Tech Foresight 2042: Nature Meets Future
Powered by Imperial Business Partners – The gateway to the forefront of science and technology at Imperial College London
Imperial Tech Foresight 2042: Nature Meets Future looks at insights from the sciences of the natural world and how they bring new ideas for business over the next 20 years.
These ideas will help businesses overcome our increasingly wild and turbulent economic and political world. As our technologies move from mechanistic and controlled to interconnected and unpredictable, we need lenses to examine them through to start to navigate the next 20 years. Lenses, we propose, that nature has already armed us with.
What do we mean by Nature Meets Future?
Check out our introduction of the topic, including our three connected themes, and the ways in which we’ll be exploring the ideas through interactive events and workshops with Imperial Business Partners members, with insights and expertise from our world-leading academics and researchers at Imperial, and our observations from the wider world of science, industry. society and business.
Want a whistle-stop tour through our TF2042 agenda?
This short video (3m 30s) will guide you through the topic, its relevance for business, and the ways in which you can be involved in shaping our discussions now and for the next 20 years.
Order and Disorder
Order and Disorder introduction
Discover what we mean by Order and Disorder in the world of business and technology, and how we can learn from nature’s clues about what to design and what to expect as we expose our ideas to the behaviours and interactions of an ever-changing, increasingly technologically advanced society.
20+ Commons and the future of digital media
Hear from Professor Pierre Pinson and Dr Nejra Van Zalk from Imperial College London’s Dyson School of Design Engineering discuss the future of digital media, how AI and machine learning is causing us to adapt to new and emerging digital-only traits, and what the role of humans in the group will be, now that it is computers in the loop.
Adaptation and Agency
Adaptation and Agency introduction
Find out how we can learn from and integrate our observations of the natural world into our wider business practices, and when we need to listen to our own experiences in order to act without specific evidence, in our introduction to Adaptation and Agency, as part of TF2042: Nature Meets Future.
Synthetic Biodiversity
Take a journey to the future of synthetic biodiversity and how the world will be adapting our lived environment through scientific discovery, regulation and societal changes to ensure we create a sustainable future with our specially-created TF2042 scenario.
Biodiversity for business
Using insights from Imperial’s community and the thinking behind TF2042’s look to the future, see how your organisation can capitalise on taking agency to enhance our natural capital and adapt to the changing state of nature around the world.
Acting without evidence, with Professor Peter Childs
Hear from Professor Peter Childs on Acting without evidence in this thought-provoking interview around the topic of Agency.
Life and Death
Life and Death introduction
Find out what we mean by Life and Death in the context of technological innovation, and how the most emotive theme in TF2042: Nature Meets Future could be the most important for business planning, strategic decision making and ensuring that your company stays ahead of the competition over the next 20 years.
Got a question? Get in touch.
We’re always keen to hear your thoughts or insights, as well as learn more about ways we can work with you to deliver foresight activities to inspire your organisation to greater heights.