The History of the Future
Event
Visions of a technology-driven future fueled the imagination of 20th century America. While some predictions, such as driverless cars, have become a reality, innovations like cities on the moon remain out of reach.
Regardless of their accuracy, past visions of the future provide us invaluable insight about the hopes, values, and anxieties of their creators, and about the times and places from which they sprung. What can kitschy visions of robotic kitchens tell us about how we envisioned a post-World War II domestic life? How did film and television influence our understanding of emerging technologies?
Join Future Tense to explore yesterday's visions of today, and their lessons for tomorrow.
Lunch will be served.
Future Tense is a partnership of Slate, New America, and Arizona State University.
This event will be livestreamed on this page. Follow the conversation online with #HistoryOfTheFuture and @FutureTenseNow.
Agenda:
12:00-12:15 pm: A Brief History of Thinking About The Future
Neal Gabler
Author, Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination
Visiting Professor, MFA Creative Writing and Literature Program at SUNY Stony Brook
12:15-12:45: Envisioning The Future
How We’d Get Around
Joey Eschrich, @JoeyEsch
Editor and Program Manager, Center for Science and the Imagination, Arizona State University
How We’d Work
Ytasha Womack, @ytashawomack
Author, Afrofuturism: The World of Black Sci-Fi and Fantasy Culture and Post Black: How A New Generation is Redefining African American Identity
Director, A Love Letter to the Ancestors From Chicago
How We’d Live
Katherine Mangu-Ward, @kmanguward
Editor in Chief, Reason
Future Tense Fellow, New America
How We’d Entertain
Patric M. Verrone, @pverrone
Writer and Producer, Futurama
Future Tense Fellow, New America
12:45-1:15pm: What Do Our Future Predictions Say About Us?
Ytasha Womack
Katherine Mangu-Ward
Neal Gabler
Patric M. Verrone
Moderator:
Joey Eschrich
1:15-1:25: Does the Future Have A Future In Washington?
Andrés Martinez
Editorial Director, Future Tense
Professor of Practice, Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at ASU