Epaminondas Christophilopoulos, a foresight and innovation advisor and UNESCO Chair on Futures Research, shares fascinating insights from his extensive career. He discusses the importance of a 'futures mindset' in navigating global challenges like climate change and technology. Christophilopoulos also explores the transformative role of art in society and introduces the SPF game for fostering creative foresight. Additionally, he delves into Russian Cosmism, a radical philosophical perspective aimed at transformative societal changes.
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A Winding Career Path
Epaminondas Christophilopoulos's career path was non-linear, starting in physics and moving through environmental science, technology transfer, and international cooperation.
His involvement in foresight began during the Greek economic crisis, leading to a rollercoaster of roles including UNESCO Chair and advisor to the Prime Minister.
question_answer ANECDOTE
MOMus and Art's Impact
MOMus, the Metropolitan Organization of Museums of Visual Arts of Thessaloniki, comprises five museums covering various art forms.
Christophilopoulos's involvement began with a future-themed exhibition, and he now serves as chairman, impacting the local community through art.
insights INSIGHT
Russian Cosmism's Influence
Russian Cosmism, a 20th-century philosophical and art movement, explored space colonization and immortality.
This movement significantly influenced the Soviet Union's pioneering role in space exploration.
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Technology, Power, and the Twenty-first Century's Greatest Dilemma
Mustafa Suleyman
The Coming Wave delves into the impending technological revolution driven by AI and synthetic biology, arguing that this wave will have a more dramatic impact on humanity than any previous technological advancement. Suleyman discusses how these technologies will create immense prosperity but also threaten the nation-state and global order. He examines historical technological waves and their societal implications, proposing the 'containment problem' as the essential challenge of our age. The book explores the potential for catastrophic harms, overbearing surveillance, and the need to forge a path between catastrophe and dystopia. Suleyman offers 10 steps to contain the rapid expansion of these technologies, though he acknowledges the complexity and potential failure of such containment efforts[1][3][5].
The Post-Truth Business
Sean Pillot de Chenecey
Series Five
This episode of The New Abnormal podcast features Epaminondas Christophilopoulos, who is a Foresight, Strategy, Innovation and long-term planning advisor to government, private corporations and NGOs.
A highly experienced foresight researcher with an extensive track-record on international projects and sound academic credentials, he's an expert on internationalization and research commercialization, and has managed projects in Asia, Latin America, and Africa.
With a track record on several boards and expert advisory role in public policy institutions in Innovation, Culture, Agrofood, Environment, Security; Epaminondas is a UNESCO Chair on Futures Research, the President of MOMus, and is the ex-Chief Scientific Advisor for Foresight to the Greek Prime Minister.
In this episode we cover all of the above, along with his views on a range of catalytic issues being discussed in futurist-circles in 2025. And, as a bonus, he also discusses 'Russian Cosmism' a radical biopolitical utopian perspective espoused by the philosopher Nikolai Fedorov in the late 19th C, in which he 'rejected the contemplative for the transformative, aiming to create not merely new art or philosophy but a new world'.
The New Abnormal 
