Although there were numerous topics addressed at the conference, one central issue that came to the forefront in my own mind, as I listened to various speakers and compared what they said with what I highlighted in my presentation, was the oppositional clash of optimism and a pro-development philosophy of the future (which I offered) and a more pessimistic and "pulling back" philosophy presented by other speakers.

As several speakers profusely illustrated with tons of statistics and facts, it clearly appears that various world wide environmental conditions (climate change, resource reserves, pollution, environmental degradation, and the accelerative extinction of species) are all moving in a negative direction. Without colossal efforts at a global level to rectify these various conditions in the relatively near future, both our natural environment and our modern hi-tech civilization, are going to drastically deteriorate, if not go into a catastrophic tailspin. Our present way of life, as the argument goes, is not sustainable, and is heading toward disaster, and we need to drastically modify how we live. We need to put into place a way of life that is sustainable. Our global philosophy and practice of ever increasing production and consumption is self-destructive.  We need to quickly and decisively move in the direction of constraint and conservation. We need to go into a survival mode of existence.

The message I presented in my keynote address was much different in tone and overall philosophy. I proposed that humans are evolutionary beings living in an evolutionary universe, and our sense of happiness and personal and collective fulfillment is only fully realized when we are experiencing transformation and growth in our lives. We are happy when we flourish and become unhappy and dissatisfied when we are stagnant.

Moreover, optimism is the preferable state of mind regarding the future. It is both more empowering and realistic than pessimism. We are smarter, more creative, and better able to realistically assess problems and solve them when in hopeful and emotionally positive states. Optimism toward further growth and development does not involve ignoring challenges and problems; optimism though does not emotionally and motivationally collapse in the face of the difficulties in life. Optimism is being able to see the opportunities for improvement and not just the roadblocks and looming disasters.

Although I did not explicitly state so in my presentation, I have always found the philosophy of sustainability lacking, in so far as it connotes and argues for a state of continued stasis as the desirable or preferable future. Life is transformation, and nothing is absolutely stable or sustainable. To a significant degree, we grow or we die; there is no standing still.  Further, standing still is frequently associated with a defensive posture -- a mindset operating primarily in terms of apprehension, fear, and caution.

To be fair, sustainability theorists talk about "sustainable development," but both history and evolutionary science seem to indicate that development across time involves deep transformations from one mode of existence to another; systems do not always maintain  (sustain) themselves as they evolve -- they transform. "Sustainable development" may be oxymoronic.

The concept of growth within a pro-development philosophy does not necessarily or exclusively imply "physical growth" (in the sense of increasing physical production and consumption), but humans are psycho-physical realities (we are cyborgs), human life being a combination of the physical and the mental. Perhaps humanity has been too concerned with physical reality and not enough with the development of our psychological, social, and ethical capacities, but the physical can not be excluded from our visions of growth.

Overall, it is much more preferable that we embrace a philosophy of flourishing in the future rather than simply sustaining ourselves -- indeed, the latter may not be achievable. Sustainability is not sustainable.

One issue that repeatedly comes up is the ongoing depletion of various resources. I have often heard the argument that many of our resources are finite and that we are using them up. But both history and science seem to conversely indicate that mind empowers matter, and that our intelligence and innovative capacities repeatedly finds new ways to create more resources within the world. As I stated in my presentation, mind and matter are reciprocal realities, and there is no such thing as an absolutely given environment that is simple brute fact and can not be potentially altered.

As I noted above, there seem to be plenty of facts and numbers to support a pessimistic vision of our present global trajectory and where it will lead. Though not to discount or ignore the importance of empirical research in science, it is fascinating, in line with the phenomena of the "theoretical nature of facts," that both optimists and pessimists about the future can gather tons of data supporting their opposite views on the nature of the present and the probabilities of the future. Indeed, present advocates of a "doom and gloom" position also argue that earlier predictions regarding impending world problems have been corroborated in the present, whereas advocates on the other side have argued that "doom and gloom" predictions from previous decades have turned out to be significantly in error, in great part due to the lack of acknowledgement of human inventiveness over the last few decades. Both perspectives seem to believe that their respective theories are being confirmed by the facts. Indeed, as psychological research seems to indicate, optimism and pessimism create self-fulfilling prophecies, and in this case, self-validating positions, in some sense regardless of "what actually happens."

One of the central themes of my presentation was that the future is best approached through the multi-faceted capacity of wisdom. Our preferable future of flourishing will be best realized through the exercise and development of wisdom. As a multi-faceted capacity or virtue, wisdom integrates intellect, creative imagination, emotion, motivational attitude, ethics, and behavior. Wisdom is not just number crunching; the selection of data that supports our mindsets reflects various psychological dispositions and commitments. Moreover, wisdom is a psychologically internalized virtue; the futurist part of us can not and should not be divorced from the totality of our personality and character.

I would agree that our future -- a positive future -- does depend upon developing our psychology and our character. Our present modernizing world civilization, overall, does seem to put too much weight on economic and physical production/consumption measures and values in defining the preferable future. It seems to me though that deficits in our psychology and ethics are the primary cause of our difficulties. The central wicked problem in the world is humanity itself. We are evolutionary beings and we need to more proactively and purposefully engage in evolving our character, ethics, and psychological capacities.  

At the end of my presentation I proposed that the philosopher and science fiction writer, Olaf Stapledon, not only integrated and synthesized in his writings both science fiction and futures studies, but he was a great exemplar of the wise futurist. The personal and the intellectual came together within him. His visions of the future took the form of "wisdom narratives," chronicling with a sense of deep purpose in his writings, the psychological and social evolution of mind and society.



Moreover, as I argued, no one in Western history has ever presented a more cosmic and mind-expanding vision of the future than he did. Stapledon was a cosmic evolutionist, and although there was a "tragic" element in his novels, he did envision great evolutionary journeys of psychological, social, and technological advancement for humanity (and intelligent life in the universe as a whole) in the future. He did foresee numerous challenges and disasters, but he maintained his cosmic evolutionary vision through all the twists and turns of his imagined future. His cosmic vision, of special note, provided an elevating big picture context in which to view the journey of our species through time; such a cosmic vision is critical to wisdom.

Indeed, although ascending into the vast reaches of space and time, cosmic futurist visions, such as presented in Stapledon, are essential to a flourishing human spirit. (Two component virtues I list within wisdom are expansive temporal consciousness and cosmic-global consciousness.) Cosmic visions, internalized within us, are personally inspiring and motivating, and ultimately very practical. As an expression of the virtue of transcendence, we need them to find fulfillment, tenacity, and deep purpose in life. To me a general philosophy of flourishing within an evolutionary cosmos is much more elevating and effective and a more preferable future than simply attempting to sustain ourselves, depressed and fearful, in the muck and mire of day to day survival.

All in all, the conference was an enjoyable, invigorating, and enlightening experience. The people of Finland, and in particular in Turku, were very friendly, interesting, and engaging. But I did more clearly gain an understanding of the "opposition" and, in particular, where I stood relative to them.

Tom Lombardo