30th
This is a great post by Jamais Cascio, who is the co-founder of WorldChanging.com, among other awesome things. In his post, Jamais asks:
“When the world seems to be falling down all around us, can we afford to spend our time thinking about the future?”
He acknowledges that:
“In the midst of ongoing wars, accelerating economic collapse, and cascading environmental ruin, it’s easy to dismiss futurism as self-indulgence, a superficial pastime devoted to spotting the next hot gizmo or telling us all how some coming development changes everything.”
But he goes on to argue, eloquently, that:
“Thinking about the future is fundamentally important to dealing with the challenges of today. In order to confront these problems successfully, we have to think carefully about the implications and results of the steps we might take, not just in the immediate moment, but as conditions continue to evolve. As we’ve seen time and again, it’s all too easy for actions that seem reflexively correct to lead to far greater crises down the road. Futurism — or, as I prefer to articulate it, structured thinking about the future — is a means of putting both the problems we face today and the solutions we might try in a larger context.”
I highly recommend reading the entire post. If you don’t have the time, here is the money quote:
“Futures thinking is perhaps better understood as an immune system for our civilization. By examining and testing different possible outcomes — potential threats, emerging ideas, exciting opportunities — we strengthen our collective capacity to deal with what really does transpire. Thinking about the future, and doing so in a careful, structured, open and collaborative way, makes us a stronger civilization.”
Golly it’s fun to write about smart people! Jamais will be speaking at the upcoming Singularity Institute, btw.
