| [Return to Home Page] (June
2002) [Printed in "Reality Module No.28" as part of "Freeform Futurology
VI."]
FREEFORM FUTUROLOGY (8)
(A casual series of articles exploring various aspects
of our evolving society)
Changes
Related Articles
"We always overestimate what is going to happen in 2 years and
underestimate what is going to happen over 10 years" - Bill Gates.
I returned to Melbourne after 3 years overseas and found myself suffering
future shock. In the CBD Melbourne Central had changed from a construction
site to a high glass tower with arcades and galleries of strange futuristic
shops beneath it. Elsewhere telephone boxes had grown glowing orange
canopies.
When we are looking change is gradual, we acclimatise. But when you
look away for a time and then look back the changes can startle.
There is a lot of change going on in places you are not looking. (Casual
watching of documentaries can reveal to you that the world is no longer
the place it was when you were growing up and framing your perceptions
of things.)
Is it any wonder predictions fail? We are using last year's data, last
decade's preconceptions.
Like trying to index the Internet, we can never catch everything that
is going on. Always we are behind the times.
Things are changing - there in the dark corner - where you are not looking.
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Related Works
- In This Series -
(1) What Can & Cannot Be Done - The Limits of
Futurology (April 2000)
(2) The $20 Computer (April 2000)
(3) Smashing Windows(TM) - The Ascent of Non-linear Thinking
(August 2000)
(4) Nu Plastic Yu! (February 2001)
(5) Nu Plastic Yu Tu! (April 2001)
(6) Artificial Minds? (AI Revisited) (August 2001)
(7) Video-On-Demand (June 2002)
(8) Changes (June 2002)
(9) The Implications of Immortality (June 2002)
(10) Cheating in Education (April 2003)
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Copyright © 2002 by Michael F. Green.
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