We are living in a time of great change, a time when we are surrounded by unexpected and generous opportunity, and also by danger.  This is an important time to talk amongst ourselves so that we can share, see, and understand the promise and peril of our times.  And even more importantly, so that we can create a future full of health, opportunity, and options.

Really, that’s the basic reason I’m a futurist.

Here’s what I do about it:

Obviously, first and foremost, I’m a science fiction writer.  Yes, that is a futurist task – not for every story or even every book, but often.  Many of our true visionaries have been science fiction writers.  Ursula LeGuin.  Jules Verne. George Orwell.  Ray Bradbury.  David Brin.  Arthur C. Clark.  I could expand this list easily.   Yes, I want to be as good as they are!  I write fiction almost every day, and I’m up to forty or fifty published stories and six novels.  One of my favorite places to write for is Nature Magazine.  They publish short shorts on the last page of the magazine.  Here are links to my stories there:

• Mind Expeditions
• Tea with Jillian
• For the Love of Mechanical Minds
• A Hand and Honor

I’ve been talking with, learning from, and writing for noted futurist Glen Hiemstra for over a decade.  I admire Glen because he is both positive and realistic.  Consider dropping by Futurist.com to learn more about Glen’s work.

I’m a member of the Futurist Board at the LifeBoat Foundation, which seeks to assure that we survive as a species.  It is a wild and crazy place full of brilliant people.  I won’t pretend to agree with them all for even a moment, but I’m often learning by association.

There are a number of ways I work to contribute to the public dialogue about the future.  I  keynote business events and talk to schools.  I only do a few talks a year, solely because of time, although I can regularly be found at science fiction conventions talking about the future on panels.  Some of my next appearances will be at the World Science Fiction Convention in Texas and at Orycon in Orgeon.  The next place you can catch me giving a solo talk about the future in a public forum will be at the World Future Society meeting in Chicago in the summer of 2013.

If you’d like to find out if I’m available for a specific event, please use the contact form.

Lastly, I am a technology professional.  That is also a tangentially futurist profession.  I work for the City of Kirkland as the CIO, which means that I spend some time looking forward at how technology can help citizens.