The Myths of Progress and the Future of Foresight

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. In visioning the future, there is no guarantee that humans as humans will trend as does technology. In fact, children are strangely absent from visions of the future such as those promulgated by extropians. Yet, these newborns are the future. In a technology enhanced, wired world, there are no guarantees. What do all the insights from the tools of foresight tell us?

Who should attend: Educators, policy makers, ethicists, social scientists, and new media developers.
What you’ll learn: Attendees will learn the future role of education in a wired world and the role that youth play in defining and determining “progress.”
How this new knowledge can be applied: Participants will learn how to measure “progress” in a wired world and the potential consequences of how we measure progress.
Tom P. Abeles, president, Sagacity, Inc.; editor, On the Horizon, Minneapolis, Minnesota
key words: progress, foresight, youth, natality, ethics, myths, civilization, education
issue areas: Social and Cultural Trends