EDWARD DE BONO'S MESSAGE
27th July 1997

"2040 & Outstanding Matters"

What is the future going to look like? I suspect there will be a major breakthrough in biology and in medicine. In other areas I think the major changes will no longer come from new technology but from new concepts.

Some time ago I set out to explore some of the concepts that might come about over the next few years. The result was the quickest and cheapest production of a movie ever made. The movie (98 minutes) was made before lunch one day in the oldest continupusly operating film studio in the world: Nordisk Films in Copenhagen. The premier was help in Indianapolis and a second theatre was opened to handle the crowd.

I have not pursued general distribution of the movie which is called '2040'. The movie is now available as a video in either NTSC(USA) or PAL format.

The challenge in making the movie was to be able to show a lot of concepts rapidly. To dramatise each concept would have taken at least 15 minutes per concept. As there are about 38 concepts this would have been much too long. So I used the method that I use in my seminars. This is a way or rapidly visualising concepts. A'talking head' would have been very boring and confusing.

OUTSTANDING MATTERS:

I have been travelling so much that I have not had time to keep up with the website.

1. There are now 10 volumes of bontos and they are still coming in. Some of them are excellent and very clever. Maybe there should be published one day.
2. Word extension: some very creative ones going as far as twelve levels. As with the bontos this is also open to further contributions.
3. New Professions for the future. The intention is to open these as conference rooms for discussion with those who have contributed acting as hosts and inviting other mebers of the Creative Team to participate.
4. Curriculum for the new 'Value Design' profession. This is proving rather hard. Even though the matter will become so very important it is difficult to know where to start. There is a great need for creative approaches. So tackle the challenge.
5. Stage 2 of the democracy project will be re-visited again as the categorisation of the faults in democracy was not as crisp as it might have been.

Edward de Bono
26th July 1997
London