Here’s a serendipitous update. I’ve been spending the last couple of days thinking about 2025 and 2030 so what arrives in my inbox this morning but an update on the Global Strategic Trends Programme looking at the world in 2045. To answer a previous comment about when this work (the 2045 report) will be available the answer is April 2014. As for themes I’ll drip various things in over the coming months but some of the top themes currently are as follows:
Role of the state
Globalisation
Inequality
Technology advances
Human identity
Ideology
Lifestyle
Resources & climate
So in the spirit of open innovation and the wisdom of crowds, what’s missing from this list in terms of meta themes or drivers of change?
I would suggest ‘Secular Millenarianism’ as something to watch out for. As technology advances faster than we can understand it, the anxiety this generates will only increase. It seems to me that millenarianism has impacts for all the things on your provisional list, and the media plays its part in provoking this ‘end is nigh’ perspective, which has already infested many of our secular institutions.
“Fear prophets, Adso, and those prepared to die for the truth, for as a rule they make many others die with them, often before them, at times instead of them.”
(Umberto Eco: The Name of the Rose)