In doing some research for some video debates we’ll be doing with the FT soon (more on that soon), I’ve been reading Jonathan Margolis’ intriguing book on Futurology – A Brief History of Tomorrow.
Early on, Jonathan posits a condition known as “Arrogance of the Present” – a condition many people suffer from (and have suffered from throughout history) which is the “belief of every successive generation that at last, sophisticated, modern folk that we are, we’ve got it and indeed, we _are_ it.”
This condition means many things to different people but whatever it means – it spells trouble for those of us that believe we can do better and/or different things with technology and that, believe it or not, as clever as we think we are, there’s still a whole lot more for us to do/invent/evolve.
This arrogance is not restricted to technology either, it applies to many of the changes we face in both our professional and personal lives. Think about what people must have thought when mobile phones were first invented – “why would anyone want to carry such a device” and then think about your lifestyles today. As much as we’d like the option to not have one for a week or two – I’ll bet there’s not many of us that would want to be permanently without one.
The problem for me is that this kind of attitude is infectious in those who don’t have an understanding for what the changes may bring and worse still, feeds on itself to blow even the inane into matters of critical importance to society.
I’m asking you then, as readers of this blog to seek out examples of this “Arrogance of the Present” – highlight them for what they are (hell, send ‘em in and I’ll post them here in a special category of their own if they’re good enough) – but whatever you do, help people understand that we’re just not _there_ yet and if it’s OK with them, we’d like to on keep trying to push the envelope a little…
