We all think about the future. What is the future for us and our children? What will it be and will it be at all? What changes are awaiting humanity and how to better prepare for them? What can the rapid development of technology in recent decades lead to? Scientists, philosophers, and writers have tried to answer these questions throughout human history.
Ancient ideas of time
Time is one of the fundamental concepts in life, in science, in philosophy. The cyclic change of day and night, seasons, the recurrence of events in ancient times forced people to find ways to measure it in order to have time to prepare for future events. Time was determined by the location of the stars in the sky, by the sun. The first hours were sunny, sand, water. It is because of clepsydra (water clock) that the common expression “time is running out / expired” appeared.
Evolution of concepts
Human life flowed from birth to death. Changes occurred from infancy to aging. And it was believed that time is linear. That everything has a beginning and an end. Thus it was determined what the future is. They tried to predict it from ancient times: Aristotle, Plato, Johann the Theologian, various biblical prophets, and Nostradamus addressed this issue at one time.
In classical physics, time moved in one direction and was uniform and rectilinear.
After the discovery of classical mechanics by Newton, it was believed that if you know the coordinates, mass and speed of all atoms in the universe, then you can absolutely accurately predict the development of our world. Looking into the future has become more meaningful. This was part of the philosophy of determinism.
Crazy theories
With the advent of Einstein's theory of relativity, the development of quantum physics and cosmological theories, the concept of time has undergone significant changes. Time can speed up and slow down. With the advent of the theories of the Big Bang and the Pulsating Universe, the concept of the arrow of time appeared. Changing the direction of the arrow of time does not contradict the mathematical apparatus of these theories. Einstein, Bohr, Heisenberg, Riemann, Lobachevsky and many other physicists and mathematicians worked in this direction.
In recent years, Stephen Hawking's books A Brief History of Time from the Big Bang to Black Holes and The Future of Space-Time have become bestsellers.
Futurology
The term "futurology" was first introduced by the sociologist Osip Flaitheim in 1943. He proposed it to Aldous Huxley. Huxley used it in his novel Brave New World!
So they began to call science, which, on the basis of studying the laws of development, tries to predict the future, determines the planning of the future. True, there is still debate whether this is science. The conclusions of futurologists are not always confirmed by time. Futurology considers possible development options, distinguish between normative, possible and desirable options. Among futurologists there are also science fiction writers. This, for example, Arthur Clark, Stanislav Lem. Yes, and Jules Verne can be counted among them. The future generation will be able to appreciate their foresight.
Utopian novels
Looking into the future has changed over time.
Many works describe possible options. In the literature there are genres of utopia and dystopia. The term "utopia" (from the Greek "u-topos" - "land that is nowhere to be found") came from the name of the novel by Thomas More, where he describes the ideal, from his point of view, state. Subsequently, the word acquired the meaning of something unrealizable, which in principle cannot be. An ideal society in which there is no private property, where everyone is working and happy.
Utopian novels include the work “People as Gods” by Herbert Wells and “The Andromeda Nebula” by Ivan Efremov. Roman Efremova talks about the bright future of victorious communism, where the united humanity is engaged in science, space exploration. All people are highly moral and demonstrate miracles of selflessness.
The early novels of the Strugatsky brothers also describe the World of Half Day, the world of victorious communism. True, not everything is cloudless in their world, and problems of various kinds exist. The future generation sometimes does not live up to expectations ...
Dystopian novels
These novels describe a bleak future. A future that causes horror and disgust. Among the most famous can be called: "1984" Orwell, "We" Zamyatin, "Oh brave new world!" Huxley and many others. This is an attempt to answer the question: "What is the future?"
Modern writers also paint an absolutely joyless picture of the coming years. This and the Day of the Oprichnik, Sugar Kremlin, Snowstorm by Vladimir Sorokin. This is Victor Pelevin's Snuff. This is “Kys” by Tatyana Tolstoy.
In the novel “Love for Three Zucerbrines”, V. Pelevin writes about critical points at which the future can branch out into several possible scenarios. And there is an opportunity to correct these scenarios. Plan for the future.
Technical progress
Both scientists and writers have repeatedly tried to predict the ways of technical development, to answer the questions: "What will be the technology and technology of the future? What can lead to technological progress?"
In the Middle Ages, it was believed that an increase in horse-drawn carts in cities would lead to city streets drowning in horse dung. At the beginning of the 19th century, it was said that railways would lead to the collapse of animal husbandry, because cows would be frightened by steam locomotives and stop milking.
But there were predictions that came true. Jules Verne predicted flights into space and the moon, fast travels around the world, submarines, scuba gear and even an electric chair. Herbert Wells - The advent of the laser and the atomic bomb. As early as 1940, Arthur Clark predicted the possibility of satellites in geostationary orbit and a global communications system.
Some of his "prophecies" are still awaiting their turn. He predicted low-temperature nuclear reactions, environmentally friendly transport, human cloning, the destruction of nuclear weapons, the closure of the last coal mine, the delivery of Martian soil to the ground ... It seems that it is very close to the realization of these things.
There are a lot of predictions about the future. And the question "what is the future" will remain all the time, as long as our civilization exists.