Albert Einstein supposedly once said that he was interested in the future because the future was the time he would be living in. Looking beyond the merely aphoristic quality of Einstein’s statement, we quickly discover that we are all deeply interested in the future. Planning ahead, always “creatively operating for the next moment” (as futurist Werner Mittelstaed puts it), our actions—whether we are identifying career options, scrutinizing possible investment opportunities, or strategizing our own voting behavior—are all concerned with the future.[1] In the present, the future is a highly relevant sphere of action.

When we talk about the future in the following essay, we refer to a time horizon of approximately fifteen to twenty-five years. Decisions and actions concerning such long-time horizons are strategic. The strategic dimension naturally implies a fundamental quality of uncertainty because we are seeking knowledge of developments that have yet to happen.