Generation Reinvention 42: Boomers, Wildcards, and High-Impact Transformations of the Future

On November 8, 2011

The Arlington Institute (aka “TAI”) is a non-profit specializing in predictive modeling of future events or futures studies. Founded in 1989 by former naval officer and military expert John L. Petersen in Arlington, Virginia, TAI is a futurist think tank.

Petersen has been widely recognized as one of the most informed futurists in the world. He is best-known for writing and thinking about high impact surprises—called wild cards—and the process of surprise anticipation. His current professional involvements include the development of sophisticated tools for anticipatory analysis, surprise anticipation, and helping leadership design new approaches for dealing with the future.

An award-winning writer, Petersen’s first book, “The Road to 2015: Profiles of the Future” was awarded Outstanding Academic Book of 1995 by CHOICE Academic Review, and remained on The World Future Society’s best-seller list for more than a year. His latest book, “Out of the Blue: How to Anticipate Wild Cards and Big Future Surprises,” was also a WFS best-seller.

TAI believes society, science, ecology, and commerce are converging and that the issues we are now confronting are a direct product of how we live and think. As transition pioneers, TAI hopes to discover early indicators of transition and provide solutions.

The Arlington Institute is currently building an interactive web portal called The World’s Biggest Problems. This site allows experts and amateurs alike to collaborate on finding solutions to problems such as economic crisis, species extinction, peak oil, climate change, and water scarcity. TAI also has plans to build a web portal that collects dreams and intuitions in order to scan them and search for patterns.

John Petersen joins Generation Reinvention host Brent Green to discuss the future of aging and how Baby Boomers may transform industries and social institutions as the “age wave“ begins to crest.

WEBSITE

The Arlington Institute: http://www.arlingtoninstitute.org/

futureedition.org

CLICK ON THE IMAGES BELOW TO CHECK OUT JOHN PETERSEN’S BOOK