to give the opening Keynote Presentation: "The Psychology of the Future: Flourishing in the Flow of Evolution." I will also be conducting a one-day pre-conference course on "Science Fiction: The Evolutionary Mythology of the Future." Though on the surface these two topics might appear very different, both talks address the same theme of "holistic future consciousness." In fact, in discussions I have had this last year with various members of the
, it dawned on me that the central idea pulling together all the work I have done over the last twenty years as both a futurist and writer on wisdom can be subsumed under this theme of holistic future consciousness.
Following a rough chronological order in the emergence of key ideas in the development of my theory of holistic future consciousness consider the following:
The study of the future has a psychologically holistic impact, stimulating all the fundamental processes of human consciousness, including intellect, imagination, emotion, motivation, and personal identity.
Human consciousness is a holistic reality, involving an integrative set of different capacities and processes, including perceptual, behavioral, cognitive, and emotional-motivational dimensions.
The concept of holistic future consciousness means the total integrative set of all these psychological processes we engage in addressing the future. Humans have thoughts, feelings, motives, plans, and images of the future all intertwined in consciousness, generating purposeful behavior. All humans possess degrees of holistic future consciousness.
(See Relevant Article) All the psychological processes utilized in holistic future consciousness can be heightened or enhanced-through the study of the future and other avenues-producing a more constructive, creative, and effective conscious approach to the future. This is heightened (holistic) future consciousness.
(See Relevant Article)Many, if not most, of our contemporary challenges and problems can be constructively addressed through heightened future consciousness. In essence, our difficulties, both personal and collective, are a consequence of problems and limitations within our individual and collective consciousness, in particular, our future consciousness.
(See Relevant Article)The heightening of holistic future consciousness is achieved through the development of a core set of character virtues, most notably and centrally, wisdom. These character virtues include self-responsibility and self-control, love and reciprocity, the love of learning and thinking, courage, hope and optimism, and discipline and tenacity, among others.
(See Relevant Article)Wisdom is the highest expression of holistic future consciousness, the integrative synthesis of the character virtues of heightened future consciousness.
Wisdom, or heightened holistic future consciousness, should be the central goal of education, as well as the guiding light for individual psychological development and the preferable future evolution of the human mind. Development, education, and future mental evolution should be conceptualized holistically, rather than simply in cognitive terms. Wisdom, as an holistic capacity, satisfies this criterion.
(See Relevant Article)Also, identifying wisdom, an integrative character virtue, as the essence of heightened future consciousness, implies that an ethical dimension is a necessary and critical feature for credible visions of ideal education, optimal psychological development, and human psychological evolution. An essential feature within our ideal psychological aspirations should be ethical evolution.
(See Relevant Article) Definitions of wisdom invariably include the capacity to understand, actively pursue, and create well-being in oneself and others, in which well-being is understood as the foundation or essence of what is good (or the good life). Wisdom has an ethical focus.
Within positive psychology, psychological well-being is frequently identified as "flourishing," which is a necessary and core condition for the experience of human happiness.
In so far as humans live in a dynamic and interactive reality, the dynamic concept of flourishing is an appropriate and fitting psychological and ethical ideal for human reality. Well-being and the good need to be understood as dynamic realities, since humans exist in a dynamic reality. Psychological well-being and the good is realized through "flourishing in the flow of evolution."
Wisdom or heightened future consciousness is the means by which flourishing and human happiness are achieved within life.
Consciousness is a dynamic and evolutionary reality existing within a dynamic evolutionary universe. Across evolutionary time, consciousness has evolved. Within individual human development, consciousness (to various degrees) evolves across the life-span. Consciousness flows and grows.
The evolution of human consciousness brings with it increasing cumulative knowledge, self-awareness and self-control, temporal expansiveness (of both past and future), and purposeful action. Human consciousness, with knowledge derived from past experience and future goals and motives guiding intentional action, purposefully directs changes both in the external environment and within human nature. As human consciousness evolves, humans engage in the ongoing purposeful evolution of human society and the human mind. (See Relevant Article)
The very process of evolution has evolved across time, with progressively more efficient and effective mechanisms facilitating evolutionary change, as we move from the physical to the biological to the social, psychological, and technological.
The primary facilitator of purposeful evolution within human existence is holistic future consciousness. Through knowledge acquisition, articulation of goals, values, and plans of action, creative and imaginative thought, and other features of future consciousness, humans guide their future evolution. Future consciousness is an evolution in evolution, bringing the evolutionary process under intelligent, informed, and purposeful guidance and control. Wisdom, therefore, can be seen as the highest expression of the capacity to purposefully evolve human nature and human society. Again, it is critical to note the necessary ethical dimension of this capacity.
A key feature in human consciousness, both individually and collectively, is its narrative form. As a primary mode of self-awareness, we conceptualize ourselves in the context of stories/narratives we tell ourselves about ourselves. This narrative structure to consciousness is psychologically holistic, bringing in memories, thoughts, images, emotions, values, motives, and plans, and integrating both the past and the future. Humans see themselves and live their lives in accordance with their self-narratives of their past and their envisioned self-narratives of their future.
Our future self-narratives (the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves in imagined futures) are a key guiding component within our holistic future consciousness. Our future self-narratives can be changed and improved. Our future self-narratives can be progressively more wisdom-guided, more strongly expressing the virtues of heightened future consciousness.
Myth is a narrative form of holistic consciousness, engaging all the fundamental dimensions of the human mind. Science fiction presents narratives about the future (among other dimensions of existence), frequently realizing all the various qualities of myth, including cosmic meaning and personal connection, fantastical realities, archetypal themes and characters, icons and symbols, and personal-social immersion in rites, practices, and ways of life.
Science fiction is a mode of holistic future consciousness, narrative and mythic in form. In so far as science fiction creatively builds upon itself through history-it has a cumulative and continually enriching heritage of themes, concepts, and story lines-it is evolutionary, and consequently involves a purposeful evolution of holistic future consciousness in narrative/mythic form. Science fiction is also the evolutionary mythology of the future in so far as it frames its narratives within an evolutionary universe or cosmos. Of special note, regarding humanity's future evolution and potential evolutionary transcendence, science fiction in narrative form examines and explores possible future trajectories in the ongoing evolution of humanity and the human mind.
(See Relevant Article)
The professional discipline of futures studies, of which there are numerous and diverse expressions across the globe, is an outgrowth of normal future consciousness. The discipline of futures studies should aspire toward heightened future consciousness and wisdom, as defined above. Futurists, as exemplars and role models, should aspire toward wisdom, both personally and professionally.
Futures studies, broadly conceived, and futurist science fiction ideally should cross-fertilize and mutually enhance each other, the former conceived as non-narrative future consciousness and the latter as narrative future consciousness (though this distinction is at best fuzzy when examining actual writings and practices). History repeatedly confirms this interactive, mutually stimulating relationship. In either case, whether futures studies or science fiction, we can ask how efforts contribute toward increasing wisdom and facilitating the ongoing evolution of humanity, consciousness, and the world/universe at large.
