The Future of the Future
A Futurist View column by Barton Kunstler, January 27, 2000.
Barton's columns appear regularly in The Metrowest Daily News

Does the future have a future? Derived from that most abstract of words - "to be" - "future" manages not to be while being all we have to look forward to. As T.S. Eliot wrote in "Burnt Norton", "Time present and time past/Are both perhaps present in time future,/and time future contained in time past." In other words, at any given moment, we're not sure what time it is.
"Fine," you say, "but what has that got to do with my career or my investment strategy?" Well, quite a bit. Why do stocks soar or plunge? Why did your company just move to Arizona? The answer lies in perceptions of the future. How fast is the future coming? Where is it more likely to strike - Arizona or New England? Will investors bet on the faster future that is actually the Internet's primary product? Today, the future is only a night's sleep away.

That modern life is faster than ever is a cliche, but no less true for that. How fast? So fast, I turned around and saw me flying right by myself. So fast, the last thought I had was gone before I had time to think.

The very idea of a future depends on a stable present. First, we need time to identify and reflect upon who we are right now; only then can we develop the coherent notion "future". However, if change occurs so fast that the present becomes a blur, we shift into warp speed. We then no longer live in the present, but in the future itself.

This can be very disorienting. Or liberating. Consider a historical parallel. When people moved from small towns to vast, anonymous cities - New York, Rio, Lagos - they gave up the sustaining intimacy of community. However, in the city they could live without everyone knowing their every move, and be free of habits instilled by centuries of tradition.

When the present moves so fast that it becomes the future, we are similarly liberated. Values associated with stability - maturity, sobriety, perseverance - may seem quaint and dated. Trillions of dollars hum through the wires 24 hours a day. The weather's growing more violent, and savage, irrational wars rage untended. "Must be some kinda way outta here" Dylan mused. There always is, isn't there?

Start with values. The values that work best when present and future merge in the fast lane aren't the old stand-bys. Instead, balance, flexibility, flair, and fluidity rank high. Movement and dance, too, because when we dance, we view the world from multiple perspectives as body and senses spin through space and time. Mind-body connections and technologies that stimulate "whole brain" thinking will move from New Age storefronts to the boardroom. Not because we are becoming more enlightened, but because business is subject to holistic, multi-dimensional, volatile forces that can only be grasped and guided by dancers and jugglers imbued with analogous traits.

As time accelerates, we will become more sensitized to its rhythms and cycles. We will learn to perceive time as we perceive the three spatial dimensions, and learn to manipulate time as we do space. We feel time "drag" or "fly" depending on our feelings or mental activity. Are such subjective responses to time the gateway to tapping the immense energy resources latent in timeís flow?

Fourth dimensional technologies that operate beyond the restrictions of space will flourish. Holography, nanotechnology, and faster-than-light locomotion employ the fundamental frequencies and structures of matter to produce results deemed impossible by traditional mechanics. Yet we cannot forget our human need to nurture and caress, to stretch our muscles and delight in our senses. As time races up its own heels, we will gather in groups to hear each otherís words and revel in their texture, as an escape from electronic exchange. We will seek the slow, sensuous pleasures of gardens and books, of harbors and touch. More than ever we will seek to escape time, and escape the ever-present future.

Perhaps the human race will become more skilled at kindness and tolerance, the only true ballast for disorder and disorientation. That is not a sentimental wish. Rather, it recognizes our power to restore balance and determine the quality of our engagement with dominant technologies and perceptions. One thing is certain: we're chasing the dragon. We can pretend that the tools of our ancestors are adequate, or we can accept the new reality: quicksilver replaces steel as our civilization's metaphoric metal of choice, and time replaces space as its dominant dimension.