The Futures Cone: Preposterous to Plausible

Mar 10, 2026

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What if thinking about the future isn't about predicting what will happen — but about mapping what could? In this episode of Modem Futura, Sean and Andrew dive deep into one of the most foundational tools in futures studies: the Futures Cone. Originally developed by Joseph Voros, the cone is a deceptively simple framework that helps individuals, organizations, and communities move beyond the comfortable illusion that tomorrow will just be a slightly improved version of today. Instead, it invites us to explore the full landscape of what might be — from the probable and plausible, all the way out to the possible and the genuinely preposterous.

The conversation traces the geometry of the cone layer by layer: from that familiar "projected future" where most of us live by default, through the probable and plausible, into the possible and the outer ring of the preposterous — a space that isn't meant to be dismissed, but treated as a productive boundary for creative thinking. Along the way, Sean and Andrew unpack the Dator-Clarke Line, the tension between expert knowledge and unbounded creativity, and why futures work insists on asking "what would we prefer?" — not just what seems inevitable.

Then things get wonderfully weird. A casual thought experiment about frogs and metamorphosis spirals into a genuinely fascinating exploration of interstellar travel, human hibernation, adaptive biology, and what it might mean to send pods of reconstituted human "goop" across the galaxy. It's exactly the kind of thinking the Futures Cone is built for: starting preposterous, and arriving somewhere surprisingly plausible. Whether you're new to futures thinking or deep in the practice, this episode is an invitation to give yourself permission to imagine beyond the straight line.

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Host Bios:

Sean M. Leahy, PhD - ASU Bio
Sean is an internationally recognized technologist, futurist, and educator innovating humanistic approaches to emerging technology through a Futures Studies approach. He is the Executive Director for the Future of Being Human Initiative and Research Scientist for the School for the Future of Innovation in Society and Senior Global Futures Scholar with the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Futures Laboratory at Arizona State University.

Andrew Maynard, PhD - ASU Bio
Andrew is a scientist, author, thought leader, and Professor of Advanced Technology Transitions in the ASU School for the Future of Innovation in Society. He is the founder of the ASU Future of Being Human initiative, Director of the ASU Risk Innovation Nexus, and was previously Associate Dean in the ASU College of Global Futures.

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