Bridges
Fathoming the Future
December 1, 2024
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Discussion Questions
These questions are just to start and aid discussion. Please skip around in the list, indulge diversions, and let your discussion develop naturally.
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Do you ever think about the future? Do you tend to think of what might be ahead in personal, relational, technological, political, environmental, or other terms?
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Do you ever reflect on what you thought the future would look like many years ago? Would you be surprised by how things turned out? What's turned out better than you thought? What's worse? What's surprising?
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Do common opinions about the future you're familiar with among people of your generation differ from the opinions you hear from people of other generations?
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How much power do you have to shape your own future?
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What sources of information give you hope for the future? What media and other sources cause you to be concerned about what’s ahead? How much do current events shape your long-term outlook?
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Do you think about the future of groups of people? What groups? Are you a part of these groups or not? (Some examples: family, residential communities, religious, national, or ethnic groups, socioeconomic groups, charity and service clubs etc.)
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Have you seen trends, politics, technological developments and other influences reverse course from how you once thought they would influence the future?
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Did you watch the first video below? Given Bertrand Russell's very unemotional role as a logician and analytic philosopher were you surprised by his words about love?
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Did you watch the second video below? What do you think about the original 1970s societal survival / collapse model and its 2000's update? Are you aware of individual countries that have collapsed during your lifetime? Which countries do you think will collapse in the foreseeable future? What's the difference between individual country collapses and global social breakdown?
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Did you watch the third video below? How much of it do you think was created using AI (script, visuals, narration, research)? What are your opinions on the developments the video predicts? What happens to these predictions when economic stratification and other social factors are considered? What happens to these predictions when human psychology and sociology are given more consideration than this video provides?
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