Thinking About the Future

By Russell L. Ackoff

This is the transcript of the talk given by late Russell Ackoff at the Tällberg (Sweden) Forum 2005:

"I am not the right person to have been assigned the topic, “Thinking about the Future.”  I am a presentologist, not a futurologist.

So much time is currently spent in worrying about the future that the present is allowed to go to hell.  Unless we correct some of the world’s current systemic deficiencies now, the future is condemned to be as disappointing as the present.

My preoccupation is with where we would ideally like to be right now.   Knowing this, we can act now so as constantly to reduce the gap between where we are and where we want to be.  Then, to a large extent, the future is created by what we do now.  Now is the only time in which we can act."

To download the transcript click on: Download Ackoff's Tallberg talk DOC copy 1