Society & Technology College Courses Fall 2008
To join the Society & Technology College, select the following course as your top foundation seminar preference (in order of preference). FOUN 099 05 CRN: 13375
Futurology
Prof. Janet Knoedler, Economics
Prof. Ned Ladd, Physics
Prof. Amy Wolaver, Economics
Fulfills the Following Requirements:
Engineering Social Science, First-Year Course, Writing Level 1, Natural & Fabricated Worlds Humankind has always been curious about the future. We are constantly asking ourselves: “what will happen tomorrow, next week, or a century from now?” In this foundation seminar, we will ask ourselves, “how can we know about the future? And can we rely on technology to help us answer these questions?” We will examine predictions of the future, both those made in the past about our current world, and the predictions now being made about the near and distant future. We will consider such questions as: If a genetic test indicated that you had a 90% chance of contracting breast cancer at some point in your life, would you have a double mastectomy today to prevent it?
Will global climate change doom the human race, or will our technology save us from a steamy fate?
Will technology eliminate the privileges of privacy?
When will the next large asteroid crash into Earth, causing mayhem and possibly our own extinction?"
Is history a reliable guide to the present and future? Indeed, are those who do not know the lessons of history doomed to repeat it? Or is our modern world so different from the past that history is no longer a reliable guide?
In a special unit of the class that will be similarly considered by all foundation seminars in the Residential College this fall, we will look at the 2008 election. In our case, we will consider what will happen in the next eight years, and what might happen in the distant future because of the next eight years.
These questions are crucial ones in what is likely to be a tumultuous twenty-first century. In “Futurology,” you will discuss and evaluate how predictions have been made in the past, and whether our increasing command of technology has improved our ability to predict our own future. You will also examine how such predictions have influenced our past decisions and how our success with these past predictions may influence the decisions we currently face. We will also consider how to cope with the inherent uncertainty in these predictions. We intend to explore such methods as computer and mathematical modeling, the “wisdom of crowds” on the Iowa Electronic Markets, the lessons of history, forms of soothsaying, and other ways of predicting the future. We will ask whether humans can accurately predict complex weather systems, climate change, the economy, social change, and the future of medicine. In other words, can humans actively shape their futures, or are we prisoners of the fates? How should governments make policy based on uncertain predictions? What are the ethical questions raised by these enquiries?
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