Events

Technology: you can fear it, or you can fix it!

The impact of technological change in our lives has increased at a rate that itself is increasing. Two three hundred years ago you could live your life without experiencing any change at all: its pace was so slow that within a generation it could not be felt, or at least would not be felt everywhere. Then change changed. From your dreams being the only way you could hope to live in a better world, or what you believed would be the afterlife, it became possible to hope for something better for your children, or maybe grandchildren. You would not sacrifice yourself for a mythological payback, but actually start to work, and sweat in the knowledge that your direct descendents would benefit. Then, at the middle of the twentieth century, approximately, it became plausible to invest in your own education, and development, because you realized that it would impact the way you spent the rest of your life, and the opportunities that it gave you.

At each step these new ways of looking at the world meant a different perception of the future. From an untouchable and unfathomable distance, it grew closer, and closer, and became more and more manageable, at least apparently, its shape still fuzzy, but with a profile that you could start to perceive, or even design yourself.

We are now definitely in a period where the futures we design deserve a clear sight and an alert mind, as we don’t have the excuse of not realizing how decidedly our actions impact the world overall, and ourselves within it. Technology has been the driving force of these changes. Technology in the broadest possible sense. Not only the capabilities of material transformation, but also those of interpersonal communication, and social organization. Our inventions helping us leaving longer, fuller, and more meaningful lives.

How will the next technological revolutions then impact the individual, and society, is a necessary, and fundamental question to ask. We have started to ask it with the speech that we gave at the recent conference in Amsterdam: “FIFI 2008 – fear it fix it”

You can see the video of our speech in its 10 minute version, or including the introduction to spimes in its 30 minute version.