The Vision Thing: From Black Mirror to Foresight Planning

  • Panel
  • Le Baixu
  • Friday 23.05 — 11:50 - 13:05

Organising Institution

CRISP

United Kingdom

  • Academic 3
  • Business 1
  • Policy 2
This panel will explore how different organisations and society perceive and plan for the future, especially in relation to the evolution of new digital technologies. This visioning is especially important where the technologies being considered have potential societal harms, such as those associated with enhanced surveillance and/or privacy infringements. Foresight mechanisms can include trend monitoring and analysis, scenario planning, technology road mapping, and foresight workshops and innovation labs. They are designed to help organisations plan for the future. In this panel we will explore the processes of foresight planning from distinctly different perspectives, including from commercial, service, regulatory and literary perspectives. The speakers will contrast how the future is perceived in science fiction, by futurists, and by those who promote, use and regulate such technologies.

Questions to be answered

  1. How do organisations plan for different technological futures?
  2. How do societal attitudes shape technological diffusion?
  3. How is the diffusion of controversial technologies managed?
  4. How does technological fiction in literature, film and media shape diffusion?

Moderator

William Webster

Centre for Research into Information, Surveillance and Privacy (CRISP) - United Kingdom

William Webster is Professor of Public Policy and Management at the Stirling Management School, University of Stirling. He is a Director of CRISP. Professor Webster is an international expert on the governance of surveillance, especially in relation to public surveillance cameras. He is Editor-in-Chief of the journal 'Information Polity', chair of the Scottish Privacy Forum and co-Chairs of the Routledge 'Studies in Surveillance' Book series, as well as a specialist advisor to the Office of the Biometrics and Surveillance Camera Commissioner and the Scottish Biometrics Commissioner.

Speaker

Greg Singh

University of Stirling - United Kingdom

Greg Singh is Professor in Media and Society at the University of Stirling, UK. He has published on an extensive range of topics, including YouTube and lifestyle television, cinephilia, CGI, videogames, and open data. Books include Film After Jung (2009); Feeling Film (2013); The Death of Web 2.0 (2019) and Black Mirror: Allegories for the Atomised (2025) (all Routledge).

Speaker

Patricia Lustig

Association of Professional Futurists (APF) - Netherlands

Patricia Lustig is an internationally recognised strategic foresight and futures thinking practitioner. She is the author of 6 books and numerous other publications including her Substack, It’s Not All Bad. She runs LASA Insight Ltd. and is Emeritus Director of the Association of Professional Futurists (APF) flagship Emerging Fellows Programme. She was a Board Member of the APF for 6 years.

Speaker

Antonia Mochan

Joint Research Centre, European Commission - Europe

Antonia Mochan is Deputy Head of the EU Policy Lab Unit in the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre. The EU Policy Lab focuses on bringing foresight, design and behavioural insights to EU policymaking. She also works on technology foresight within the team.