Dateline: July 4 2029
We have been lied to, and we are still being lied to on a grand scale, by government agencies, banks, businesses, advertisers, politicians, scientists and experts.
Not that we can really blame the individuals. They’ve been drinking the corporate Kool-Aid, toeing the party line and serving up the consensus for so long that they believe their own narratives so deeply they treat them as fact.
As futurist Craig Wing warned us back in 2025, the “con-onomy” thrives on grift. In times of crisis and uncertainty we tend to believe the confident con man who deftly provides solutions and answers, rather than raising doubt with critical questions.
Even opposing schools of thought, hotly debated online and sometimes in parliament too, are likely both false, but with some degree of truthiness to give them credence. And AI has made it worse — far worse. The AI models were all trained on human data, with human biases and beliefs baked in, and can’t be trusted as objective fact.
A perfect example is the case of the student who was sanctioned for plagiarism by an AI checker, itself powered by AI. Turns out, the work the student was accused of plagiarising didn’t exist. It was an AI hallucination.
But the biggest, most common lies of all are the ones we tell ourselves. It’s just the way the world has worked for centuries. Belief in fictional social constructs like nations, morals, religions, markets and laws is the glue that holds society together and allows business to flourish.
A stablecoin is only stable if we — collectively — have faith in its stability. It’s a fiction that we all subscribe to, making it conveniently true. So, tell me lies, sweet little lies. Don’t break the world with the ugly truth. /First published in Mindbullets July 3 2025
Never let inconvenient facts get in the way of a good story
Dateline: September 12 2023
In the post-capitalist, post-digital, post-fact world of the 2020s we’ve come to recognise that belief is all-important, and facts don’t really matter.
Belief in “fictions” is what holds society together, and what makes markets work. Without a common purpose, a shared belief that the system works, no-one would be prepared to enter into a mutually beneficial transaction, which is what markets are all about: co-operation.
In point of immaterial fact all of the earliest forms of social co-operation and human endeavour relied on belief systems that are devoid of supporting evidence or factual provability. From the divine right of kings, to any religion, to simple trust in social norms, facts hinder rather than help the process. Belief is essential.
The global financial system elevated this to a new level. Without faith in the dollar, trust in the yuan or belief that the fiction called the euro actually has value, the whole edifice would collapse in a heap. The only value bitcoin has is the belief that others believe it to be valuable. The only banks that are trusted are the ones that are trusted.
Back in 2017 a Harvard study found that — if you can believe it — people, once convinced about an issue, wouldn’t change their minds even when presented with undeniable facts to the contrary. Remember “alternative facts” in the age of Trump and Brexit? Social media proved that influence beats science, time and again. Never mind deepfake videos.
Which is why good debaters can win the argument from either side of a controversial issue. Perception is reality; if most people believe something, it must be true. Persuasive communication is the critical skill, and a trusted brand the most valuable business asset. And facts don’t matter. /First published in Mindbullets September 12 2019
Despite appearances to the contrary, Futureworld cannot and does not predict the future. The Mindbullets scenarios are fictitious and designed purely to explore possible futures, and challenge and stimulate strategic thinking.
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