Are we capable of imagining new possibilities? After all, you can only create what you can see. This can be a challenge, especially for those of us who think in fixed categories. We tend to see the world through what we already know. But do we rely too much on what we’ve been taught?

Think about what we know about our surroundings — the landscape we live in. If you don’t know that the Veluwe in the East of the Netherlands was formed by a glacier that reached from Scandinavia to our country, you can’t fully understand its hills, boulders, and streams. The same goes for the many traces of human activity: burial mounds, medieval cart tracks, or bomb craters from World War II. You won’t notice them if you don’t know what to look for. As Marjoleine de Vos writes in her book Je keek te ver, “Seeing is something you must learn.”

One way to bring the future closer, was to learn about different ways I could interact with the future. Each perspective provided me with ways to think and act. I describe three types of futures — which is not a complete list, but a useful starting point.

First, there is the probable future, where current trends continue without much change. A major pitfall here is assuming that tomorrow will look much like today. This leads to a linear view of the future, where we miss sudden changes and surprises. It’s difficult to break out of this mindset. Think of IBM’s Thomas Watson, who in 1943 couldn’t see how computers — then the size of a room — could one day have a global market. Even someone with deep knowledge of computers underestimated their future potential. We often fall into this trap of linear thinking without even realizing it.

Then there is the space of possible futures, where new ideas are tested and explored. Artists, scientists, and other pioneers push the boundaries of what we think is possible. They help us see beyond the limits of what we currently know. This isn’t always easy — new ideas often face resistance because they challenge what people are used to or can imagine. But thinking in this way helps expand our sense of what the future could be.

Finally, there is the desirable future — a vision shaped by our hopes and values. This is where we define what truly matters to us and what we want to see grow. To build a desirable future, we need to look closely at our own assumptions and beliefs. This process helps us imagine a future that aligns with what we care about most. The search for a better world is, at its core, a search for a desirable future.