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The long view: a conversation with the father of futurism

Ideas, scenarios and views. Fundamentally, that’s the life of Peter Schwartz. The senior vice president of strategic planning for Salesforce speaks to Emmet Ryan about why he doesn’t believe in virtual reality but is a huge fan of augmented reality, why companies shouldn’t seek the next Steve Jobs, and how his latest role may be his most challenging yet

Peter Schwartz: why he doesn’t believe in virtual reality, but is a huge fan of augmented reality

Peter Schwartz is many things but one thing the man known as the ‘father of futurism’ isn’t, is shy about his views. Just ask him about the metaverse.

“The metaverse is a dumb idea, it won’t happen. I first tried virtual reality (VR) in 1991. It was funky then, it is now too. It’s better but it isn’t good enough to create a whole ecosystem where lots of people do lots of things. I think ...