Each day you spend time thinking about the future and what lies ahead.
While you live in the moment and often think of the past, you also spend time thinking about the future and trying to anticipate what is around the corner.
Surely you have predicted something was going to happen and then it did. Most of us have.
But if you are honest, your prediction was the result of a good guess based upon available data and past experiences rather than a vision of the future.
Even the most off-handed, silly predictions will be correct from time to time
As popular as mindfulness and living in the present have become, most still live very much in the future, with nearly every decision you make being based on some sort of prediction you have made, either consciously or subconsciously.
Forecasting plays an important role in life in everything from predicting trends in finance to fashion.
As technologies like artificial intelligence get stronger and more capable, it becomes increasingly important for us to predict and anticipate how things might change for humanity in the future.
Because of our expanded technological powers, Human activities have significant global impacts.
There are many institutions and individuals who either do consider, or claim to consider, or ought to consider, possible long-term global impacts.
Climate change, international security, economic development, nuclear waste disposal, biodiversity, natural resource conservation, population policy, scientific and technological research involve long time-horizons.
Technological change is in large part responsible for the size of the World population, life expectancy, education levels, material standards of living.
And the nature of work, communication, health care, war, and the effects of Human activities on the natural environment.
Aspects of Society and our individual lives are influenced by technology in direct and indirect ways.
This includes governance, entertainment, Human relationships, and our views on morality, mind, matter, and our own Human nature.