World Future Society 2010 Conference in Boston
The WFS 2010 conference, “Sustainable Futures, Strategies, and Technologies” will be held in Boston, July 8-10. Usually they offer a choice of one day workshops prior to the conference proper. There are typically a number of educationally focused presentations and workshops. Registration fee discounts are available for members, early bird registrants, students, and those over 65.
The World Future Society is a nonprofit educational and scientific organization in Bethesda, Maryland, U.S., founded in 1966. The Society investigates how social, economic and technological developments are shaping the future. It helps individuals, organizations, and communities observe, understand and respond to social change appropriately and investigates the benign effects of applying anticipatory thinking to society.
Through its magazine The Futurist, media, meetings, and dialogue among its members, it raises awareness of change and encourages development of creative solutions. The Society takes no official position on what the future may or should be like. Instead it provides a neutral forum for exploring possible, probable, and preferable futures. —-Wikipedia .
Institute for the Future
The Institute for the Future at Anne Arundel Community College in Maryland “encourages engaged learning, actively pursuing foresight and future thinking through applied and experiential learning.” Built around their course “Exploring the Future,” the Institute promotes the integration of future thinking across the campus and throughout their community. In addition, their web site provides a variety of resources for schools and individual educators that wish to enhance their students ability to prepare for the 21st century.
The Ultimate Reboot
This excellent 19 minute video examines the impact of engineering cells, tissues and robots on human functioning and the creation of the next step in human evolution. The first 7 minutes focuses on more immediate issues related to the economy.
“Juan Enriquez thinks and writes about the profound changes that genomics and other life sciences will cause in business, technology, politics and society.”
Wikipedia and Love
We have lived in this world where little things are done for love and big things for money. Now we have Wikipedia…
Suddenly big things can be done for love.
–Clay Shirky
Psychological Science Fiction Films
“Psychological science fiction films are drama films or thriller films occurring in a science fiction setting. These films are often but not always dystopian films and focus on the character’s inner-struggle with the sci-fi setting or dealing with the political or technological forces at the time.”
The following sites provide useful starting lists of science fiction films with psychological themes:
http://rixonology.wordpress.com/2008/08/12/psychological-science-fiction-films/
http://www.allmovie.com/explore/type/psychological-sci-fi-1717
http://www.amazon.com/Psy-Fi-Psychological-Science-Fiction-meets/lm/R2O3IKIXJXODU
Radical Evolution
Joel Garreau’s book Radical Evolution (2005) may be one of the best introductions for educators and their students to the future and the key changes we will face . Its focus is on one of the key themes of the future, the enhancement of human capabilities. This theme maintains that the next step in human evolution will not come about through natural biological processes, but through the intentional development of augmentations and enhancements that will produce a new human being. The GRIN technologies (genetics, robotics, information technology and nanotechnology) are the key players in this process.
Written by a journalist, Radical Evolution is an engaging, informative, and provocative view of the future. It should work well in any discussion oriented educational environment.
