Dutch sociologist and Holocaust survivor Frederik Lodewijk Polak’s massive future studies text The Image of the Future makes a bold statement about optimism and pessimism, creating four categories of belief about the future, divided on two axes: things are improving/worsening; and people can/can’t do something about the future.
From this taxonomy, Peter Hayward from Swinburne University created the “Polak Game,” played in workshops to help participants clarify their views about the future and where those views stem from, and what those points of view erases, and what they elevate. The game was picked up by CMU’s Stuart Candy, and spread to many other contexts, mutating as it went, becoming a favorite at places like the Institute for the Future (Jane McGonigal and Mark wrote about it in this IFTF report).
In a joint paper for the Journal of Future Studies, Hayward and Candy describe the game’s inception, uses, history and lessons.
I definitely belong in the bottom right quadrant: things are getting worse, but it is in our power to do something about them. That’s basically the premise of my novel Walkaway.
