The Future(s) of Humans and the Humanists

Abstract

There is no such thing as the future of Man. Or, rather, there is only one circumstance in which that phrase has any real meaning, that circumstance being the complete eradication of all humans at more or less the same time or as a result of one event—such as a large enough asteroid strike, a widespread major volcanic episode, or a massive nuclear exchange. Barring such an event, however, different groups of humans, even different groups within individual societies, have different futures. Even if we try to think about the future of the human species in the abstract, there are many different futures that can be conceived, and even these different conceptions do not exhaust the topic, for our thinking about our future and our knowledge are linked—our knowledge shapes our thinking about our futures, and the ideas we have about our futures help direct the knowledge that we set out to gain—which then shapes the new thoughts we have about our futures, which are always unfolding before us.