How Technology Will Shape Our Future: Three Views of the Twenty-First Century

This research bulletin explores three of the most compelling views of our longer term future, the role of technology in those possible futures, and the impact these alternative futures may have on higher education. The alternatives range from a future of extreme constraint and possible collapse (Heinberg’s peak oil scenario) to one of unprecedented abundance, where most of the current work of higher education will be automated (Kurzweil’s singularity). Between these extremes is the more immediate future of globalization and the intensified competitive and collaborative world its proponents espouse (Friedman’s flat world).

Citation for this work: Franke, Thomas L. “How Technology Will Shape Our Future: Three Views of the Twenty-First Century” (Research Bulletin, Issue 2). Boulder, CO: EDUCAUSE Center for Applied Research, 2008, available from http://www.educause.edu/ecar.