Many of us frequently wonder what will happen in the future. During uncertain times, especially, we wonder how to foresee and prepare for possible changes and disruptions ahead. Futurists are always thinking forward — aligned with some of the most innovative principles of thinking and operating. Their foresight helps many people envision a better future for humanity and even some direction for how we experience the world in various sectors.
Well-known futurists from Dr. James Bellini and Katie King have offered society a peek into what futurists think about emerging trends in technology and their place in education or business.
Other futurists take their focus a step further. Dylan Taylor, the world’s most active space investor and co-founder and CEO of Voyager Space, is a shining example of a forward-thinking futurist. Not only does he lead others into the next era of space exploration but he is also helping us reshape the way we think about human presence in space and the myriad of benefits that space exploration can bring us and our planet.
For some, the question remains: how does one think like a futurist — and what characteristics can we develop to help us prepare for the future?
Identify Trends, Ignore Fads
Knowing what the future holds is a complex process where futurists have to identify connected and underlying events to make observations and predictions of larger “megatrends” that will shape our future. Futurists also have to identify the temporary effects that these events are producing – now.
An important part of Dylan Taylor’s role in the space sector has focused on asking the right questions about trends in the industry, from investment practices to the new technologies that will get us back to the Moon and beyond. Fads are fleeting. But Taylor as an anticipatory leader, has been able to foresee how megatrends are at work beneath the surface affecting everything from space agtech to space exploration’s significant impact on the global economy.
Foresight to Look for Signals and Patterns
“Always in motion is the future” according to Yoda. Historical data has some predictive value but traditionally it has not always given us an accurate view of what to expect. Paying attention to signals and patterns – historic, current, or emerging – is essential in the skillset of any practicing futurist. Smaller developments happening on the side can often affect larger events in unforeseen ways and large, seemingly influential events can suddenly drop off the front page. In the space industry, Taylor has identified and examined smaller, less attention-grabbing factors such as how space education is going to be essential for us to better understand our purpose in space and on Earth. How data can be collated and employed to help support sustainable development on Earth is not going to happen without an educated workforce.
The purpose of aggregating signals and figuring out how they connect to a wide-scale trend is to help spot emergent patterns. Democratization, for instance, is a pattern that allows people and economies to expand and thrive. Taylor has argued for democratizing space access, and how to employ these principles for the benefit of humanity on Earth.
On a recent Apple podcast “Casual Space with Beth Mund”, Taylor said “We have some real global challenges. Climate change, income inequality, mass migration caused by civil unrest, geopolitics, etc. My thesis is that the reason those problems seem intractable is because we really don’t have the right context to evaluate those problems. We don’t really have the right view, that we’re all humans, on a rock floating in the middle of space, squabbling over (in my mind) tiny differences. I’m all about space as a contextual reorientation that allows you to see things clearer, and in a more enlightened way.”
Leadership for United Communities
One pattern many often see from futurists is their ability to foresee how people should come together to achieve a goal and what impediments might stand in the way. No one can make a better future for humanity alone or do so with only one school of thought. Futurists require the ability to lead and to listen to a diverse range of thoughts and perspectives to help give themselves and everyone else more insight and feedback.
Dylan Taylor’s leadership at Voyager Space is a great example of bringing together a community of scientists, space manufacturers, investors, philanthropists to focus on the larger goal of thriving space exploration opportunities and supporting a diverse and growing space economy. Not only that, Taylor is a big proponent of international collaboration in space. As the co-founder of Space for Humanity, a social impact nonprofit, Taylor aims to invest in the space community to uphold the mission to expand access to space, train the leaders of tomorrow, and contribute to a culture of interconnectedness.Indeed, one of the main drivers for Dylan Taylor’s investment in the space sector’s ever-growing community is the idea of helping humanity grow and thrive — and it’s that futurist mindset that helps him envision how humans can work and live in space, “The ROI of space is infinite. Humanity 2.0, a reimagining of what we could be- a more aspirational inspirational viewpoint is amazing, and space holds the canvas that we can paint that future on to,” says Taylor.
Taylor serves as a great example of how we can prepare and serve each other to create a better world and how we should think and possibly even prepare for that world — on and off Earth — in the future.
For three or four generations space has presented humanity with an exciting opportunity. After half a century of trying everything at least once – perhaps twice – we now have a basic grasp of how things can be done more efficiently in space. And with that efficiency comes cost effectiveness, broader benefits to an ever-growing population, and an increasingly diverse cadre of space explorers.
The space frontier is now opening wider than it ever has. Futurists like Dylan Taylor seek to keep these space opportunities as wide and diverse as the vast expanse of humanity seeking to play a role in this great endeavor.
