The Evolution of Future Consciousness

The Evolution of Future Consciousness: Table of Contents
The Evolution of Future
Consciousness - Examines the human ability to be conscious of the future, to create ideas,
images, goals, and plans about the future, to think about these mental creations
and use them in directing one’s actions and one’s life. The opening chapter
looks at the psychology of future consciousness and its values and benefits, as
well as ways to enhance this human ability. Subsequent chapters describe the
emergence of future consciousness in pre-historic times and how it was critical
in the development of love and bonding, the family, tools, and human aggression
and hunting; the central importance of the future and time in early myths,
religions, and classical philosophy; and the rise of modern futurist thinking,
covering the Renaissance, the Scientific Revolution, the Western Enlightenment,
and the Romantic counter-reaction. The book concludes with Darwin and how the
theory of evolution revolutionized humanity’s conception of both the past and
the future.
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Book Reviews
Dr. Lombardo has accomplished what most of us can only dream about. He has produced two innovative, thoughtful and weighty overviews of the study of the future, written from two dynamically different perspectives, at the same time. And as an added bonus, the two books compliment each in highly original ways. The more traditional book, Contemporary Futurist Thought, is a classic review of future studies literature, but much broader in scope than comparable reviews – and it benefits from that imaginative breadth. Its companion, The Evolution of Future Consciousness, is a much more ambitious endeavor, aiming at nothing more that establishing the place of futures thinking in the history of human culture.
The first book
of this set is the more adventuresome of the two, and the greater challenge
to the reviewer. While Contemporary Futurist Thought includes the
realm of science fiction under its umbrella, this realm and the futures
practitioners and scholars considered by Lombardo are relatively familiar to
those involved in the foresight universe. In The Evolution of Future
Consciousness, the author moves to consider those collateral fields
which may have an influence on futures thinking (and vice versa), including
psychology, anthropology, theology, sociology, political science and
philosophy. While this creative undertaking illustrates the truly
‘Renaissance’ nature of Dr. Lombardo’s thinking, it is not clear that every
reader, including this reviewer, can match his understanding of so many
disparate fields. Accordingly, some may find themselves unable to fairly
assess the accuracy of all of his conclusions about the role of ‘future
consciousness’ in the evolution of the human condition over the entire
history of humanity (such is the breadth of his vision).
Given that
caveat, it is easy admire the undertaking and to offer comment in the more
familiar areas. The uniting of future awareness to the fundamental ‘temporal
awareness’ of humans is a bold move, as it places the future at the very
center of most human activity. Hope, motivation, memory, language, ethics,
self-consciousness and even basic cognition now seemed shaped by a questing
after the future. This bold supposition thus explains the depth of the
discussion that follows and why of the two volumes, this is the longer book.
This is not a
complaint, but more a statement of awe. The ensuing discussion is cogent,
enlightening, entertaining, and at points transformational in its insights.
One of the influences on this volume is the work of Leonard Shlain, a
leading neurosurgeon who has also found time to write extensively on human
cultural evolution and Shlain’s breadth of vision clearly matches Lombardo’s
own, which challenges the reader at each turn in the discussion. Moving
from the author’s assertion that, “Acting on the future proactively alters
one’s self identity” to “Changes in human psychology and mental health
affect economics and vice versa. Biological and medical advances affect
society and social growth” gives just a small sense of the width of the
author’s reach in this volume.
At points, the
benefits of future consciousness begin to approach the feel of a patent
medicine show, as it is undoubtedly “improves imagination, creativity and
flexibility…facilitates the development of courage and wisdom (and)
energizes, enriches and benefits the total human mind.” The most impressive
aspect of this potential overdose of admiration for the study of the future
is that the author then proceeds to systematically illustrate and
convincingly support these points. For example, he convincingly aligns
future thinking with adaptive learning and anticipatory behavior, a strong
ingredient in species and individual success.
Dr. Lombardo then
proceeds to weave in the ‘discovery of death’, the evolution of family and
human love, the development of agriculture, etc., weaving each into a
context with future consciousness. The conflicting impulses toward conquest
and cooperation and other central dualistic concepts are well explored, as
is the power of myth and story and the development of human religions. The
author argues that reciprocity is one of the central concepts of cultural
development and that foresight is a central element as well. The continuing
conflicts between the doctrines of destiny and free will are traced and
explicated, setting the stage for the modern world and the struggle between
authoritarianism and individuality (with future consciousness displaying a
strong affinity for the latter).
Lombardo closes
the book with a review of modernist scientific and philosophical thought.
Darwinism, pragmatism, and even psychotherapy have been productive partners
in the more recent and ongoing development of future consciousness and this
is certain to continue. The term ‘holistic’ is used in the book to describe
the connection between futures thinking and the rest of human experience and
it is a testament to the author that by the end of the book, the reader is
likely to be sympathetic to his closing assertion that “Clearly, future
consciousness has been of pivotal importance in defining the meaning and
purpose of human existence for people around the world.”
Timothy C. Mack
President, World Future Society
Future thinking through
the ages - 5 Stars on Amazon
THE
EVOLUTION OF FUTURE CONSCIOUSNESS is an engaging, readable and informative
tour through major themes of human evolution, from myth and early religions
through several schools of psychology and fields of science. To me it
represents a maturing of future studies, placing it solidly within the
larger frameworks of human thought, and I would recommend it to anyone
practicing or teaching in that field.
Walter
Truett Anderson
President, World Academy of Art and Science
A beacon for educators, politicos, & citizens to follow -
5 Stars on Amazon
Being able to be "conscious" of the future is perhaps, as Dr.
Lombardo suggests, the most unique and adaptable feature of the human mind.
Here, in "The Evolution of Future Consciousness", Lombardo takes on one of the
most pressing yet heretofore unarticulated matters of our time: how individuals
adapt to change of unprecedented speed and scale.
Lombardo's grasp on philosophy, psychology, and the study of time is simply
incredible - making this book quite a tour de force. This would be an excellent
companion to Thomas Friedman's "The World is Flat" - as this book outlines the
underpinnings of strategies for dealing with the monumental global changes
rearranging social, economic, and technological interactions that Friedman
explores.
The pursuit of Future Consciousness is a cornerstone of our species and of our
planet's survival.
Read This Book.
Jonathon Richter
University of Oregon
“Heroic synthesis, serving as companion to Contemporary
Futurist Thought.”
Michael Marien
Future Survey
Copthorne
Macdonald's review of The Evolution of Future Consciousness submitted to
Amazon.com
A comprehensive look at humanity's relationship to the future
-
5 Stars on Amazon
Rarely does an
author cover an area of knowledge so comprehensively that there is little more
to say about it. But that is what Thomas Lombardo has done with his two recently
published books about humanity's relationship to the future. THE EVOLUTION OF
FUTURE CONSCIOUSNESS focuses on the psychology of the phenomenon he calls future
consciousness and the history of its development in many cultures, from ancient
times through the 19th century. CONTEMPORARY FUTURIST THOUGHT focuses on the
various expressions of future consciousness in the 20th and early 21st
centuries.
THE EVOLUTION
OF FUTURE CONSCIOUSNESS is devoted to giving the reader a sense of what Lombardo
means by future consciousness. His short definition is that future consciousness
is "the total integrative set of psychological abilities, processes, and
experiences humans use in understanding and dealing with the future." Among
these are
* the
perceptual awareness of time;
* emotional
feelings about the future and ingrained attitudes coming out of them such as
hope, fear, despair, goals, purposes, motivations, etc.;
* thoughts
about the future; and
* higher
cognitive skills such as critical thinking, problem solving, planning,
decision making, ethical thinking, and (ideally) wisdom.
The remainder
of the book is devoted to outlining the evolution and complexification of future
consciousness. Lombardo begins by discussing its origins in prehistoric times.
He then discusses the effect on future consciousness of the many mythic,
religious, and philosophical developments that occurred in East and West from
about 3000 BCE to roughly 1000 AD. He concludes with a discussion of modernism,
the scientific revolution, the Enlightenment, the theory of secular progress,
and important 19th-century theories such as those of Marx and Darwin.
If you are
interested in our complex relationship to the future and would like to know more
about it, you will find this book and its companion volume to be highly
informative and satisfying reads.
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