The futures triangle maps today’s views of the future through three dimensions. The image
of the future pulls an organization forward. Each organization or institution has contending
images of the future. At the global macro level, while there are many images of the future, five
or so are archetypal. These are: 1) evolution and progress — more technology, man as the
centre of the world, and a belief in rationality; 2) collapse — a belief that man has reached his
limits, indeed he has overshot them: world inequity, fundamentalism, tribalism, nuclear
holocaust, climate disasters: all point to a worsening of the future; 3) Gaia — the world is a
garden, cultures are its flowers, we need social technologies to repair the damage we have
caused to ourselves, to others and to nature, becoming more and more inclusive is what is
important. Partnership between women and men, humans and nature, and humans and
technology are the next evolutionary jumps; 4) globalism — barriers between nations and
cultures can be eliminated once we move to a free market system. Technology and the free flow
of capital can bring riches to all. Traditional isms and dogmas are the barriers stopping us from
achieving a new world; and, 5) back to the future — we need to return to simpler times, when
hierarchy was clearer, when technology was less disruptive, when the rules of hierarchy were
clear. Change is overwhelming; we have lost our way and must return.