In 1992, while presenting at the World Futures Studies Federation course on International Development, I shifted my lecture from the typical rehearsed presentation on factors explaining maldevelopment to a real time unpacking/deconstruction of transportation futures. As I, we, worked through the analysis, alternatives organically emerged. The four levels were: first, the problem or the litany – congestion and pollution. Second the causes: too many cars and desire for more cars, rising incomes, traditional infrastructure that was not car flow friendly, among other factors. Third, the Big City outlook, westernization, and the "Los Angelization" of the planet. And fourth, West is best with cars as freedom, as individuality. We understood that the government would take a technical approach of creating flyovers and not the deeper required to rethink centre-periphery relations – to decentralize - to reimagine Bangkok as a walkable and green city. This led to a discussion on not just infrastructure redesign but stories around rural areas and the symbol of the car as a symbol of Western power. CLA shifted the discussion from conventional strategies on transport toward alternative futures of mobility, identity, and sustainability. After a few more attempts at presenting on communication, on disability, on ways knowing the method was born. Theoretically, of course, I was standing on the works of the greats: P.R. Sarkar, Johan Galtung, William Irwin Thompson, Joseph Campbell and from insights from professors and colleagues such as James Dator, Michael Shapiro, and Richard Slaughter.
In the CLA Reader published in 2004, we compiled articles on the method to gain academic respectability. Doctoral students would email me and say, they wanted to write their thesis on CLA but their professors were suspicious. By 2015, when CLA 2.0 was released, we had documented hundreds of additional case studies. Professor were no longer suspicious, indeed, many enthusiastic. The method by that time had been used by thirty plus national governments, dozens of international organizations, hundreds of businesses and community organizations, and thousands of individuals.
With CLA 3.0, we have moved from planting seeds about a new method, to nurturing young trees, to watching a true forest of transformative and critical futures research. The forest true to the iceberg image that has been linked to CLA is not just on land but in the ocean as well.
My own work in the area has somewhat changed. Along with projects using CLA on the external world, for example, in the past few months, with FAO, Australia Prudential Residential Authority, Mitsubishi Motors, WHO, the Pacific Community, the Razak School of Government, LEGO, UNESCAP, more and more I insist that participants in workshops also focus on the CLA of the self. This has become especially important with the rise in anxiety from COVID and the invasion of Ukraine. The inner work leads not only to the reflective practitioner but ensures epistemological mindfulness. We enter the room aware that we are part of the problem or solution, that our stories can help or hurt. CLA of the self, for me, is a way to help others find ways out of current predicaments. For example, just recently with colleagues in Shanghai stuck from the long lockdown, we worked together to shift the core metaphor from "the prison" to "painting the prison" and from a "lone firefly to a ray of light" connecting with other rays. An educational leader working with the disadvantaged used CLA recently to develop the new story he wished to tell his community of students, teachers, and parents. While he understood the reality of admiring the problem, after the CLA workshop, he changed his focus from the victim to the champion. When I suggested that the narrative of the champion might be a step to far, he added an intermediate narrative shift: getting in the game. These storis assist in expanding agency, in helping us create more desirable futures. The stories as with external CLA need to link to systemic changes as well, and when possible, new measures of success. The question I ask organizations as they develop their new narrative is who are you in the story? Thus, it is not about changing others per se but how about finding a voice, a role for oneself in a changing world. With one large group, their new story was a flotilla of canoes. I then asked participants, who were they in the flotilla? One said, the navigator, another the one who painted the canoes, a third, the one who found dollars for canoe maintenance. The story thus connected all. CLA, for me, is not about strategic foresight but transformational futures. We are in the universe not as objective change agents but as characters (often pre-scripted and used) with the possibility of inner and outer transformation, of co-creating alternative futures. Depth assists us in moving from technical litany systemic fixes to longer term worldview and narrative shifts.
This book can be read from the position of theories of knowledge, as methodology, as case studies, or as part of one's individual journey. I can only recommend that you work from multiple positions, and, of course, work at all four levels. While CLA 2.0 was a partnership between me and Director of Metafuture, Dr. Ivana Milojević, we are fortunate to now have Drs. John Sweeney and Ralph Mercer as fellow collaborators on this inner and outer, land and ocean voyage.
《無垠的探索:跨越世紀的科學與人文之旅》 一、 序言:時代的交匯點 本書是一部橫跨多個學科領域的宏大敘事,旨在梳理自二十世紀初以來,人類在自然科學、社會科學、哲學思辨以及藝術創作領域所取得的裏程碑式成就。我們身處一個知識爆炸的時代,信息的碎片化傾嚮常常使人難以把握宏觀圖景。因此,《無垠的探索》試圖搭建一座橋梁,連接那些看似孤立的研究分支,揭示它們之間深刻的內在聯係和相互啓發的機製。 本書的敘事邏輯並非嚴格按照時間順序展開,而是以核心思想和研究範式的變遷為軸綫,引導讀者進行一場跨越學科邊界的深度漫遊。我們相信,真正的突破往往發生在學科的邊緣地帶,在那些不同知識體係相互碰撞、融閤之處。 二、 科學的革命與範式轉移 第一部分:微觀世界的重塑——物理學與化學的深刻變革 我們將從二十世紀初的物理學革命開始。愛因斯坦的相對論徹底顛覆瞭牛頓時代對時空的基本認知,而量子力學的誕生則將我們帶入瞭一個充滿不確定性和概率性的微觀世界。本書將詳細探討普朗剋、玻爾、海森堡等巨匠的貢獻,分析量子場論的建立如何為粒子物理學奠定瞭基礎,並討論標準模型的建立及其麵對暗物質和暗能量挑戰時的局限性。 在化學領域,分子結構和化學鍵理論的深入理解,推動瞭有機閤成化學的飛速發展。我們將迴顧從有機化學到材料科學的演變,重點分析新型催化劑的設計原理,以及其在可持續能源和環保技術中的應用潛力。特彆關注在閤成生物學領域,化學原理如何與生命科學深度融閤,催生齣全新的工程化生命係統的可能性。 第二部分:生命的奧秘與基因的語言——生物學的宏大敘事 生物學是本書著墨最多的部分之一。從孟德爾的遺傳定律到沃森和剋裏剋對DNA雙螺鏇結構的發現,人類對生命本質的理解進入瞭一個全新的階段。本書深入剖析瞭分子生物學的核心概念,如基因錶達調控、蛋白質摺疊的復雜性。 隨後,我們將聚焦於基因組學時代的來臨。人類基因組計劃的完成標誌著一個時代的結束,同時也開啓瞭功能基因組學、蛋白質組學以及代謝組學的廣闊前景。我們探討瞭基因編輯技術(如CRISPR-Cas9)帶來的巨大潛力與隨之而來的倫理睏境。此外,我們還將考察進化生物學如何通過整閤古生物學、遺傳學和生態學數據,構建齣更為精細的生命演化樹。 三、 人類社會的復雜性與行為的解碼 第三部分:心智的疆域——心理學與神經科學的前沿 人類心智是宇宙中最迷人的謎團之一。本書將迴顧弗洛伊德的精神分析理論的遺産,並將其置於現代認知科學的語境下進行重新審視。認知心理學如何通過實驗方法揭示記憶、注意力和決策製定的機製?我們將詳細闡述連接大腦結構與功能的核心技術,例如功能性磁共振成像(fMRI)和腦電圖(EEG)的最新應用,以及它們如何幫助我們理解意識的起源。 行為經濟學和決策理論的發展,挑戰瞭傳統經濟學中“理性人”的假設。通過對啓發式偏差、損失厭惡等非理性行為模式的分析,本書試圖提供一個更貼近現實的人類行為模型。 第四部分:社會結構的動態演化——社會學與人類學的洞察 社會學和人類學為我們提供瞭理解人類群體的工具。本書考察瞭從韋伯的理性化理論到福柯的權力/知識分析的理論演進。我們特彆關注全球化進程對傳統社會結構、身份認同和文化多樣性的衝擊與重塑。 在全球數字化浪潮下,社交網絡分析和大數據方法正在改變社會學研究的範式。我們探討瞭大規模數據如何被用於識彆社會網絡中的關鍵節點、信息傳播的路徑,以及社會動員的潛在模式。人類學則通過深入的民族誌研究,強調瞭文化相對論的重要性,批判瞭普世主義的陷阱,並探討瞭地方知識在全球治理中的價值。 四、 哲學的反思與藝術的錶達 第五部分:意義的追尋——當代哲學思辨 技術進步和社會變遷總是伴隨著深刻的哲學反思。《無垠的探索》不會迴避形而上學的基本問題,但會更側重於分析哲學和實踐哲學的應用。我們將探討語言哲學對邏輯學和計算機科學的深遠影響,以及現象學如何為理解主體經驗提供瞭獨特的視角。 人工智能的崛起,尤其引發瞭關於“何為人性”、“何為心智”的深刻爭論。本書分析瞭功能主義、同一性理論在麵對強人工智能時的挑戰。同時,環境倫理學和技術哲學也占據瞭重要篇幅,探討人類在改造自然和技術發展中的責任邊界。 第六部分:形式的自由與錶達的邊界——藝術與媒介的轉型 藝術是對人類體驗的最高級提煉。本書將藝術史置於社會文化變遷的大背景下考察。從現代主義對傳統形式的顛覆,到後現代主義對宏大敘事的解構,藝術始終是時代精神的晴雨錶。 數字媒體的普及極大地改變瞭藝術的生産、傳播和消費模式。本書分析瞭虛擬現實(VR)、增強現實(AR)技術在藝術創作中的應用,探討瞭“可互動性”如何重塑觀眾與作品的關係。我們還將審視數字時代的審美經驗,以及算法推薦係統對文化品味的潛移默化的影響。 五、 結論:麵嚮未知的融閤與整閤 《無垠的探索》總結認為,二十一世紀的研究趨勢日益呈現齣跨學科和係統化的特徵。無論是應對氣候變化、流行病控製,還是理解人類的復雜行為,任何單一學科都無法提供全麵的解決方案。未來的知識進步將高度依賴於不同領域專傢的有效對話與知識的深度融閤。本書最終希望激發讀者,以更廣闊的視野去審視我們所處的這個復雜而迷人的世界,並以探索者的精神迎接前方的無限可能。