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“Future of Humanity: Symposium 2”
Convened October 6–8, 2005 | Hyatt
Regency Bellevue, Bellevue, Washington
Summary
The Humanity 3000 bi-decadal Future of Humanity Symposia are intended
to be convened in perpetuity, serving as punctuations in
the annual Humanity 3000 Program seminar series. The symposia provide for continuous
review, assessment, and restatement of issues identified during the previous five years as likely to have a significant impact on the long-term future of humanity. Participants name and discuss the critical issues going forward based on this framework and in view of changes in the subject areas that have been identified as central to the future:
• Science
and technology
• Biological and genetic issues specific to human
health, behavior, and intelligence
• Globalization and governance
• The planet's environment, resources, population,
and climate
• Evolution: past, present, and future
• Space and humans
• Wild cards
In October 2005, 21 scholars from some 20 intellectual and professional
disciplines gathered for Symposium 2 to carry forward these important
discussions. The three issues judged by these scholars to be the most
critical going forward were (1) governance,
on local, national, and global levels, as social control, and its ramifications
in both political governance and economic governance; (2) maximizing
human capabilities, with major subsets in education (appreciation
and comprehension of differences, mechanics of critical thinking, managing
our education systems, and the role of liberal institutions) and technology
with its potential for transforming both organic systems (humans and
other biological systems) and inorganic systems (matter), inclusive of
a spacefaring future; and (3) security/resilience, in terms of the amount of destructive power being placed in the hands of individuals, groups, and nation-states, as well as environmental issues, pandemics, and natural disasters that may require human resilience on a very large scale.
A PowerPoint presentation (2.8
MB PDF) by Bob Citron, Foundation Executive
Director, illustrated through satellite imagery the dramatic changes brought
about by human influences on Planet Earth in the quarter-century from the 1970s
to 2004.
A highlight of Symposium 2 was the awarding of the sixth Kistler Prize to Dr.
Thomas J. Bouchard Jr., Professor in the University of Minnesota Department of Psychology and Director of the Minnesota Center for Twin and Adoption Research.
Proceedings (10.2
MB PDF) of
this symposium, including transcripts of all dialogic sessions, are
available for download.
Keynote Presentations
“The State of the Future”
Dr. Jerome C. Glenn
American Council for the United Nations University, Millennium Project
Washington, DC USA
“Palm Readers, Stargazers,
and Scientists: A Critique of Futurism”
Dr. Richard L. Miller
University of Nebraska at Kearney
Kearney, NE USA
“Science and Technology Looking
Out 25 Generations”
Joseph Coates
Consulting Futurists, Inc.
Washington, DC USA
“The Future of Governance”
Professor Siro Polo Padolecchia
European Institute for Futures Studies
Monte Carlo, MONACO
Participants
Walter T. Anderson
President
World Academy of Art and Science
Kensington, CA USA
Ronald Bailey
Science Correspondent
Reason Magazine
Charlottesville, VA USA
David P. Barash
Professor
University of Washington
Seattle, WA USA
Greg Bear
Author
Lynnwood, WA USA
Camilla Benbow
Dean of Education & Human Development
Peabody College
Vanderbilt University
Nashville, TN USA
Thomas J. Bouchard Jr.
Professor
University of Minnesota
Minneapolis, MN USA
William H. Calvin
Author and Neurobiologist
University of Washington
Seattle, WA USA
Joseph Coates
Director
Consulting Futurists, Inc.
Washington, DC USA
Jerome C. Glenn
Executive Director
American Council for the United Nations University, Millennium Project
Washington, DC USA
Philip R. Harris
President
Harris International
La Jolla, CA USA
Ralph L. Holloway
Professor
Columbia University
New York, NY 10027
Arthur R. Jensen
Professor Emeritus
University of California at Berkeley
Berkeley, CA USA
Donald C. Johanson
Director, Institute of Human Origins
Arizona State University
Tempe, AZ USA
Timothy C. Mack
President
World Future Society
Bethesda, MD USA
Richard L. Miller
Professor
University of Nebraska at Kearney
Kearney, NE USA
Graham T.T. Molitor
President
Public Policy Forecasting, Inc.
Fayetteville, PA USA
Ramez Naam
President
APEX NanoTechnologies
Seattle, WA USA
Siro Polo Padolecchia
President
European Institute for Futures Studies
Monte Carlo, MONACO
Vincent Sarich
Professor Emeritus
University of California at Berkeley
Berkeley, CA USA
Wendy L. Schultz
Director
Infinite Futures: Foresight Research and Training
Oxford, UNITED KINGDOM
Gregory Stock
President and CEO
Signum Biosciences
Monmouth Junction, NJ USA
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