...talking to the future

Jamais Cascio, channeling Paul Kedrosky, asks:

"What one sentence would you tell the future?"

The response is supposed to focus on each person's area of expertise, whether it is politics, engineering, cooking, or whatever.

I've thought about whether I should say something specifically about nanotechnology, such as "When we achieve the ability to engineer functional systems at the molecular scale, the very survival of civilization may be at risk," or about transhumanism, such as "Some, perhaps all, limitations of human nature are undesirable."

The problem is that I can think of numerous statements made by others that seem superior to anything I can devise, at least at the moment.

For instance, H.G. Wells: "All that the human mind has ever accomplished is but the dream before the awakening." That's hard to top.

Or Friedrich Nietzsche: "Man is a rope, fastened between animal and superhuman -- a rope over an abyss."

Or, to paraphrase Pogo, "We have met the future, and it is us."

But because I can't improve on this excellent advice, I'm simply going to quote Joe Miller: "Those who ignore the mistakes of the future are bound to make them."

Be warned.

Tags: Future Ideas Philosophy Quotes