The New Futurists

We don't fly to the moon on space shuttles. We don't have flying cars. This actually may upset some of you who still believe that, one day soon, this still might happen. Well, you can't say "never" can you? But in order for our techno-fantasies to come true several things have to happen: a) You will need to discover a way of storing energy that is as energy dense as oil is or better if you wish to have the kind of personalised transport we take for granted today.

b) You will need global human population to fall to a level such that we can all enjoy a good standard of living and all be well fed by our daily personal budget of sunshine. Pouring fossil fuels on our fields in the hope that they will grow something is futile.

c) Everything we make must be reusable, recyclable or last forever. Consumerism in its modern wasteful form has a short lifespan. It will eat itself whole.

d) You will need an energy source that is clean and unlimited. You either accept that this will be the Sun or you harness the nuclear fires of the Sun's processes, here on Earth, in a sustainable fashion.

The problem is that we all have quite optimistic views of the future built ONLY around technology. For a more complete picture we probably have to study Star Trek and the worlds of Gene Roddenberry. If we can lick problems 'a' thru 'd' (that I noted above) then we all have a very rosy future. We just have to get there. So far progress has been slow.

This is where "Transitioners-as-the-new-futurists" comes in. The future just won't happen by itself. We have to make it happen. Since the technology involved to make the fantasy happen may well be outside of our grasp for a hundred years or more we need a Plan B. Plan A has failed. Let's face it: it was not even a plan. We had no plan. If THAT was a plan it was crap. The "New Futurists" of this Transition movement have a new job: letting everyone down gently. We need to maintain an endless era of scientific and technological marvel without letting it blind us to the simple fact that it might not happen fast enough for us to be excused a little hardwork.

So we enter a transition period between the consumer society that pissed its future aways for cheap flights and Kit Kats, and the society that will replace it. However the gap between this today and that far-future tomorrow is vast. We need to take that journey without going off the rails. Many will not like this journey. They will blame anyone and everyone. But this protest will not change the hard fabric of reality. Stuff runs out.

Only in the Transition movement do we see real people actually grasping what the future really has in store for us. It is not Mad Max movie nightmare but, if we screw this up, it will be. It will be a future we must strive for. It won't be a path paved with easy answers. For 200 years we avoided the difficult questions and reached for the remote control to change channel. Well, now the future has caught up with us. As we never did anything to prepare for the resulting gap between our fantasy and the reality we have to face the consequences with wisdom and fortitude. We are all a lot better than this and we deserve better.

Will we EVER arrive in the future of our fantasies? Well, I would argue that we already have. We all live longer and are all in far better health than our fore fathers could imagine. We have every possible modern convenience but it is all taken for granted. Are we happy? If THAT fantasy future happened today would we be in paradise? No. This journey may well be more pleasurable than its destination. It is a journey we will have to make.

I see that future and it has wind turbines & organic farms. Sorry about the reality check.

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