I come to writing about the future from a deep and abiding interest in the history of wrong ideas. I am interested in the question of just what makes an idea a wrong idea. Once it was probably a 'right' idea which contributed to the way people understood their world, the world of `what is'. Then it becomes an idea which no longer describes `what is' but instead describes `what can't be'. In similar vein, the knowledge base of futures studies might be taken as constituted by ideas, yet to be labelled right or wrong, about ‘what might be’.

Articles with a futures focus:

'The history of wrong ideas, and their future' in Futures Studies: methods, emerging issues and civilisational visions, CDROM, Prosperity Press, Brisbane, 1998.

'Perfection as a lifestyle choice' Journal of Futures Studies, forthcoming 2002

The Accidental Futurist

'Bubbles in the cosmic saucepan', in Changing Life: genomes, ecologies, Bodies. Commodities, ed. Peter J. Taylor et al, University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, 1997, pp. 196-201.Reprinted in The Travelling Tide, 2005.

'Knowing your genes: who will have the last laugh?' in R. Hindmarsh, G. Lawrence, and Janet Norton (eds), Altered genes: Reconstructing Nature, Allen and Unwin, Sydney, 1998, pp120-131. Revised version reprinted in second edition, Altered Genes: the future? Edited by Richard Hindmarsh and Geoffrey Lawrence Scribe Publications, Melbourne, 2001, pp112-125.

'Fantasy and the future', Futures,, 30, 1998, pp.175-179.

'Humanity 3000', Futures Research Quarterly, 15, 1999, pp. 83-88.

‘Robot Futures: science fiction and futures studies methodologies in action’, Futures 33, 2001, pp 883-889.

'Essence of Ismay'