Association of Professional Futurists posterous

The subject for our next #futrchat will be the future of relationships. A broad topic area we’re sure you’d agree. We’ve put together a short list of ‘framing questions’ to start you thinking & help try & guide the conversation:

Personal

Framing question

Q1: Will our personal relationships always be bounded by the proposed limits of Dunbar’s number (< 150 friends)? Can we /our brains evolve?

Evolutionary biology suggests we have an inherent limit on the number of relationships we can meaningfully create & maintain. Famously, Robin Dunbar cited this as a group of up to 150 in number at any one time - http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2010/mar/14/my-bright-idea-robin-dunbar

From this:

• Do we believe such biological-determinism is correct?
• Does the emergence of networked communications (social media) based on the ‘strength of weak ties’ begin to change this?
• Do we need to change this idea to enable us to engage with what we might envision as future circumstances?
• How might our children’s sense of ‘personal’ interaction be different in the future, if at all?

Family

Framing question

Q2: With future declining birth rates, youth bulges & increasing longevity, how might changing family structures alter our relationships?

We’re entering a period in which the combined drivers of fertility, mortality, family size and ageing may come to increasingly effect how families are structured, supported & valued.

From this:

• If – in some parts of the world – we’re likely to have fewer children but live longer what might this do to our existing social ‘life-stages’ of marriage, parenting & extended care? How does that effect our interpretation of what these familial relationships should be?
• Will smaller but longer-lived families be closer in their relationships over time? Do the dynamics of the family change as a result?
• How might family relationships differ across the world as a result of – on the one hand – declining fertility and smaller families – and on the other – youth bulges and higher mid-term family size?
• How – if at all – are the relationships within your own family changing? Do you forsee the change continuing?

Work

Framing question

Q3: Given future job insecurity, changes to working patterns & high levels of youth unemployment, will our work relationships change?

Perhaps most of us would agree the concept of a ‘job for life’ is no longer viable in most places and – as a consequence – we’ll have to undertake a far greater number of jobs than our parents or grandparents may have expected.

From this:

• How have we adapted or changed the way we conduct relationships to accommodate this?
• Do we even perceive there to be a meaningful distinction between work relationships and other? If not, what might the impact be?
• Have new forms of value become more important in being able to create viable future work relationships? (for example, your personal network or the communities-of-interest you’re involved with) What might be the consequences if you don’t have these?
• Does your current working environment signal new trends or processes you feel may become more visible over time?

Technology mediation

Framing question 

Q4: What could the longer term impacts of technology be on how we form & engage in relationships? What will be more real F-2-F or virtual?

From the telegraph, to the telephone to twitter – technological developments & their associated services have profoundly altered both the temporal & spatial opportunities we have to form & engage in relationships.

From this:

• What new forms of networked, decentralised technologies do we envision becoming important? How might they introduce further change into our relationships?
• Might emergent haptic responses be a true ‘game-changer’?
• How might the increasing creation & transfer of personal data (through ideas such as lifelogging and the Quantified Self) form new ways of communicating in the future?
• How might we perceive and understand ‘realness’ or ‘authenticity’ in the future? Will face-to-face remain the default-standard to make comparisons against? Will virtual representations become a seemless accepted part of our interactions? Will human-computer interaction be as valid?

Generational

Framing question

Q5: If we consider our relationships from a generational perspective, how do we feel they might change and why?

Although each of each can be characterised as a member of a particular generational cohort, have we thought in more detail about what that might mean in terms of our attitudes to our relationships, how they’re formed and how we conduct them?

From this:

• How do you characterise your own generation in terms of its relationships? Do you feel the perspectives on relationships each generation has are a result of its own particular context?
• In cross-generational terms; how are relationships between the different generations forming? How do you think they may change over time?
• In intergenerational terms; do we feel we have a relationship with generations yet to be born? How does this influence our perspectives on prominent global issues such as climate change or poverty & inequality?
• Do we feel we can conceive of or describe relationships in a way that would be valid or understandable to future generations?

Social relationships

Framing question

Q6: Do we envision the structure of social relationships changing and, if so, how? What might happen to our notions of hierarchy or power?

In her blog post titled “The Future of Relationships?" regular #futrchat contributor @CASUDI picks up on a number of relationships that would – traditionally – be considered to some extent hierarchical in nature (especially as seen from a Western, developed nation perspective), for example, teacher>pupil; doctor>patient and government>electorate.

From this:

• What driving forces or trends do we currently see as effecting hierarchical relationships in this way?
• Are they new forces or are we seeing the consequences of existing ones playing themselves out?
• What ‘future-states’ might we envision for such relationships?
• How might this notion be seen differently from a global perspective? What kind of differently configured social relationships may be subject to change in other parts of the world? (eg, what is the comparative Chinese, Japanese or Indian perspective?)

@guyyeomans

Associated links

The Future of Relationships #futrchat - Conversation summary

The Future of Relationships - a post by @CASUDI

The Future of Relationships & Technology - a post by @MareeConway

Future Shock - The Future of Relationships - a post by @justinpickard