In the paper we analyse the notion of ‘black swan’ as popularised by Taleb (2007). We

propose that in the context of the futures’ imagination, a black swan can be defined as hybrid

that integrates local knowledge with multiple temporal scales, combining past, present and

future tenses. As empirical material, we analyse the short stories from a writing contest held

by the Finnish Parliament’s Committee for the Future. The material contains 132 short stories.

The analysis gives intriguing insights into how Finnish people – from different locales,

of different ages and with differing educational and professional backgrounds – imagine different futures.