• by Jack Feuer , August 1, 2007

If you tried to sell Takeshi Kovacs anything except a new body, he'll kill you with a flick of his wrist. Of course, 500 years from now, anyone could digitally store their personalities and download them into a new "sleeve," so maybe that's not so much of a problem.

In 2054, your media strategy will, of course, include dataflow and Yox, the dominant communications channels. Except the word "media" is extinct, so you might have a hard time explaining what you're doing -- or why. But planning and buying in 2380 should be a breeze, since we're all constantly linked -- through our tattoos -- to an interstellar Internet whose "pipes" are wormholes on every inhabited planet.

Welcome to the futures. Three of them, anyway, which you can find in 2007 under "Science Fiction" at amazon.com and written by, respectively, Richard Morgan (Altered Carbon), Greg Bear (Queen of Angels) and Peter F. Hamilton (Pandora's Star).

I write this column about once every three years, and you never listen. So here it is again: Stop hiring cultural anthropologists and Internet geeks to demonstrate how forward-thinking you are. Just start reading science fiction. Better yet, start hiring science fiction writers.

When you come right down to it, the zeitgeist is your business. Fantastic storytellers are always pondering where the zeitgeist is going next. Some of these scenarios extrapolate from our own "modern" media landscape. Some are flights of fancy nobody today has even thought of, at least not yet. Few of them ever contain the words "consumer," "advertising," "marketing" or "Marc Goldstein," but don't let that scare you.

These stories are all grist for the truly ingenious media mind.

Some of you get this. A little. It's kind of why we're now seeing execs with digital backgrounds popping up at the head of media agencies, like Scott Neslund at MindShare. And, inevitably, David Verklin is still a of couple steps ahead of the rest. He didn't just see the future, but moved into it, merging Carat USA and Carat Fusion.

It's a good beginning. Now, go farther. Fire up your sense of wonder, and get some science fiction stalwarts on staff.

I know your clients say they want good ideas for 2008, but what they really need is for you to map the marketplace of 2010, and if you truly want to become invaluable, you might even venture as far as 2054 with your counsel. Sounds fantastic, doesn't it? Exactly.

Get your head in the clouds, where it belongs. If you want your clients (even the ones without tattoos) to think of you as visionaries, don't just reach for the moon. Head for the stars.