From The Golden Institute project by Sascha Pohflepp

A favourite device of ours in ‘walking the landscape of possible futures’ is to imagine a counterfactual – a ‘what if’ version of history where changing one or two factors results in a recognisable but very different present or future.

A favourite example of ours is Sascha Pohflepp’s “Golden Institute” project, which I mentioned in a recent piece posted on my personal blog – about the power of using counterfactuals to imagine ways out of our current energy and climate woes:

“…thinking through these kind of ‘counterfactual’ scenarios can throw up interesting possibilities. When we’re ready to think about throwing away the things that we hold most precious, we can see new ways to hold on to them.”

» Magicalnihilism.com: The Positive Energy of Counterfactuals