H+ the Future is Cancelled

H+ is a new quarterly magazine available in PDF format, and in digital version. [hat tip to Barry Ritholtz and Chris Grayson]

It covers technological, scientific, and cultural trends that are changing — and will change — human beings in fundamental ways.

The magazine seems to be following up on a thread we've discussed as part both of:

1. the report by the Pew Internet & American Life Project survey of internet leaders, activists, and analysts to assess predictions about technology and its roles in the year 2020, which we discussed when we said that the future of the internet.

2. the work by the Institute of the Future that maps five main stories in 2008, one of which is amplified individuals - the extended human reality. We talked about those stories in the future is now.

But in a retro kind of way.

The title of this post is a play on an article that asks is the future canceled or just postponed? Alex Lightman writes about US GDP growth being exponential and contiguous.

[..] will this growth be impacted as we experience an economic slowdown and global financial crisis? Will we still have all the good stuff that futurists and hard science fiction writers promise, including biotech that increases longevity, nanotechnology that revolutionizes manufacturing, information technology that improves productivity?

Or do we need to redouble our efforts to create technologies that can help solve problems and lower barriers to connection and productivity? Isn't that technology us? It seems to me that we keep going back to the future. What are your thoughts?

Comments

[Bruce Christensen]

As a person in the middle of the Baby Boomer demographic, I can speak to my personal feeling about the future - It is not canceled, just adjusted.
At this point our plans are adjusting to the new reality, but we are not throwing in the towel for a bright new day in the future. Here is how technology can help me:
Store my many great memories so that I can gain strength from the past.
Feed me ideas to improve my situation and prepare me for the future. Then let me be responsible for how I proceed.
Keep me tied and connected to my children and family. The current economic reality is keeping me from traveling to visit these people, so technology needs to fill the gap.
Encourage me to innovate and share my ideas with others. Together we can discover the solutions to many of our future needs.
I think that the future looks very bright, so I am not giving up on any opportunity technology can produce to benefit me.

[Claudia Benassi-Faltys]

Valeria,

I share with you this link to a conference that just happened 10 days ago about "Where did the future go?", LIFT 09 www.liftconference.com.
The speakers took different angles to approach this theme: design, technology, etc.. Worth a look. Many, many great ideas, insights. (and I was surprised to see so many Italians researchers!)

Claudia (just an attendee)

[Valeria Maltoni]

@Bruce - technology is helping me in exactly the same way: to stay in touch with my family in Italy, and dear friends all over the world. For years now, when I plan a trip, I reach out to my network ahead of time and plan get face to face encounters. So it starts online, but it's very much about expanding and extending relationships. Many things are getting cut out of my budget at the moment. Direct investment in learning and people is not. I have the same reasons you list for it. We're social beings, and sharing is part of our DNA.

@Claudia - if you're talking about design, Italians were probably in the front row :) Thank you for providing the link, I've already taken a peak and will be spending more time at the site.

[Oscar]

I'm by no means a Luddite, but I can't help feel that every tech advancement is a Pyrrhic victory.

Commenting on a blog, the most relevant example is the advance in communications and networking. Any information is available. Yet the general population's critical faculties appears to be impaired by the deluge of information. The US tolerated the Bush presidency despite ample accounts of incompetence. We're more susceptible to media sensationalism and the economic crisis is a case in point.

Everyone has a responsibility to make their own informed decisions, to be reasonably skeptical of news irrespective of personal belief and preference. Sextus Empiricus knew this back when newspapers were carved onto stone tablets, 1800 years later with tablet PCs and Kindles we should know better.