Fables & Folklore for the Future

Part 1: Understanding Time Across Cultures

by Lil Zhang

Introduction

Moleskin Sketches III by Pedro Correa (pedrocorrea.com)

When we think of myths and legends, we might think of those from our past history, the ones embedded in our cultures as relics of how our ancestors understood the world. They are preserved as lessons, warnings, and reasonings from worlds that sought to make sense of what lay beyond the tools of their time. This form of knowledge-sharing is as old as written language itself, perhaps older had it been recorded, stretching back beyond even the Epic of Gilgamesh. We may see these stories as remnants of the past, but the weight of their cultural narratives and values still shapes our belief systems and worldview today. As futurists, we too seek to make sense of what lies beyond our times, which begs the question: what role might lore play in shaping our visions of the future?

Fortune-telling and divination have long been futuring devices across cultures. Throughout my own life, my Vietnamese-Buddhist family consulted a fortune teller for life decisions such as marriages, financial investments, and family planning. Similarly in China, the practice of suan ming drew on Taoist and Confucian principles to choose auspicious dates and names that aligned with a more fortunate future. The Romani used tarot cards, the Japanese practiced omikuji, the Celtic Druids gazed into crystal balls, and palm reading can be traced back to the Sumerians and Babylonians. Across history, there has been no shortage of attempts to foresee what lies ahead. However, these practices are distinct from the study of futures today. While older forecasting methods are rooted in mysticism and esotericism aimed at prediction, contemporary futures work uses empirical tools to drive imagination, anticipation, and preparation. However, I still believe that the older frameworks resonate better with most people, and by drawing on them we may discover new ways to invite others into the practice of studying the future.

Cultural Considerations

While the future might appear to be a universally-understood concept, I find it difficult to discuss the future with someone without also addressing what time means to them. Recently, while watching the A24 film Past Lives by Celine Song, I was struck by the Korean concept of inyeon, described as “divine providence” or a kind of fate that accumulates in layers across lifetimes. I could grasp these ideas in my own way, having understood reincarnation most of my life. The idea of past lives and reincarnation actually appears across many traditions, including Hinduism, Hasidic Judaism, and Inuit beliefs, though each interprets it differently. For example, rather than layers, Buddhists see the building blocks of fate as sankharas, which are the mental formations or impressions one picks up throughout their life that then binds their soul to the endless cycle of rebirth until the shankharas are released through enlightenment. Understanding these paradigms is key to translating futurist work with different communities. For futurists who see time as linear, the past holds only lessons. For futurists who see time as cyclical, the past is the fate of the future. Pitirim Sorokin’s pendulum theory somewhat illustrates this notion, suggesting that sociocultural systems swing between contradicting ideas over and over again. In this view, the future is not a straight line forward but a return swing, led as a response to the events of the past. 

Further, the languages we speak are often indicative of how we understand the world around us. Time itself is understood differently because our cultural spatial experiences affect our perspective on time. (Figure 1) For example, some groups perceive time as moving forward, while others see themselves moving with their backs to the future, able to see the past but not the future. This particular perspective is reflected in my Vietnamese language, with past tense tied to the spatial concept of “backwardness.” The Chinese language also imagines time differently; last week is ‘above,’ next week is ‘below.’ In this culture, the past looms over us while the future lies beneath our feet. For the Pormpuraaw, the past is in the east while the future is in the west, following the path of the sun. So while futurists may align in practices of forecasting, the diversity of interpretations urges us to explore those differences in order to communicate a rich and comprehensive understanding of our futures.

Figure 1. “Which Way Is Tomorrow?” seen in Scientific American depicting how different cultures use spatial metaphors to make sense of time.

Futuring Using Folk Knowledge

While the ancestral forms of foresight is often well-understood due to it being a pervasive tool in mainstream storytelling, the empirical form seems to be exclusively studied and understood by experts, academics, and interest groups. It seems that this divorce is an opportunity for opening up forecasting practices and speculative discussions to be more participatory. The Te Korekoreka (Figure 2) is a futuring tool from the Maori tradition that does just that. It serves as a framework for which to understand the future and provides a distinct process that guides futures thinking. The Te Korekoreka also looks similar to the Institute for the Future’s foresight process, which is broken into Prepare, Foresight, Insight, Action phases. By the same token, the African philosophy of Ubuntu (Figure 3) somewhat mirrors the Causal Layered Analysis with actions and behaviors preceded by layers of ukama (relations), ujamaa (community), ujamii (society), imvelo (environment), and uroho (spirituality).  It suggests that we can marry some of the tools in our toolbox, such as the Delphi Method or the Futures Wheel, to ways of thinking already commonly adopted. 

Figure 2. The four realms of Te Korekoreka: 1. “Te Ao Tūroa is a physical, tangible, and material realm that we can see, touch and measure.” 2. The Te Kore is “the realm where we can connect with the past in order to understand the whakapapa of the situation we are working with. 3. “Te Pō is creative and regenerative realm where our visions start to become clear and new ideas start to take shape and become real.” 4. “Te Ao Mārama is about creating positive change through our own agency and actions.”

Figure 3. A diagram from the Ubuntu philosophy representing the various layers of influence on a person and their actions/behaviors/outcomes.

Further, the Futures Wheels seems apt to be combined with the Pacific Talanoa Circles that seeks to identify secondary and tertiary effects of a phenomenon through collective storytelling or Aboriginal Australian "songlines," also known as "dreaming tracks," that map out the connectedness of places and events. It could also be as simple as using the terms that are well-understood. A good example of this is the Delphi Method was named after the Oracle of Delphi so we may see a place for glossary integration as these tools become more widely used.

Myth as a Method

In weaving together ancient traditions with modern foresight, we not only ground our work in the worldviews already adopted and understood, we also democratize access to futurist work. The stories, rituals, and beliefs that have always guided our communities can serve as powerful mental models for today’s futuring methods, lending emotional truth and historical weight to what might otherwise feel abstract or academic. Rather than viewing lore and divination as opposed to empirical methods, we should see them as parallel pathways, working together to make sense of things beyond us. In this way, lore becomes more than historical artifacts; it is a lens through which we can explore the futures we collectively envision. Personally, as an emerging futurist, I hope to let the stories of my ancestors guide me as I “back into” the future, looking to the past while listening for new signals of what’s to come.

© Lian (Lil) Tran-Zhang, 2025

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Lian (Lil) Tran-Zhang is a Design Researcher and Futurist focused on combining her academic foundation in neuroscience, cognitive science, and human-computer interaction with her passion for speculative design and strategic foresight. Currently based at a global design studio, she partners with clients, ranging from startups to tech giants, to craft innovative solutions in areas such as sustainability, robotics, AI, and social media. Beyond her professional work, Lil is deeply engaged in grassroots community organizing, weaving her commitment to designing a better future into her community.