Why do futurists talk about ‘futures’?
You may have picked up — when either listening to, or reading stuff written by trained futurists that they tend to refer to futures [plural] rather than ‘the future’ [singular].
Just to be clear — this isn’t some weird grammatical error that tends to afflict only those crazy enough to research something that doesn’t as yet exist.
No — futurists refer to multiple futures, because they work in a field that is dedicated too exploring and understanding multiple possible futures. Because ‘the future’ hasn’t as yet materialised as yet, it is a space of unlimited possibility.
Futurist therefore simply don’t believe in fate or that the future is pre-determined.
There are obviously certain trends and patterns that will most likely either repeat themselves in the future [like the sun will probably rise tomorrow morning just like it did this morning], or can be estimated to occur in the future with a higher degree of probability [like the human population of Africa is estimated to be around 4.5 billion people by 2050], but we refer to futures because where we ultimately end up in the future, when thought of in the present, could be one of a multiple array of possibilities.
Some of those possible futures could be what we want the future to look like — and others, not really what we want.
A futurist’s job then is to think about these various futures, select the preferred option from the most plausible ones available and then set about designing a roadmap towards that future.
No future then is guaranteed.
There is no certainty that all humans will become cyborgs and live in a sterile, soulless, dystopian existence. There is also no guarantee that humanity will sort its shit out and live together in peace and harmony, where everyone is happy and spiritually fulfilled.
The future is a choice that we make either through apathy or action, but both are available to us.
