The Future Beyond the Future
Today is January 1, 2025. This past May 1st, I indicated I was taking my career in a new direction. It is now time for me to begin moving in this direction in earnest. I have struggled with what precisely this direction should be and, to be honest, I suspect I will take countless more twists and turns during my earthly existence.
After some reflection, I have decided to call my new direction “the future beyond the future.” For the past 30 years, I’ve worked as a strategic planner, thinker, and writer. My “planning, thinking, and writings” were focused almost exclusively on the business world and were limited to a relatively short-term perspective of the future (approximately 5 to 25 years). I am proud of my past work but have come to realize there are a multitude of ways to think about the future.
The Near-Term Future Will More Closely Resemble the Deep Future
For starters, I believe society is now at a historic turning point. For decades, I have been speaking about the power of exponential growth. Well, society is now poised to hit the “knee of the curve” with regard to the acceleration of technology. What this means is that the amount of change we will experience in the next 5 to 10 years will NOT be anywhere near the rate of change the world has experienced in the historical past. Think of it this way: In the next decade, humanity will experience as much change as it experienced in the past 100 years. In other words, the world of 2035 will be as different from today as today is from 1925!
Consider the astounding amount of progress the fields of artificial intelligence, quantum computing, and synthetic biology have witnessed over just the past few years. While there will be limits to the amount of progress each field can accomplish, we are nowhere close to reaching these outer limits.
I acknowledge that I may be wrong with this forecast but I believe we are on the verge of tinkering with the idea of what it means to be human. The ideas of radical life extension, downloading the entire content of the internet to our minds with the aid of neural prosthesis, and creating intelligence that exceeds that of all humanity are no longer the stuff of science fiction but, rather, dangerously close to becoming scientific fact.
The techno-optimists (of which I used to be one) tell us this future will be great. And the truth is that this future does have the potential to be wonderful but only if it is infused with humility, wisdom, and spirituality. Unfortunately, these characteristics appear to be in short supply in our modern world and I fear the mythical tale of Icarus flying too close to the sun is a parable our technocratic architects would be wise to heed.
To help counter this arrogance, I have decided to dedicate part of my time to developing these characteristics in myself while also working (in earnest humility) to help others hone the same skills and characteristics–all for the purpose of creating a better future. To this end, I will spend much of the first half of this year preparing for and then teaching a class on futurism at St John’s University in Collegeville, Minnesota. I selected the Benedictine university because it will allow me to speak to both our secular future and our spiritual future.
Think in “Tree Time”
Secondly, I have come to the not-so-profound conclusion that we, as a society, must spend more time contemplating a longer-term future. If we are to survive as a people, it is imperative we think longer-term. This longer-term perspective should encompass a minimum of 150 to 300 years.
There is no magic to this specific range of time but 150 years equates to approximately seven generations. In a century and a half, my great-grandchildren (assuming I have some) will themselves be grandparents. I feel we owe it to future generations to at least consider the world we are creating and leaving for them to live in. I selected the 300 year outer limit because one of the activities I intend to dedicate myself to for the remainder of my time on this planet is starting and developing the foundation of an old-growth forest.
Old-growth forests still exist today (although many are under severe stress) but I am enamored of the idea of starting a new old-growth forest for future generations to enjoy by planting a small forest of oak and pine trees. The idea is not mine alone. As a young man, I fell in love with Jean Giono’s book, The Man Who Planted Trees. I have also always been inspired by the beautiful quote from ancient Greece which says, “A society grows great when old men plant trees under whose shade they will never sit.” The truth is that I want to leave some “shade” for our future descendants. To make this real, my wife and I intend to find some land we can help restore and then begin planting trees.
Somewhat related to this goal is my intention to help famed Arctic explorer Will Steger make real the extraordinary leadership center he is developing in Ely, Minnesota. The goal of the center will be to bring together small groups for the purpose of achieving breakthrough thinking to solve some of the world’s most difficult problems. To manifest this, I have committed to partnering with Will Steger to write a book that explores how we might achieve this goal. We are in the early stages of the book but we know the process will be aided by silence, nature and awe.
The Future Beyond the Future
Lastly, I am sincere in my belief that the future must once again embrace spiritual matters. Our society is far too materialistic and if we are to evolve I am convinced that we must return to our spiritual roots, and the very foundation of this “root” is the idea that we are spiritual beings and that we have a direct connection to the original Divine Spark.
I call that “Divine Spark” God, but others may refer to it as the Yahweh, Allah, the Creative Mystery, the “name without a name,” the “source beyond the source” or any one of a thousand other names.
What matters to me is not the name but how we strengthen our connection with our Common Creator. I desire to do so because I have faith that there is a future beyond the future I have heretofore been contemplating. I call this future “Eternity” but it is our common destiny.
Jack Uldrich is a best-selling author, keynote speaker and professional futurist.
