Alternate Futures

 

In Peter Schwartz's book The Long View, he proposes that building a scenarios of different types of futures is a way that corporations and individuals can create solid plans for long term forecasts. The premise is pretty simple, just create a variety of relative detailed descriptions of what the future might be like (extremes are welcome here), and then when you formulate your long term plans, you test them against the different future scenarios. The strategy that does the best in all of these scenario is the one you choose. An additional side effect is that you wont' be taken by surprise when the seemingly most logical future doesn't magically appear.

 

It is interesting to me that one possible future, one that Christianity has been proposing for thousands of years, is always eliminated from these views. Most every one will at least say that Jesus was a great teacher. That great teacher proposed a future where he would come back to this world. "Yea have heard how I said unto you, I go away, and come again unto you. If ye loved me, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the Father: for my Father is greater than I. John 21:22 (KJV) He also said "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. John 14:1-3 (NIV) Included in this time of return is the judgment of both our actions and our intents.

 

How do your plans for the future fair against this possible scenario.