What Will The Future Look Like? - Theo Priestley & Bronwyn Williams | Modern Wisdom Podcast 330

Nobody really questions a lot of what is being said. So we all tend to be distracted by the shiny objects and the, the lovely futures that are painted for us, augmented reality. We're gonna live in virtu- with virtual avatars, and spend virtual money and things like that. But no one really sort of questions whether this is actually the best way to resolve or solve some of humanity's biggest challenges.

What's an anti-futurist?

(laughs) I get asked this all the time. It's a little bit of marketing spin. I think it, it goes to, uh, uh, perhaps Bronwen and I's, um, our, our particular, uh, viewpoint of the future, which is, if you look at the pop culture futurists like Dia- Peter Diamandis and Ray Kurzweil, they paint a very specific, uh, uh, version of utopia, which is everyone will merge in, w- merge with machines and become one with the singularity. Um, and my particular take is more akin to I cast a, a large dollop of cynicism, um, on top of all of it, and just, and, and kind of sort of take a step back and say, "Well, is this really, you know, the preferred version that we want to actually prescribe to? And, and why, why should we believe that these two men or these particular futurists who sh- have the loudest voice are the right ones that we should be following?" So my take on futurism or anti-futurism is really a more pragmatic and realistic approach, uh, borne out of the fact I used to be a chief evangelist of a technology company. So I used to put on a lot of the spin and the happy version, you know, happy clappy version and stuff like that, and hug trees. And now I hug trees because, you know, the trees are disappearing, and I realize that, you know, technology is, uh, isn't as, uh, rosy as what other people paint it to be. So I kind of take, um, a very sort of, um, negative stance, in a sense, towards, uh, these particular futures other people want us to, to, to prescribe and, and, and walk towards, uh, with blinkers on, in a sense.

What are your main criticisms of the status quo, the, the dominant guard-

(laughs)

... ideology for futurism?

Um, s- uh, I, I don't think there are enough younger voices in the room, for one. So my criticism for futurism in general is there aren't enough younger voices in the room. Um, so it tends to be sort of old fuddy-duddy guard, um, that kind of sort of has a very sort of, um, you know, uh, I, I would guess blinkered and old way of manifesting what they believe is a future, uh, f- fit for humanity. The second thing is, uh, which, uh, uh, goes towards Bronwen and I's, um, you know, uh, very sort of strong stance is that nobody really questions, um, I think, a lot of what is being said. So we all tend to be distracted by the shiny objects and the, the lovely futures that are painted for us, augmented reality. We're gonna live in virtu- with virtual avatars and spend virtual money and things like that. But no one really sort of questions whether this is actually the best way to resolve or solve some of humanity's biggest challenges, like poverty, uh, homelessness, you know, inequality, you know, our, our sense of self or what we are worth as people. So, um, I would, you know, my other criticism apart from, let's speak to the younger people behind us who want to take, have a stake in that, um, that future is let's actually stop and question each particular step along the way and just ask, is this the right step that we take? And it goes towards the, you know, the future cone scenario where I think a lot of them are, rather than looking at the preferable future, they're, they're away wandering off, um, along the, um, you know, the, the, the one that they, th- that they kind of prefer themselves. So that is, again, it goes back to that biased view again. This is the one I want, but it's not, might not be the future that everybody wants. And it'd be nice for people to just stop and question that. Go for it. (laughs)