topic at hand. And in this case the topic is foresight. So given the context of today's conversation your expertise how do we define foresight.
00:01:39:00 - 00:02:11:12
Speaker 2
So I like to think about foresight as a, as a structured approach to thinking about the future, to kind of getting a sense of what's really, you know, all of the possible kind of pathways forward, being able to frame out the, the kind of widest focal lens, maybe focal view of the expansive possibility. So, and then to have to be able to rely on tools and methodologies that we have pulled from lots of other fields as well, to then develop a point of view on what does a particular future mean for us?
00:02:11:12 - 00:02:29:02
Speaker 2
What might we do about it? How might affect us, and then how do we prepare for it? And of course, that, you know, blends itself into other disciplines and practices as well. but I really like to say it's not about prediction, it's more about provocation. And I think that becomes really, really important in this conversation as well.
00:02:29:04 - 00:02:47:20
Speaker 1
Oh, I like that. I like the provocation, very much. So I started to, apply something that I assumed to your resume when I was introducing you. How is, foresight different from either trend casting, trend tracking, or even forecasting?
00:02:47:22 - 00:03:15:09
Speaker 2
Yeah. so I will say I think the easiest distinction to make is between trend casting and, like trend analysis, market research. I like to talk about trends is like it's giving you a snapshot of the present and it's giving you perhaps the most probable pathway forward. so we have this, this framework that we call the futures cone in foresight and future studies at large.
00:03:15:09 - 00:03:35:14
Speaker 2
And I, I would like to say that like situating foresight in this wider discourse. We do sit under the umbrella of futures practice and futures study. So the adjacent practices are things like speculative design, design fiction. You had Nick Foster on one of your previous episodes as well. He's a he's a friend and has a book out that's also fabulous.
00:03:35:16 - 00:03:38:21
Speaker 1
thinking about the future of thinking about the future. Is that episode?
00:03:38:22 - 00:04:00:10
Speaker 2
Yes. Yeah, yeah. And he's fantastic. and, and so, you know what a trend analysis is really going to get you is a really good snapshot of what's happening right now and a really good understanding of how things might unfold if we continue on doing business as usual, where foresight comes in is it says, let's really kind of expand that.
00:04:00:10 - 00:04:26:16
Speaker 2
Let's think about the full realm of possibility, even if it feels uncomfortable, even if it feels unfamiliar. even if we don't necessarily have the language to completely articulate what we mean here, it's, an example that I like to give is, is I think maybe now it's like been it's 20 years ago, but, you know, we were there was a time when thinking about plant based protein alternatives to meat was a very novel concept.
00:04:26:18 - 00:04:43:08
Speaker 2
If you thought if you talked about it, people were like, that's weird. That's never going to happen. You want me to eat like crickets and things like that, right? And that was kind of where the discussion was. And now we kind of, you know, that was like foresight work that was speculative kind of work that was happening at that time.
00:04:43:10 - 00:05:06:08
Speaker 2
and there were these little moments, these, these weak signals of these kind of possible futures that you could see in these examples of like someone had written a white paper and there was a small, you know, there was like a small lab testing out these kind of plant based protein alternatives. Flash forward, we have, you know, organizations like Beyond and Impossible with products in major grocery stores and.
00:05:06:11 - 00:05:07:09
Speaker 1
The billions of dollars of.
00:05:07:09 - 00:05:28:08
Speaker 2
Sales and the billions of dollars of sales in mainstream kind of outlets. Right. You can go to, like, a burger King or Carl's Junior or whatever it is. And so foresight is that that very kind of emergent. It's that it's this the stuff that improbably makes you sound like a crazy person sometimes, until you're able to connect enough of the dots, right, and make the case for it.
00:05:28:08 - 00:05:50:14
Speaker 2
And so it's a little bit art, it's a little bit science, but it's going to expand the realm of possibility beyond that, probable beyond that business as usual, into the realm of what might be plausible. And then beyond that, what might be possible, which could require a real mindset, mindset shift to think about, like paradigm shifting change.
00:05:50:16 - 00:06:20:07
Speaker 1
I feel like the conversation is, could be over right there. It's really quite amazing. your background, as I shared your educational background spans architecture. Your master's from, Central Saint Martins and London is in narrative environments. Strategic foresight, obviously, is where your career's been directed for a long time. in many ways, you've been a leading voice in this development of the foresight practice, both professionally as well as in academia.
00:06:20:09 - 00:06:28:08
Speaker 1
I mean, you've kind of explained already, but why does it matter if if it's it's under this umbrella of futures design anyway?
00:06:28:10 - 00:06:46:04
Speaker 2
Yeah. I mean, I think that I actually think this is like the perfect time to be talking about foresight, because I think the rate of change is accelerating so deeply right now. we are we are very much in the move fast, sometimes break things era. And I think we need to be a lot more intentional about what the implications of that work is.
00:06:46:04 - 00:07:15:08
Speaker 2
Right? We're seeing kind of like technological advancement. We're seeing geopolitical realignment. We're seeing climate change. There are so much change happening from all of these different avenues. and what foresight allows us to do is to think through how those changes might unfold 20, 30, 40, 50 years out, right. And, and one of the examples that I like to give, kind of my aha moment when I was, just I hadn't even really found foresight yet.
00:07:15:08 - 00:07:38:06
Speaker 2
I was still very heavily in architecture and design practice, but I was living in New Orleans studying architecture when Hurricane Katrina hit. Oh, and yeah. And and so, you know that at that time we were calling Katrina, like a hundred year storm because the frequency and intensity of that level of natural disaster wasn't happening as much as we're seeing even 20 years out now.
00:07:38:06 - 00:08:11:24
Speaker 2
Right? and I, I really, you know, they had shut down the city. Everyone had to evacuate. We were allowed in after some time. And I remember coming back into the city and like, truly, maybe it's like, you know, you have a sense of hubris when you're in your early 20s or whatever, where it's like, man, like I wonder if if you know, the architects and the planners that thought about a 100 year storm like this, and if they had imagined the impact that it would have on this city, were they you know, who were they designing for and who was left out of their plans.
00:08:12:03 - 00:08:46:19
Speaker 2
Right. And we saw that in the disparity of how Hurricane Katrina impacted the city of New Orleans. We saw that and the breakdown of the infrastructure systems in the in the social kind of fabric that had been built in, in terms of of, you know, community aid and things like that as well. and and that was something that really got me thinking, even from an architecture lens, we are really putting these infrastructures and these machines in the ground that are going to have an impact on people's lives beyond our own recognition of what that world looks like.
00:08:46:21 - 00:08:57:02
Speaker 2
Right. And so we have the responsibility to really think about that. yeah. I mean, I think that's that's something that has really, like, guided my own practice for a very long time.
00:08:57:04 - 00:09:15:04
Speaker 1
Well, I want to I want to circle back on that because I think there are a lot of aspects that are really important in that conversation about community and who are things for in, in the future, right. Should have been in the past, in the present, but we at least have the ability to impact that future. I want to like, be a little dumb for a second, though.
00:09:15:04 - 00:09:42:10
Speaker 1
First. I mean, I think there's something interesting you say, like foresight is a good conversation for today. I find that, you know, trends aside, I mean, I 20 plus years ago was calling myself a brand strategist, right? And then became super popular with this totally different subgroup of people with different skill sets, a lot less seniority, etc.. And I changed to futurist, and this is like there was no one listing themselves as a futurist, and I didn't even know what it was.
00:09:42:10 - 00:10:01:08
Speaker 1
It was like just made up. Like when you pull disparate pieces together and strategy and brand and communications and you're building for something in the future, like, and you execute it like, what does that make you? And so I use the word futurist. And then that, of course, in the last 5 to 10 years has become like super trendy too.
00:10:01:10 - 00:10:33:20
Speaker 1
and there are people like Nick foster who are actually futurist, our future designers and I run in those circles now. So I also know that, like, well, that's not exactly what I do at the end of the day, to some degree, all of these titles refer to the same thing to me, which is like pulling strategic insights from deep research, you know, qual and quant research observation and then translating them, as I said before, into these actionable plans for future forward, both resilience but also growth.
00:10:33:20 - 00:10:55:07
Speaker 1
Because if you're in business, everything is about growth all the time. Right. But the resilience, whether you're talking about the human or the systems or the governments or, you know, the infrastructures, etc., do you agree with this? Or how would you differentiate the work in foresight today from that kind of like shared definition of like what all I think all these titles ultimately.
00:10:55:08 - 00:10:56:23
Speaker 1
Yeah.
00:10:57:00 - 00:11:23:14
Speaker 2
you know, I will say, I think that foresight work has the most value when it is plugged into these other disciplines. Right. I what I really, the way I like to describe the work we do is working from that provocation to planning pipeline. It's, it's how are we ensuring that we're taking the things that feel quite like they sit in the realm of science fiction and translating them into something that feels more like a strategic plan?
00:11:23:16 - 00:11:38:20
Speaker 2
Because what, what foresight allows us to do is it allows us the point of view to say we don't have to. If we're talking in industry terms, we're not. We don't have to chase the market. Right? We don't have to allow we don't have to kind of sit there and just resigned to any given future happening to us.
00:11:38:22 - 00:12:04:07
Speaker 2
We perhaps in this conversation about what future is, have some sense of agency, in some sense of ownership, and maybe depending on like the scale of the organization you work for, a sense of accountability over what that future becomes. And so if we can then kind of take, you know, some control and assert that agency, then we can say, what future do we want to design, right?
00:12:04:09 - 00:12:28:02
Speaker 2
And how do we then build a pathway to get to that quote unquote preferred future? Right. And I think that's where you you bring in the architects and the policymakers and the strategists and all of those other disciplines that you require to then kind of like stand up, that version of future. But I would argue that most designers, most strategists, are futurists in some sense.
00:12:28:02 - 00:12:44:10
Speaker 2
Right. And, and, and I don't use that label myself. I think, we had Nick on, on a podcast I do with a friend of mine, and we kind of all of us sit in futures practice, and all of us were like, wait, do you do you do? And we're like, no, we don't, because we don't feel like it necessarily completely encapsulates everything we do.
00:12:44:13 - 00:12:57:18
Speaker 2
And most of us are coming to this. at least in the little niche of the foresight world that I have found myself in from a design background. So we do tend to call ourselves like futurist designers or design, you know, futurists or things like that. But yeah. Yeah.
00:12:57:18 - 00:13:23:14
Speaker 1
So interesting. I mean, yeah, as we said before, your career has largely been about building that foresight, fluency, if you will, including at organizations like Autodesk, which is a 50 billion plus dollar company, the software behind, you know, CAD and AutoCAD and a number of other, programs that architects and interior architects and designers across the board use.
00:13:23:16 - 00:13:33:17
Speaker 1
you establish that foresight like, how have you seen the, let's call it the practice or the function change?
00:13:35:04 - 00:13:49:00
Speaker 1
In terms of and when it's adopted or not adopted, how does it impact kind of long term strategic planning of an organization in terms of the product pipeline or go to market strategy or things like that, like practical implications of foresight?
00:13:49:02 - 00:14:05:15
Speaker 2
Yeah, I mean, I think that's a great I think that's a great question. And I think what I've seen over the years, at least, I remember going, I was at a conference maybe like 10 or 15 years ago when I had just gotten into the industry. And I remember somebody saying, you know, we're the foresight practice. We're kind of the jewel in the crown.
00:14:05:15 - 00:14:29:03
Speaker 2
We're like the nice thing to have, right? And I was like, no, don't do that. Like, don't position us in that way. Because then you kind of, you know, you diminish the criticality of the kind of work that we do. Right. And what I have seen in the last, 15 years is truly a shift towards folks realizing that this is not a luxury, that this is something that will help to make your business more resilient in the face of massive change.
00:14:29:05 - 00:14:49:14
Speaker 2
Right? and so I think, one of the things that we did at Autodesk, in the ways that we kind of positioned the foresight practice was not to have it sit in the marketing organization, and that was by design. And it does not mean that there is not, you know, that it's not important to have a link between that.
00:14:49:14 - 00:15:17:04
Speaker 2
I think it's really, really important to leverage foresight and to to kind of build out stories of what future might look like and then have the, a marketing org push that out. And some really compelling ways so that your customers and your clients can buy into that future with you. However, at an organization like Autodesk, where it is a technology company and they are putting out technology that impacts how architects are designing, how people are making films, how folks are manufacturing motorcycles.
00:15:17:04 - 00:15:35:21
Speaker 2
Right. All of that stuff is really going to influence our climate health, how people live in cities, what their attitudes towards, you know, the psychological impact of the films that they watch. Right? Yeah. And so that became really, really important to say, let's embed this within the CTOs organization so that people.
00:15:35:23 - 00:15:37:03
Speaker 1
The chief technology officer.
00:15:37:05 - 00:16:01:08
Speaker 2
Yes, the chief technology Officer so that way we are working like very directly. And and the foresight practice in general, our first audience was the executive leadership was the C-suite. but, you know, we were our home was the CTOs organization. And what I thought was really interesting about that is that the work then was really about working with the executive leadership to say, what is our long, what is our ten year vision?
00:16:01:08 - 00:16:30:16
Speaker 2
And for a technology company, we said ten years was a good marker of like long term, right? and then how do we take that ten year point of view and translate it for something like a 12 month product roadmap? Right, right. How does that influence the next update of Revit? Right, right. And I think that's where it really starts to become important because you can see or how does it, you know, influence our next acquisition target which is some of this kind of stuff that did come out of that work.
00:16:30:16 - 00:16:56:07
Speaker 2
Right? Yeah. What ended up happening before the foresight practice was established was everyone was kind of working in their own silo, and they owned that silo. They were super passionate about it, but there wasn't a lot of cross-breeding and cross-pollination. And then folks kind of just felt, especially in industry strategy, felt like and I don't think this is a unique problem to Autodesk, but they felt like they were just running the hamster wheel of strategic intent and realization processes.
00:16:56:10 - 00:17:09:18
Speaker 2
Right. So they didn't really have a moment to kind of like look up and be like, okay, what is happening in the world around me? How do I actually respond to this in a meaningful way to set up my business to be okay in the next five, ten, 15, 20 years?
00:17:09:21 - 00:17:12:14
Speaker 1
Yeah, the longer vision rather than the next release cycle.
00:17:12:15 - 00:17:43:16
Speaker 2
Yes. And so foresight really became that mechanism to, like, truly bring the outside in in a meaningful way and give folks permission to pause for a second to say, okay, I'm being measured on how well I am Cross-pollinating ideas. I'm being measured on how well I'm thinking through to a long term POV. And I think that, becomes really, really important in in establishing and kind of like demonstrating, maybe a more resilient and helpful approach to how business gets done.
00:17:43:18 - 00:17:59:00
Speaker 1
Yeah. No, I appreciate that. I think it's yeah, it's totally fascinating. I always agree that anything that is strategic needs to be cross-functional and embedded throughout, and it's definitely not the crown of the jewel in the crown. That's that's that puts it in a very different place.
00:17:59:01 - 00:18:00:23
Speaker 2
So disappointing when I heard that.
00:18:01:01 - 00:18:03:20
Speaker 1
It's like the shoes, like the hiking boots.
00:18:03:22 - 00:18:05:06
Speaker 2
That's right. We got to do better.
00:18:05:06 - 00:18:06:17
Speaker 1
Yeah. Underwear.
00:18:06:19 - 00:18:07:14
Speaker 2
That's right.
00:18:07:16 - 00:18:36:16
Speaker 1
I won't go too far with the analogy. I want to, just say I mean, I obviously introduced this for anyone who'd listen from the beginning. iF Design is the presenting partner of Future of XYZ, and my employer just released its annual trend report, again in partnership with Future Project out of Frankfurt, Germany, which is, you know, deep research looking at both social and environmental issues, as well as across our 10,000 plus entries.
00:18:36:16 - 00:19:06:19
Speaker 1
We get in the iF Design award every year from 70 plus countries across 93 categories of design. And this is the first year, actually that instead of having kind of ten Mega trends, we actually have four pairs of trends and their counter trends, because more than ever is becoming obvious that actually, like trends themselves, aren't innovative. they kind of, as you said, they capture the present moment and they kind of look forward and they answer provocation of the present moment.
00:19:06:21 - 00:19:24:23
Speaker 1
But the friction that is now existing because of this fast moving between a trend and a counter trend, is actually where this transformative power and innovation power lives. Or at least that's the working theory. Are you surprised by this? Or does that make sense to you?
00:19:25:00 - 00:19:46:13
Speaker 2
That makes so much sense to me. And I think especially in a, in a, in a moment where there are so many competing narratives about what truth is and what facts are and all of that, I think it becomes really, really important to to provide people a platform to be able to kind of, interrogate the tensions of, of what we're seeing in the world and what we're experiencing.
00:19:46:13 - 00:20:16:00
Speaker 2
Right. there's a there's a heavily an overused William Gibson quote that's like, the future is here. It's just unevenly distributed. but, you know, I think the reason people use it is because it's so, great at kind of like illustrating the, the problem of thinking about foresight and futures, right, is that you go to a, you know, you can go to California and you can say like, hey, yeah, the future is totally about like green design and climate change.
00:20:16:00 - 00:20:44:09
Speaker 2
And there's Waymo's everywhere and, and and then you go to another part of the world and like, what's a Waymo? You know. totally. And so I think, I think in that world and especially in a moment where people also are kind of experiencing or expecting that, information will be curated for them individually in real time, to then be really prescriptive about how the world is changing and saying no, I know you're experiencing something different, but this is exactly what it is.
00:20:44:11 - 00:20:58:03
Speaker 2
You start to kind of lose trust in the audience, right? So yeah, I love this idea of kind of having these, these competing trends and allowing people the space to say like, how do I think this is going to game out? You know.
00:20:58:05 - 00:21:11:11
Speaker 1
so we always run through time too fast. And I knew this was going to be a huge topic. So I'm going to make our last series of questions into like rapid fires, if that's okay, because I want to cover a lot of ground still.
00:21:11:13 - 00:21:11:24
Speaker 2
Okay.
00:21:12:03 - 00:21:30:14
Speaker 1
This one, you have a little more room than rapid fire, but we'll try to be right. Yeah. So so your primary research area is focus on the impacts of emerging trends and how they'll change. Excuse me the way that we design and make things in the future. Again, you're very focused on the design side of things. Given your background.
00:21:30:16 - 00:21:36:11
Speaker 1
I'm really curious about the making side of this. Like what has you the most excited there right now?
00:21:36:13 - 00:21:55:16
Speaker 2
Oh, okay. So I've been I've been like personally exploring signals around zero g manufacturing and what's happening in lower Earth orbit. because and I don't know as much about this yet. I just like and by just, I mean a month ago started to dive into this as a side, as a side thing that I'm going to bring.
00:21:55:18 - 00:22:23:00
Speaker 2
I will have a more articulated P.O.V., but I think there's something interesting about, you know, there are certain materials that can only be manufactured out in certain kind of gravitational pressures. Right. And, and there are certain processes that might be like more or less efficient in those ways. I think you can definitely, in this scenario, talk about like, who owns that future and where do we see the funding coming from, and is it going to be like the tech billionaires or, you know, whatever, who does it go to come to benefit?
00:22:23:05 - 00:22:34:04
Speaker 2
Coming back to that question of who is this future preferable for? But I think it's something worth thinking about. Is this this signal that I'm, I'm tapping into around like zero g manufacturing?
00:22:34:06 - 00:22:56:02
Speaker 1
I love that is very cool. You've been at Arup now for four years and obviously were recently promoted, really into this research arm called Arup University. as the global consultancy that Arup is with its advisory and technical expertise in the built in natural environment. What's the biggest shift or shifts that you're seeing in the design and engineering of the built environment?
00:22:56:02 - 00:22:57:21
Speaker 1
And kind of looking ahead?
00:22:57:23 - 00:23:17:02
Speaker 2
Yeah, I mean, I think it's no surprise AI is massive for us right now. we are really thinking about not just how that influences the way that our tools are used, but the implications on the way we do business as well. It's kind of shifting our business models. It's shifting the way design happens. It's shifting the esthetic of design.
00:23:17:02 - 00:23:38:01
Speaker 2
Right. but I'm also seeing, aside from that, more of an integrating and like a flattening of services, across the industry, which becomes really, really interesting. And I think that's one of the ways that's one of the reasons why Arup has also really thought about how we position ourselves as, what we call from a perspective of total design.
00:23:38:03 - 00:23:59:07
Speaker 2
And what that means for us is how do we bring in the, the, the widest kind of expanse of like mindsets, perspective, skill sets. So we can really, really think through the, the most, the widest kind of problem space so that we are actually designing towards the right solution. Right. yeah.
00:23:59:09 - 00:24:17:05
Speaker 1
I like that. My next question is actually going to be about AI because you work, of course, on the impact of emerging technologies in all sorts of areas. And of course, like AI is everywhere. There's not an industry that's saying it's not impacting them. do you think that it's and I'm going to give you a one word answer.
00:24:17:05 - 00:24:28:12
Speaker 1
I'm not even going to let you explain it. Do you think it's, stronger than human foresight as strong as or not as strong as today. And in ten years.
00:24:28:14 - 00:24:38:23
Speaker 2
Today, not as strong as, in ten years, potentially. But I think humans are better at asking questions.
00:24:39:00 - 00:24:47:24
Speaker 1
I agree with that. And is there a way that you can see that we can collaborate and partner with machine versus ceding control and influence?
00:24:48:01 - 00:25:08:08
Speaker 2
Yeah. I mean, I think we're starting to see that in the education space already. We're starting to like architect, you know, architecture students, design students are already collaborating with the tool. the collaboration looks different than when I was pushing a mouse in AutoCAD. but yeah, I think they're doing some really interesting things that you couldn't do just as a human designer on your own.
00:25:08:10 - 00:25:16:17
Speaker 1
Yeah. Interesting. and then the last question in this particular round of, rapid fire before we go into super rapid fire.
00:25:16:18 - 00:25:19:14
Speaker 2
Oh, no.
00:25:19:16 - 00:25:47:00
Speaker 1
I know, and you've mentioned it a couple of times. Your biggest passion is about how we collaboratively build more equitable and inclusive futures, and bring in communities and audiences and populations who might not necessarily see themselves or even have a seat at the table of what we collectively call a future. Right. What is the role of design and foresight in this community engagement piece?
00:25:47:02 - 00:26:14:03
Speaker 2
Yeah, I mean, I think the first part of that is, we have to build fluency around foresight. I think if we can, you know, allow more exposure to the language we use to talk about futures. It goes back to that agency piece. Right? I think design and foresight allow people to think through possibility. and of course, in this day and age, I think even having permission to think about what might be possible can come away as a privilege.
00:26:14:03 - 00:26:37:10
Speaker 2
And in some, in some cases and some parts of the world. But I do think that the democratization of foresight kind of will help to allow for more participatory futures work, to kind of allow for these more community based scenarios, right, to to bring in things like indigenous knowledge to, to think through alternate constructs of time. because not everyone subscribes to a linear time.
00:26:37:12 - 00:26:40:02
Speaker 1
Quantum is definitely coming into the field these days.
00:26:40:02 - 00:26:43:09
Speaker 2
Listen. Yeah, there's a lot there. Yeah.
00:26:43:09 - 00:26:44:12
Speaker 1
For sure. Cool.
00:26:44:13 - 00:26:46:02
Speaker 2
Yeah.
00:26:46:04 - 00:26:52:17
Speaker 1
Okay and then the last one of these, are there any trends right now that you're super excited for their positive potential in the world? Broad.
00:26:54:00 - 00:27:03:17
Speaker 2
ooh super excited for positive potential in the world. That is a good question. I don't even have an answer to it because I feel like I'm always thinking about risk.
00:27:03:19 - 00:27:15:23
Speaker 1
I was afraid that might be the answer. That's why I wanted it. I mean, it's so interesting. I think it's futuristic. That's that's or, you know, foresight experts. That's that's where you're always like anticipating.
00:27:16:00 - 00:27:33:02
Speaker 2
Yes. So. Right. You can prepare. You know, it's always about being able to prepare. I, I do, I do think there's something happening in education. I haven't been able to put my finger on it yet, but I think there's something shifting in that space, and I feel like it will work out better for people in the future.
00:27:33:04 - 00:27:55:14
Speaker 2
but I'm seeing a real questioning of, like, the, you know, these very deep institutions that have been around for a very long time doing one thing in a very similar way. but that's not how people learn. And so I'm really excited about about seeing how attitudes towards education shift our educational infrastructures in the future.
00:27:55:16 - 00:27:59:23
Speaker 1
well, you just answered. I get to check off one from this Super rapid fire.
00:27:59:24 - 00:28:00:15
Speaker 2
Oh, cool.
00:28:00:16 - 00:28:19:09
Speaker 1
Okay, because education was one of the questions. So in the final question before that, a question that I ask everyone at the very end, that, quick answer around like super, super, super quick, like one word, two words, using the practice of foresight, what's your outlook on the following? Education. You already answered. It was the first. Yeah.
00:28:19:11 - 00:28:20:14
Speaker 2
Yeah.
00:28:20:16 - 00:28:23:05
Speaker 1
cities versus rural.
00:28:23:07 - 00:28:28:05
Speaker 2
Oh. more of an expansion into rural.
00:28:28:07 - 00:28:33:22
Speaker 1
Oh, cool. manufacturing versus agriculture.
00:28:33:24 - 00:28:37:08
Speaker 2
I think they're going to combine, you know.
00:28:37:10 - 00:28:41:00
Speaker 1
Interesting media and entertainment.
00:28:41:02 - 00:28:50:17
Speaker 2
Oh, man. more saturated, more curated for the individual. I don't know if that's a good thing.
00:28:50:19 - 00:28:53:17
Speaker 1
I mean, we have that's where truth kind of starts getting over to.
00:28:53:17 - 00:28:55:11
Speaker 2
Me right now. Nature of trust. Yeah, yeah.
00:28:55:17 - 00:29:00:09
Speaker 1
Big time. the role of robots.
00:29:00:11 - 00:29:05:03
Speaker 2
More integrated into our daily lives.
00:29:05:05 - 00:29:08:02
Speaker 1
travel.
00:29:08:04 - 00:29:21:21
Speaker 2
Maybe minimizing a little bit more because of the impacts of climate change and cost and things like that. However, can I just add a little caveat? Have you seen this study on the impacts of GLP ones on on air travel? No. Okay.
00:29:21:22 - 00:29:23:13
Speaker 1
GLP-1s are Ozempic, right?
00:29:23:19 - 00:29:24:16
Speaker 2
Yes.
00:29:24:18 - 00:29:30:17
Speaker 1
So like the fat reduction drugs that are also yes. Like suppression of in of all pleasure.
00:29:30:23 - 00:29:42:18
Speaker 2
Yes. So apparently it's making it it's making airplanes cheaper to fly because they need less fuel, because they have to hold less weight in their cargos because people are losing weight so much.
00:29:42:24 - 00:29:51:15
Speaker 1
Thank God that we have a war that's making everything more expensive just to counterbalance it. Oh, there's lucky airlines.
00:29:51:17 - 00:29:54:13
Speaker 2
It's never the little people. It's never us. Right?
00:29:54:15 - 00:30:01:13
Speaker 1
I always like shoot, but I did not know that. That's funny. How about the office or the workplace?
00:30:01:15 - 00:30:13:19
Speaker 2
Oh, I don't know if the workplace people are this. I feel like people are gonna be working from home. I think remote work, hybrid work is going to be here to stay. Yeah, yeah.
00:30:13:21 - 00:30:19:09
Speaker 1
well, global trade.
00:30:19:11 - 00:30:21:07
Speaker 2
hyper fragmented.
00:30:21:09 - 00:30:22:12
Speaker 1
Interesting.
00:30:22:14 - 00:30:23:00
Speaker 2
Yeah.
00:30:23:00 - 00:30:26:11
Speaker 1
Sustainability.
00:30:26:13 - 00:30:36:08
Speaker 2
Hopefully. I have hope for sustainability. I think it's making its way into our regulatory frameworks. Not maybe here, but in other parts of the world.
00:30:36:10 - 00:30:37:10
Speaker 1
Yeah. Here meaning the US.
00:30:37:12 - 00:30:39:12
Speaker 2
Yes, yes.
00:30:39:14 - 00:30:42:10
Speaker 1
health and wellness.
00:30:42:12 - 00:30:53:00
Speaker 2
Ooh. more diversified, more effective across, more diverse range of, ethnicities, nationalities, needs, you know, things like that.
00:30:53:02 - 00:30:55:17
Speaker 1
I love that that's where personalization would be really helpful.
00:30:55:17 - 00:30:58:12
Speaker 2
Yes, absolutely.
00:30:58:14 - 00:31:03:10
Speaker 1
okay. Architecture, you're like, you're your bread and butter.
00:31:03:12 - 00:31:26:00
Speaker 2
I have too many opinions about architecture, but I will say I, I am I want to be optimistic. I'm concerned about it. Especially because some of the regulatory things that I'm seeing coming out, especially from the current administration in the United States. But I think across the world, it's it's doing it's doing great. And I'm excited about what architecture becomes with our new tools and technologies.
00:31:26:02 - 00:31:33:16
Speaker 1
Yep. Absolutely. A new materials and and hopefully sustainable progress. Yeah. Okay. Last rapid fire you've done great.
00:31:33:18 - 00:31:34:10
Speaker 2
Thank you.
00:31:34:12 - 00:31:39:05
Speaker 1
The definition and understanding of culture.
00:31:39:07 - 00:31:48:08
Speaker 2
I hope that gets better and more widespread. I hope there's there's a greater tolerance for for you know for what that means.
00:31:48:10 - 00:32:10:11
Speaker 1
I love it. Okay. Radha, thank you so much for all of those answers. In closing, I ask every guest the same thing. just like we start the same way we answer the same question at the end, which is, imagine it's 2050. So roughly 25 years from now, what's your greatest hope for the future of foresight?
00:32:10:13 - 00:32:21:00
Speaker 2
My greatest hope for the future foresight is that if I walk down the street and say foresight, somebody knows at least what I mean.
00:32:21:02 - 00:32:24:22
Speaker 2
00:32:24:24 - 00:32:28:11
Speaker 1
Wow, that we're we're going to be moving slowly. But that's cool.
00:32:29:17 - 00:32:41:00
Speaker 2
You know that that it has become such a deep part of our culture and our like, you know, and our lexicon that I don't have to explain it. No one thinks I'm a crazy person, right? They're like, yeah, foresight. I heard about foresight.
00:32:41:00 - 00:32:41:24
Speaker 1
I've heard about that.
00:32:42:05 - 00:32:42:11
Speaker 2
Yeah.
00:32:42:11 - 00:32:48:09
Speaker 1
It'd be nice if average people had just general foresight that would. I don't think we’d be where we are as a world, it would be great.
00:32:48:09 - 00:32:50:03
Speaker 2
Precisely, precisely.
00:32:50:04 - 00:32:54:12
Speaker 1
Yeah. That's it's it's I mean, maybe education is the hope.
00:32:54:14 - 00:32:56:02
Speaker 2
I think so.
00:32:56:04 - 00:33:04:03
Speaker 1
thank you so much for this awesome conversation on the future of foresight. This has been super enjoyable as well as inspiring.
00:33:04:05 - 00:33:08:11
Speaker 2
Thank you. And thank you so much for having me. I really had a great time.
00:33:08:13 - 00:33:30:21
Speaker 1
for everyone watching and listening, you can learn more about Arup on their website Arup.com. You can also download the iF Design trend report, free of charge for the next month or so at ifdesign.com/trendreport. But you'll see it all over the front page and all of our social media.
00:33:30:21 - 00:33:55:21
Speaker 1
If you, look, if you didn't know that you can watch this on YouTube. You can watch future of XYZ on YouTube. You can listen anywhere you get your favorite podcast. Please be sure to leave us a five star review. trying to ask that so that, people can find us more often. And these great conversations with tremendous thought leaders such as Radha Mistry of Arup and, thank you all for joining us.
00:33:55:23 - 00:33:58:17
Speaker 1
We'll speak to you again in two weeks.