The World in 2050
It is in our power to eradicate poverty by 2050; it is in our power to eradicate disease by 2050; but it is also in our power to destroy ourselves by 2050.” (Ian Goldin)
The Royal Geographic Society has hosted , last September, a panel discussion on “The World in 2050”, with scientific experts from the 21st Century School.
The event was a joint endeavor of the James Martin 21st Century School and Intelligence2. Panelists were Ian Goldin, director of the the 21st Century School at the University of Oxford; Malcolm MacCulloch, director of the School’s Institute for Carbon and Energy Reduction in Transport; Sara Harper, director of the Oxford Institute of Ageing; and Julian Savulescu, director of the School’s Programme on Ethics of the New Biosciences.
In many places, academic institutions, corporations, NGOs, think tanks, numerous people study, research, and discuss future trends. In daily social life, however, in the media in general, and in the governments of almost all countries, the long-term, envisioning the future, is a lateral, peripheral section of the agenda. Is is not a priority. We’re tied to the short-term, to the joys and tribulations of our daily life; to the immediate policy agenda. However, disregarding the future, failing to look ahead and to focus the uncertainties and possibilities beyond the horizon of our daily obligations is riskier than one can imagine. To be the able to take our destiny in our hands, we’ve got to have a vision for the future, a long view.
Stewart Brand, one of the founders of the Long Now Foundation, reminds us in his book “The Clock of the Long Now: Time and Responsibility”, that
“time is asymmetrical to us. We can see the past but not influence it. We can influence the future, but we cannot see it. Both the invisibility and potential malleability of the future draw us to lean into it, alert to threat or opportunity, empowered by the blankness of its page (if the future is not determined, we might do anything).”
He also teaches us that “rigorous long-view thinking makes responsibility taking inevitable because it responds to the slower, deeper feedback loops of the whole society and the natural world.” Ultimately, it is clear that “in the long run, saving yourself means saving the whole world.”
Perhaps the best introduction to this panel is the concluding remark by Ian Goldin, on his presentation:
“It is in our power to eradicate poverty by 2050; it is in our power to eradicate disease by 2050; but it is also in our power to destroy ourselves by 2050.”
I hope this is justification enough to persuade those who visit this page to watch the video.
Tags: futures, globalwarming, scenario