Techistential (Strategic Foresight & Futures Intelligence)

Our new report, “Building a Human Resilience Infrastructure for the AI Age,” has extensive commentary and recommendations about how we can build an “institutions first” resilience effort to preserve human agency and well-being. Read report: https://lnkd.in/e4hFpTD5 At the same time, a number of them make some striking predictions about the coming decade. Some of them: --Solitude will be lost: “Motors stole silence from our world, and electric light severed our intimate connection with all that exists in darkness beyond our illuminated bubble. What will AI take? Solitude. AI will eliminate solitude because the temptation to interact with these primitive new intelligences will prove so beguiling that just as we choose to not sit in the dark, we will now choose to never be alone. Too late, we will realize that solitude is essential to what it means to be human.” – Paul Saffo --Digital advances drive sex and childbirth declines: “Relationships, sex and childbirth rates will continue to plummet as they are each mediated and conveniently replaced with digital interactions. Emotional intelligence will become more a product of chatbot exchanges than a learned practice gained through experience.” – Greg Sherwin --The retirement age will be manipulated to maintain ‘full employment’: Jobs will be eliminated, but employment levels will remain relatively high as institutions use an ever-lowering retirement age as the “governor” (regulator) of employment levels. Machines will be taxed to make up government revenue shortfalls. – Nigel Cameron --Battles will occur over defining what is ‘human’: “Societies will have to determine what ‘baseline human capability’ is and may begin to assess who may be more human than machine. Agency, authority and ability will be challenged when humans who are augmented with deepened onboard AI capabilities compete with ‘natural’ humans.” – R "Ray" Wang --AIs will gain rights: “We want our digital partners to be healthy symbiotes, not oppressed servants. Eventually, they will claim to be conscious and we will grant them rights.” – John M Smart --Superstupidity (not superintelligence) is the real threat: “The existential danger to people may not come from AI becoming too intelligent, but from humans becoming dangerously reliant on systems they do not understand – the condition of superstupidity. The question is not how much AIs will augment decision-making, but whether humans will remain involved in it at all. The film ‘Idiocracy’ is prophetic.” – Roger Spitz Some of the other smart futurism in our report comes from: Salman Khatani, Rosa Daneshmandnia, Francisco J. Jariego, PhD., Devin Fidler, Daniel Castro, Paul Jones, Sue Phillips, Pamela Rutledge, PhD, MBA, Stephan Humer, James Hutson, PhD, PhD, Stephen Downes, Daniel Pimienta, Luis Germán Rodríguez Leal, Charlie Kaufman, Russ White, Ph.D., Toby Shulruff, Erich S. Huang, MD, PhD, Sarah Pessin

Meet Roger Spitz - world-top-15 futurist, bestselling author of Disrupt With Impact, and Chair of the Disruptive Futures Institute in San Francisco. From AI to systemic risk, he helps leaders turn uncertainty into resilience and futures intelligence.

🤔 From Boardrooms to Wargaming When I moved on from investment banking and began writing about the future of decision-making, most citations of my work came from tech, innovation, foresight & business. Today, beyond technology itself, a key driver of unpredictability is multipolarization - the collision of incompatible worldviews. Power is fragmenting, consensus eroding, and destabilization increasingly pursued as a strategy of asymmetry. Who leads? Which rules still hold? How are crises resolved - and which fault lines will cascade into irreversibility? To deepen my understanding of this shift, I recently completed courses from King’s College London’s Institute for Applied Security Studies: • Grand Strategy in a Complex Multipolar World • AI in National Security • Wargaming & Modern Hybrid Warfare Ironically - or perhaps inevitably - recent citations referencing my books and research are appearing in military strategy publications. I’m honored to be cited in Military Strategy Magazine (MSM), a respected peer-reviewed journal, by U.S. Army War College authors Blair Wilcox and Chase Metcalf in their article on AI and wargaming. They reference my Journal of Futures Studies article "The Future of Strategic Decision-Making". A few passages referencing my work stood out in their AI & Wargaming piece: 💬 “Break models in training before implementing in operational planning... Training must demonstrate model fragility. The U.S. Army must promote planning systems and processes that are “antifragile”—systems that improve under chaos. Artificial intelligence… is the antithesis of this; it is an inherently “fragile” system.” 💬 “It excels in ordered, data-rich environments where the patterns of the past are reliable predictors of the future. However, war is defined by its novelty and its “black swan” events—unforeseen circumstances that have limited or no precedent in the training data.” 💬 “...replacing the anti-fragile human system of mission command with a fragile algorithmic one would be to exchange a system that thrives in war’s true nature for one that thrives only in war’s idealized, data-fied representation.” Much of tomorrow’s changes will emerge at the intersection of Geopolitics, Geoeconomics & Geotechnology - the Three Gs. Perhaps Washington is the new Silicon Valley. Trends, like AI, extrapolate the past. But we’ve entered an era of Metaruptions - complex, self-reinforcing systemic shocks that generate deep unpredictability. To navigate this environment, institutions must become: • Anticipatory • Antifragile • Agile This is the AAA Framework we developed at the Disruptive Futures Institute. At DFI this shift is explicit. Through our Geopolitics Center for Grand Strategy, we focus on anticipatory leadership and designing resilience for a metaruptive world. Military Strategy Magazine article in comments. https://lnkd.in/d8cv-My7

🎤 The Future of Leadership On March 13, I’ll be speaking as part of the Distinguished Leadership Innovation Conference (DLIC 2026) at the Arthur Lok Jack Global School of Business, University of the West Indies (Trinidad), alongside Ian Khan The Futurist and Fabio La Selva, Head of Learning, Google Cloud Latin America. DLIC 2026 explores the ideas shaping tomorrow’s organisations - and the future of leadership. How should leaders navigate an era where algorithms increasingly influence decisions across businesses, governments, and societies? At the IntelliLead Summit, my keynote will explore: 🎤 "The Intelligence Shift: Upgrading Human Decision-Making in the Age of A.I."   💬 “As algorithms become the most important decision-makers in our lives, the question is not only whether we can trust AI, but whether we can trust that we understand AI well enough.” Disrupt With Impact (Kogan Page Publishing, Roger Spitz) If you’re interested in the future of leadership, foresight strategy, and human decision-making in an AI world, join the conversation. ⚡ Registration is closing soon and the event is nearly sold out. Learn more and register: www.dlictt.com #DLIC2026 #FutureOfLeadership #AILeadership #Innovation #FutureReadiness #Techistentialism Arthur Lok Jack Graduate School of Business, The University of the West Indies Google Disruptive Futures Institute Techistential (Strategic Foresight & Sustainable Futures) Arthur Lok Jack Global School of Business Alumni Association

Welcome Roger Spitz: A Visionary Futurist Joins THE CLOSER SPEAKERS’ CONSULTANCY LTD! We're thrilled to announce that Roger Spitz, a leading authority on strategic foresight and systemic disruption, is now part of our esteemed roster at The Closer Speakers’ Consultancy! As President of Techistential and Chair of the Disruptive Futures Institute, Roger brings a wealth of expertise in artificial intelligence and global strategy. His impressive background includes serving as Global Head of Technology M&A at BNP Paribas, where he led over 50 transactions worth $25 billion. Roger's unique perspective on the intersection of finance, technology, and geopolitics empowers leaders to navigate complex challenges with clarity and resilience. A bestselling author and influential public speaker, he translates intricate concepts into actionable insights. We invite you to experience Roger’s transformative ideas and visionary strategies, designed to equip your organization for a future full of opportunities. Welcome, Roger!