Social and Cultural Trends Sessions at the WorldFuture 2011 Conference

There is no doubt that humans have made technological progress, from the first bone tool made real in Stanley Kubrick’s iconic movie 2001: A Space Odyssey to self-replicating nanobots and “Moral Machines.” Yet, each new human life is born naked, screaming, and ignorant. Humans do not progress in the same way that technology advances.

This talk will be divided into two parts. FUTURIST magazine editor Patrick Tucker will first discuss the six months he spent in Japan prior to the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.

What challenges face learning foresight and futuring? A panel of five contributors frame this and other questions faced in teaching futures. All panelists are authors from a recent issue of the Journal of Futures Studies.

This session addresses rekindling imagination within the K–Grey life-long learning education pipeline, a critical imperative to envision the future, and to create the knowledge to make these visions a reality through innovation in every sector and dimension of society.

How will people in your part of the world live, work, and think in 2025? Which values, lifestyles, and structuring institutions will prevail? Will lifestyles be more complex or simpler? Which professions will be the most highly valued, and which personality types will best adapt? What culture-based hidden assumptions define the boxes in which you think and your notion of personal identity?

Thirty years ago, China was isolated and depressed. Thirty years from now, barring bad luck or bad leadership, China will be a major power, highly integrated globally, and nearly fully developed.

The ARC City is the first Eco-City concept to totally harmonize with nature in a symbiotic pattern. By eliminating the car, sprawling megacities, and long-distance supply lines of food, water, and energy, the ARC City will redefine future habitats and lifestyles.

This is the third of three papers that focus on the how a small country at the bottom of the planet can use futures studies to develop and design a sustainable future. The first two were presented at the WorldFuture conferences in Chicago (2009) and Boston (2010).