I often get frustrated with how society views the future. It’s either viewed as a 'design fiction' or through the filter of the past. In doing so we risk being disappointed, misinterpreting or missing entirely what is happening now.
For me, the future is often a blend of the banal social entropy you would find in a latter J.G.Ballard novel and being amazed by the now. This recent blog post by Warren Ellis summed it up nicely I thought - How To See The Future.
Here are two quotes that particularly resonated with me:
“We look at the present through a rear-view mirror. We march backwards into the future.” Marshall McLuhan
"To be a futurist, in pursuit of improving reality, is not to have your face continually turned upstream, waiting for the future to come. To improve reality is to clearly see where you are, and then wonder how to make that better." Warren Ellis