There seem to be, in the main, two and only two schools of thought about the future: “OMG WE’RE ALL GONNA DIE!!” and “it’ll be fine, don’t worry about it.” Depending on where you stand politically, you might be at one extreme on, say climate, and at the other on something like the US public debt.
What seems to be missing is a forward-leaning, active view of the future as something we have the power to create, or at least materially affect.
On this page, I’m going to explore the idea of a more empowered outlook; not as a pollyannish blind optimism or a mindless faith in technology, but as a spirit of adventure. I’m talking about an attitude of resilience rather than fear or mere hope. The future I want to build is less about walls and gates as it is about roads and bridges. The way we’ve been living on has put a lot of dangers in our path. I’m interested in taking an undaunted look at all of those dangers, avoiding the ones we can, and preparing for the ones we can’t avoid or don’t even know about yet.
Tools, tips, tricks, habits of mind… clue-sticks, all of them: they’re what we’ll need to not only survive, but thrive in a challenging future.
Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing. – Helen Keller, author, activist, lecturer, humanitarian
