Download the syllabus for Stanford Continuing Studies Course “How to Think Like a Futurist”: how-to-think-like-a-futurist-stanford-cs-jane-mcgonigal

Week one: Creativity

General reading/viewing

The 2080 Census: The World as we Don’t Know It

Look back twice as far as you want to look forward: the Census throughout history

Scientific papers

A taxonomy of prospection

the four modes of future thinking: simulation, prediction, intention, and planning (a cognitive science/neuroscience perspective)

Fit between future thinking and future orientation on creative imagination

increasing the temporal distance of future thinking facilitates creative thinking

Additionally, one’s creative imagination can be improved when thinking timescales and future orientation are aligned

Self-projection and the brain (3 core processes are the same)

Counterfactual thinking: an FMRI study on changing the past for a better future

Remembering what could have happened: Neural correlates of episodic counterfactual thinking

Episodic future thinking and episodic counterfactual thinking: Intersections between memory and decisions

Neural activity associated with self, other, and object-based counterfactual thinking

With an eye toward the future: The Impact of Counterfactual thinking on Affect, Attitudes and Behavior

Cognitive neuroscience of human counterfactual reasoning (past and future)

From what might have been to what must have been: Counterfactual thinking creates meaning

The functional theory of counterfactual thinking

Is there a core neural network in empathy?

The social cognitive neuroscience of empathy

Two systems for empathy

The necessity of others in the mother of invention

Week two: Imagination

General reading/viewing

Six Rules for Effective Forecasting

Institute for the Future – Ten-Year Forecasts

Learning is Earning in the National Learning Economy – Institute for the Future Research Map

The Story of the Chinese Farmer (video)

Society as a Social Invention and You as a Social Inventor

Foresight Signals: A Futurist’s Vacation Reading List

Scientific papers

Desirable and undesirable futures call for different scene construction processes

Week three: Personal change

General reading/viewing

The psychology of future you (Video)

Scientific papers

Time Metrics Matter: Connecting Present and Future Selves

When does the future begin? A study in maximising motivation

Psychological connectedness to the future self

Episodic Future Thinking Reduces Reward Delay Discounting through an Enhancement of Prefrontal-Mediotemporal Interactions

The Future is Now: Reducing Impulsivity Using Episodic Future Thinking

Become more optimistic by imagining a best possible self

“Remembering and imagining: the role of the self” (focusing stories about the future on significant narrative/goal milestones to enhance creativity/foresight)

Episodic future thought and its relationship to remembering (on the importance of signal exposure for autobiographical futures)

Eye movement disrupts future episodic thinking (on the importance of visual-spatial details in autobiographical futures)

“Back to the future: Autobiographical planning and the functionality of mind-wandering”

Week four: Influence

General reading/viewing

Some hints on writing preferred futures

Visioning and future studies and Why imagine the future?

Wanted: Professors of Foresight

Six Artifacts from the Future

Week five: Collective Imagination

General reading/viewing

What If? Everybody on Earth jumped at the same time

What If? Everyone actually had only one soul mate?

Measures of future orientation and self-efficacy

Development of future orientation and self-efficacy – see Appendix A for measurement tools

Time Perspective Inventory