3 minute read
Ralph Mercer
THE NEED FOR A NEW RELATIONSHIP WITH THE POSSIBLE ‘FUTURES.’
By Ralph Mercer
The essence of humanity is diffracted through technology; we are entangled with our technology, and that relationship provides the map to the possible futures.
- Decentered Futures, Ralph Mercer ”
REFLECTING on all the issues of Human Futures for 2021, the issues echo, not surprisingly, the tensions infused in our Covid mediated everyday lives. Collectively the Features articles reverberate the practices, technological experiences and social dispositions inscribed in our everyday lives, creating the ‘vocabulary’ available to futurists to describe, and cope with the realities of the present and personal expectations of the future. The tensions play out in the struggle between dominant narratives and counter-narratives, perceptions of truth, and knowledge across the backdrop of technology that mediates the possible outcomes.
All societies, to varying degrees, are transitioning through a critical moment in time; we are witnessing the death of many of the orthodoxies that held the fabric of societies together. The articles highlight that the gates are crumbling in the old institutions, truth, science, democracies, universities, and inclusiveness are under attack from two warring factions; those who would gain power by rolling back time under the illusion of stability and those hungry to rip that power from their hands and institute radical changes.
The victims of the struggle may be truth and knowledge. Still, it also brings with it a temptation to make the ‘futures field’ more accessible, more understood, often at the expense of the messy and rebellious approaches.
For some onlookers, the field of futures is about creating a plausible image of the future, something that is achievable and comfortably nestled into their version of “common sense.” Our comfortable, measurable, “well-laid plans” cannot shape the future; the inhabitants of the present are under no obligation to cooperate. The humanistic tendency of common sense is to stifle and resist change. “Technology is a very human trait and the essential ingredient to envision and achieve any possible future. The future evolves from our relationship with the planet, technology and develops society’s concept of what is the acceptable image of the human.
The articles of this last edition for 2021 suggest that the comfortable and acceptable futures need to be challenged; the articles in the ‘Technical notes’ suggest the ‘opening’ of approaches to our relationship with technology and the future. This notion of “opening” the horizon through one’s gaze offers a post-disciplinary vantage point to the field of ‘futures studies.’ Technology and futures are eminently political and politicizing in this’ transformational’ sense.
The voices and songs of our 2021 Human Futures magazine contributors speak to the complexity of the ‘Futures Studies’ and serve as a map through the difficulties of the rebellion needed to evolve our relationship with the future.
PHOTO CREDITS
Main Cover Image - Joshua Sortino - Unsplash Inside Cover Image - NASA - Unsplash Pages 4-5 - Leonardo Yip - Unsplash Pages 6-7 - Gian D - Unsplash Pages 8 - Ivan Bandura - Unsplash Pages 9 - Marcos Paulo Prado - Unsplash Page 10 - Duy Pham - Unsplash Page 11 - Ben White - Unsplash Pages 12-13 - Dmitry Ratushny - Unsplash Pages 14-15 - Kevin Mueller - Unsplash Page 16 - Nijwam Swargiary - Unsplash Page 18-19 - Creative Christians - Unsplash Page 20 - Aldebaran - Unsplash Page 21 - Abdulla - Unsplash Page 22 - David Marcu - Unsplash Page 23 - Michal - Unsplash Page 24 - Priscilla Du Preez - Unsplash Page 26-27 - NASA - Unsplash Page 28 - Rodion Kutsaev - Unsplash Page 31 - Aga Putra - Unsplash Page 33 - Alex Kristanas - Unsplash Page 40-41 - Daniil Silantev - Unsplash Page 43 - Jukan Tateisi - Unsplash Pages 44 - Markus Spiske - Unsplash Pages 45 - Kevin Nalty- Unsplash Pages 46 - Yannis - Unsplash Pages 47 - Markus Spiske - Unsplash Pages 48 - Callum Shaw - Unsplash Pages 49 - Pono Lopez - Unsplash Pages 51 - Unsplash Pages 53 - Ilyass Seddoug - Unsplash Page 55 - JR Korpa - Unsplash Page 56 - Akson - Unsplash Page 59 - Artem Ka - Unsplash Page 60-61 - Pawel Czerwinski- Unsplash Page 62-63 - Maria Orlova - Unsplash Page 63 - Jason Goodman - Unsplash Page 64-65 - Pawel Czerwinski - Unsplash Page 66 - Allef Vinicius - Unsplash Page 67 - Tarryn Myburgh - Unsplash Page 68-69 - Annie Spratt - Unsplash Page 70 - Clement - Unsplash
