How to predict the future with Jane McGonigal

Published: June 30, 2022, 4 a.m.

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Future forecaster and game designer Jane McGonigal ran a social simulation game in 2008 that had players dealing with the effects of a respiratory pandemic set to happen in the next decade. She wasn\\u2019t literally predicting the 2020 pandemic\\u2014but she got eerily close. Her game, set in 2019, featured scenarios we're now familiar with (like masking and social distancing), and participant reactions gave her a sense of what the world could\\u2014and eventually, did\\u2014look like. How did she do it? And what can we learn from this experiment to predict\\u2014and prepare for\\u2014the future ourselves? In this episode, Jane teaches us how to be futurists, and talks about the role of imagination\\u2014and gaming\\u2014in shaping a future that we\\u2019re truly excited about. Jane\\u2019s new book, Imaginable: How to See the Future Coming and Feel Ready for Anything\\u2015Even Things That Seem Impossible Today is available now.

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