One of the most hopeful things neuroscience tells us is that we are natural explorers. Curiosity isn’t a nice-to-have. It’s how learning happens.
Molecular biologist John Medina points out that, in learning environments, attention drops sharply after about ten minutes, unless emotion or meaning is involved. Which explains a lot about why people struggle with long, technical futures presentations, and why playful, experiential methods tend to unlock deeper insight.
In futures facilitation, curiosity does more than keep people engaged. It keeps the future open.
The moment a session becomes about “the right answer,” learning shuts down. The moment it becomes about an interesting question, people lean in.
That’s why I design futures work around questions, experiences, and shared sense-making, not predictions or expertise performances. Because as Medina has confirmed, the brain doesn’t learn by being told “the future”. It learns by being invited to explore it.