Futur-ish

020: Sublime Hubris and Existential Dread in the Return to the Moon

Only Radha could find the glorious spectacle of space flight ‘meh.’ Luckily for Tobias, I write these blurbs. Artemis II went round the moon and back and only one year off plan. Is this the kick-off for a new space race? If it is, it’s a very different flavour than the last one. Gone are the cultural politics preceding the ‘end of history.’ This race is all about who gets to set the terms of the coming cislunar economy that the world’s largest economies are setting their clocks to.  Links: * Great Britain households to be urged to use more power this summer as renewables soar, The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/apr/14/uk-households-power-renewables-soar [https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/apr/14/uk-households-power-renewables-soar] * France investigates suspected tampering with weather sensors after Polymarket bets, CNN: https://edition.cnn.com/2026/04/23/europe/france-weather-sensor-polymarket-bet-intl-latam [https://edition.cnn.com/2026/04/23/europe/france-weather-sensor-polymarket-bet-intl-latam] * Waymo Has a Bike Lane Problem. Futurism: https://futurism.com/future-society/waymo-bike-lanes-traffic [https://futurism.com/future-society/waymo-bike-lanes-traffic] * Maui County passes historic law to phase out thousands of vacation rentals, Hawai’i Public Radio: https://www.hawaiipublicradio.org/local-news/2025-12-16/maui-county-passes-historic-law-to-phase-out-thousands-of-vacation-rentals [https://www.hawaiipublicradio.org/local-news/2025-12-16/maui-county-passes-historic-law-to-phase-out-thousands-of-vacation-rentals] * Artemis II mission was a triumph. Now comes the hard part, BBC News: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cj0v119zp19o

019: Can Futurists be Useful? (with Dr. Bree Trevena and Charlie Warwick)

If you expected four leading foresight professionals to come and deliver a grab-bag of incredible intel, you are sorely mistaken. Instead we’re joined by Dr. Bree Trevena and Charlie Warwick to talk about recent reflections on what it means to be a ‘good’ futurist in the time of systemic complexity, fracturing identities and AI.  Links: * Perspective A ‘Kill Switch’ Could Shutter Europe’s Access to US Tech. Here’s How. Tech Policy Press: https://www.techpolicy.press/washington-could-activate-a-kill-switch-to-terminate-european-access-to-us-tech-heres-how-it-could-work/ [https://www.techpolicy.press/washington-could-activate-a-kill-switch-to-terminate-european-access-to-us-tech-heres-how-it-could-work/]  * UK bank bosses plan to set up Visa and Mastercard alternative amid Trump fears, The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/feb/16/uk-bank-bosses-plan-visa-mastercard-alternative [https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/feb/16/uk-bank-bosses-plan-visa-mastercard-alternative] * Slight decrease in deaths on Dutch roads last year, NL Times: https://nltimes.nl/2025/04/17/slight-decrease-deaths-dutch-roads-last-year * There Are No Cars in Wakanda, SPUR: https://www.spur.org/news/2020-02-20/there-are-no-cars-wakanda [https://www.spur.org/news/2020-02-20/there-are-no-cars-wakanda] * StudioCone’s Plurality Player Wants You to Feel the Planet, Imagine Magazine: https://imaginemagazine.co/news/studiocones-plurality-player-wants-you-to-feel-the-planet/ [https://imaginemagazine.co/news/studiocones-plurality-player-wants-you-to-feel-the-planet/] * APF Compass (What Makes a Futurist): https://www.apf.org/compass [https://www.apf.org/compass] * Mind the Gap Refisited, Nordmann & Rip: https://www.nature.com/articles/nnano.2009.26 [https://www.nature.com/articles/nnano.2009.26]  * Building Performance Reimagined, CIBSE: https://www.cibse.org/policy-advocacy/industry-initiatives/building-performance-reimagined/ [https://www.cibse.org/policy-advocacy/industry-initiatives/building-performance-reimagined/]

018: How Warmer Weather and Collapsing Ecosystems are Driving a Tourism Doom Spiral

There’s been a fair amount of coverage of maritime activities at Futur-ish and we’re pleased to bring you another episode where Radha was triggered by being targeted for luxury cruises. It seems hoteliers are pivoting from the land to the sea as insurance and sea levels rise to meet the warming climate. However, this is all triggering a doom loop where the increase in tourism to endangered places drives them into further endangerment.  Perhaps the people of Croydon, South London hold the answer? Links * Four Seasons is launching a luxury yacht experience in 2026, and it's as glamorous as you'd expect, Conde Nast Trarveller: https://www.cntraveller.com/article/four-seasons-launching-luxury-yacht-experience-in-2026 [https://www.cntraveller.com/article/four-seasons-launching-luxury-yacht-experience-in-2026] * Four Seasons Yachts Unveils its 2027 Mediterranean Season Featuring 33 New Voyages and More Than 40 New Destinations: https://press.fourseasons.com/news-releases/2025/2027-mediterranean-itineraries/ [https://press.fourseasons.com/news-releases/2025/2027-mediterranean-itineraries/] * Heading to Sea: How the Ritz-Carlton and Four Season’s Entry to Sea Travel can Revolutionize Cruising Sustainability, McGill Business Review: https://mcgillbusinessreview.com/articles/heading-to-sea-how-the-ritz-carlton-and-four-seasons-entry-to-sea-travel-can-revolutionize-cruising-sustainability [https://mcgillbusinessreview.com/articles/heading-to-sea-how-the-ritz-carlton-and-four-seasons-entry-to-sea-travel-can-revolutionize-cruising-sustainability] * The vulnerability of Caribbean coastal tourism to scenarios of climate change related sea level rise: http://www.caribbeanhotelandtourism.com/wp-content/uploads/data_center/environmental/Journal-of-Sustainable-Toursim-2012.pdf [http://www.caribbeanhotelandtourism.com/wp-content/uploads/data_center/environmental/Journal-of-Sustainable-Toursim-2012.pdf] * Climate change could erase $1.4 trillion in real estate value: report, Axios: https://www.axios.com/2025/02/03/climate-change-insurance-costs-real-estate [https://www.axios.com/2025/02/03/climate-change-insurance-costs-real-estate] * Migration in the Mountains: Why “Progress” in Uttarakhand Is Pushing People Away, UN: https://www.un.org/en/un-chronicle/migration-mountains-why-progress-uttarakhand-is-pushing-people-away [https://www.un.org/en/un-chronicle/migration-mountains-why-progress-uttarakhand-is-pushing-people-away] * Hotter Summers and Overcrowdning Threaten Europe’s Tourist Economies, Bloomberg: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2025-08-20/climate-change-and-overtourism-put-southern-europe-s-economies-under-threat?embedded-checkout=true [https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2025-08-20/climate-change-and-overtourism-put-southern-europe-s-economies-under-threat?embedded-checkout=true] * Canadian snowbirds say U.S. politics are ruffling feathers and changing their migration patterns, CBC News: https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/canadian-snowbirds-rethinking-us-travel-plans-9.6980001 [https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/canadian-snowbirds-rethinking-us-travel-plans-9.6980001] * BIO-SEA ballast water treatment chosen for Ritz-Carlton newbuilds, SeatradeCruiseNews: https://www.seatrade-cruise.com/environmental-health/bio-sea-ballast-water-treatment-chosen-for-ritz-carlton-newbuilds [https://www.seatrade-cruise.com/environmental-health/bio-sea-ballast-water-treatment-chosen-for-ritz-carlton-newbuilds] * Aman at Sea, Amangati: https://www.amanatsea.com/ [https://www.amanatsea.com/]

017: The Weird Technology that Might Replace GPS

As we’ve documented before (see; Kessler Syndrome), the infrastructures we rely on and take for granted are increasingly crumbling and under threat. Cue a surge of investment and interest in alternatives to the systems that have shaped the global economy for the last few decades. It’s something we talk about all the time, throwing at the end of decks and workshops as a ‘things might get weird’ moment - but what actually is quantum sensing? And how might it reshape our relationship with physical reality? Links ‘To live a normal life again, it’s a dream come true’: UK’s first climate evacuees can cast off their homes and trauma, The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026/feb/09/to-live-a-normal-life-again-its-a-dream-come-true-uks-first-climate-evacuees-can-cast-off-their-homes-and-trauma [https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026/feb/09/to-live-a-normal-life-again-its-a-dream-come-true-uks-first-climate-evacuees-can-cast-off-their-homes-and-trauma] GPS jamming shows ships in "impossible" locations, Kuehne+Nagel: https://mykn.kuehne-nagel.com/news/article/gps-jamming-shows-ships-in-impossible-locatio-09-Apr-2024 [https://mykn.kuehne-nagel.com/news/article/gps-jamming-shows-ships-in-impossible-locatio-09-Apr-2024]This Pokémon Go GPS hack is the most impressive yet, The Verge: https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2016/7/28/12311290/pokemon-go-cheat-gps-signal-spoofing [https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2016/7/28/12311290/pokemon-go-cheat-gps-signal-spoofing] Q-CTRL's New Maritime Quantum Navigation Solution Successfully Undergoes First Defense Trials at Sea, Q-Ctrl: https://q-ctrl.com/blog/q-ctrls-new-maritime-quantum-navigation-solution-successfully-undergoes-first-defense-trials-at-sea [https://q-ctrl.com/blog/q-ctrls-new-maritime-quantum-navigation-solution-successfully-undergoes-first-defense-trials-at-sea] Armed with quantum sensors, France eyes leaps in electronic warfare, DefenseNews: https://www.defensenews.com/global/europe/2024/06/25/armed-with-quantum-sensors-france-eyes-leaps-in-electronic-warfare/ [https://www.defensenews.com/global/europe/2024/06/25/armed-with-quantum-sensors-france-eyes-leaps-in-electronic-warfare/] Earth’s Gravity Field, NASA: https://science.nasa.gov/earth/earth-observatory/earths-gravity-field-3666/ [https://science.nasa.gov/earth/earth-observatory/earths-gravity-field-3666/] Magnetic Navigation at Scale: Advancing Resilient Flight Through Quantum Sensing, ACubed: https://acubed.airbus.com/blog/quantum/magnetic-navigation-at-scale-advancing-resilient-flight-through-quantum-sensing/ [https://acubed.airbus.com/blog/quantum/magnetic-navigation-at-scale-advancing-resilient-flight-through-quantum-sensing/] DIU’s Transition of Quantum Sensing (TQS) Field Testing To Begin Across Five Critical Areas, DIU: https://www.diu.mil/latest/dius-transition-of-quantum-sensing-tqs-field-testing-to-begin-across-five [https://www.diu.mil/latest/dius-transition-of-quantum-sensing-tqs-field-testing-to-begin-across-five] Japan Boosts Semiconductor, Quantum R&D with Trillion-Yen Budget, Quantum Insides: https://thequantuminsider.com/2025/01/16/japan-boosts-semiconductor-quantum-rd-with-trillion-yen-budget/ [https://thequantuminsider.com/2025/01/16/japan-boosts-semiconductor-quantum-rd-with-trillion-yen-budget/] Google claims 'quantum supremacy' for computer, BBC News: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-50154993 [https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-50154993] Quantum Sensing Will Test Legal Frameworks for Privacy, Tech Policy Press: https://www.techpolicy.press/quantum-sensing-will-test-legal-frameworks-for-privacy/

016: The Movement Charging you to Disconnect (with Tracee Worley)

How much would you pay to be bored? Well, for the kids of Amsterdam it’s about 7 bucks to have their phones locked up and sit and read or do crosswords. Sure, you could just do this anyway without the fee but then would you really feel like you’re part of something, part of a movement?  This week, we’re joined by Tracee Worley to talk about her work in experiential and analog futures and chew over more insights on the turn against tech from the youth of today.  Links * Radical Futures: https://radicalfutures.studio/ [https://radicalfutures.studio/] * How Tulsa, Oklahoma’s Greenwood District is reimagining community ownership of real estate to restore Black Wall Street, Brookings: https://www.brookings.edu/articles/how-tulsa-oklahomas-greenwood-district-is-reimagining-community-ownership-of-real-estate-to-restore-black-wall-street/ [https://www.brookings.edu/articles/how-tulsa-oklahomas-greenwood-district-is-reimagining-community-ownership-of-real-estate-to-restore-black-wall-street/] * Letters from the Future: https://www.posthou.se/lettersfromthefuture [https://www.posthou.se/lettersfromthefuture] * Seneca Falls 2048: https://senecafalls2048.org/ [https://senecafalls2048.org/] * The Offline Club: https://www.theoffline-club.com/ [https://www.theoffline-club.com/] * Americans Check Their Phones an Alarming Number of Times Per Day, PC Mag: https://uk.pcmag.com/mobile-phones/146917/americans-check-their-phones-an-alarming-number-of-times-per-day [https://uk.pcmag.com/mobile-phones/146917/americans-check-their-phones-an-alarming-number-of-times-per-day]