Central Texas' Future

This is a blog for the members of the Central Texas Chapter of the World Future Society. It's purpose is to exchange and develop ideas about the future of Central Texas, especially Austin.

Saturday, March 31, 2007

Remembering the Future

The Central Texas Chapter of the World Future Society will hold its next monthly meeting on Tuesday, April 17, 2007. It will be held at the meeting room of Marie Callender's, 9503 Research Blvd. #400, Austin, TX 78759 (512.349.7151) at 6:00 p.m.

Dr. Richard D. Grant will speak on "Remembering the Future: A Personal Toolbox”

Our historical background and personality style set an important frame for present problem solving and projections into the future. This presentation will examine different approaches to time and transformation based on personality style, and then will offer a personal toolbox for "remembering the future": self assessments in accessing our historically based assumptions as we approach the future.

Richard D. Grant, Jr., Ph.D., received his Ph.D., from the University of Texas in 1973. He has taught at Auburn and Texas A&M universities, and, since 1977, has been a counseling/consulting psychologist in Austin, Texas. He has authored four books, most recently, Recovering Connections, with Andrea Miller.

He has trained corporations and government agencies for over 20 years, including the executive MBA programs at the University of Texas at Austin, TCU, Texas State University, the University of Notre Dame, and the Texas Governor's Center for Executive Development. His private clients have included Gartner, Inc., Perot Systems, IBM, 3M, Sematech, Applied Materials, and the national center of the American Heart Association.

Seating is limited so please reserve your place at:

www.centexwfs.org/index_files/Register.htm .

Price: $20 for members, $25 for non-members, payable at the door (cash or check only). Note: The price is for a meal, but must be paid for attendance even if you choose not to eat a meal.

Schedule:
Networking
Announcements
Meal
Speaker
Discussion

For more information about the Central Texas Chapter of the World Future Society, visit www.centexwfs.org .

For more information about the World Future Society, visit www.wfs.org .


Paul Schumann
President
paul.schumann@centexwfs.org
512.302.1935
www.centexwfs.org

Wednesday, March 14, 2007

Hopes & Fears

The following is a listing of the hopes and fears about the future suggested by the participants in the 2/20/07 program on "Heartfelt Conversations About the Future."

Hopes

BIG Broadband – both a hope and a fear. Our nation desperately needs a policy to encourage competition and investment in FAST, OPEN and Affordable Internet access to regain our technology leadership for economic development and survival.

Peace in the future.

That the world will be at peace.

That animals will have a voice.

Humans will move to a place of honoring and caring for nature.

That more needy individuals have access to education etc.

Biochemists say that we only know what 5% of the DNA is for. What would life be like if we could activate 100% of our DNA. It perhaps won’t be transformation beyond conception.

People will show more gratitude.

Longer learning/loving/living through AI, space travel and colonization, uploading of brains (backup)

Finding my personal most powerful role in creating an inclusive, peaceful, powerful future. I hope to give my life as a leader to open hearts and transform old patterns.

Peoples of the world can put aside hatred and animosity toward others and develop understanding and love for others.

World peace.

We will learn again that we are a part of nature – before she casts us off –

World peace.

Fears

Declining position of the US in the world and how that will impact future opportunities for our children and grand children.

We will ignore reality at our own peril.

Technology will phase out human touch in a very big way.

The future of our grandchildren.

War- dark ages for humans again.

War. Hatred. Violence.

Can Austin adapt to its population growth?

War, destruction, pain will expand.

Spread of terrorism.

A far lower quality of life for our children and grandchildren.

Can the elderly stay in their homes with taxes and insurance costs rising?

Nuclear weapon incident.

Tuesday, March 06, 2007

Deliberative Democracy

"The answer I settle on‑which is by no means original to me‑requires a shift in metaphors, one that sees our democracy not as a house to be built, but as a conversation to be had. Ac­cording to this conception, the genius of Madison's design is not that it provides us a fixed blueprint for action, the way a drafts­man plots a building's construction. It provides us with a frame­work and with rules, but fidelity to these rules will not guarantee a just society or assure agreement on what's right. It won't tell us whether abortion is good or bad, a decision for a woman to make or a decision for a legislature. Nor will it tell us whether school prayer is better than no prayer at all.

What the framework of our Constitution can do is organize the way by which we argue about our future. All of its elaborate machinery‑its separation of powers and checks and balances and federalist principles and Bill of Rights‑are designed to force us into a conversation, a "deliberative democracy" in which all citizens are required to engage in a process of testing their ideas against an external reality, persuading others of their point of view, and building shifting alliances of consent. Because power in our government is so diffuse, the process of making law in America compels us to entertain the possibility that we are not always right and to sometimes change our minds; it challenges us to examine our motives and our interests constantly, and sug­gests that both our individual and collective judgments are at once legitimate and highly fallible."

The Audacity of Hope, Barack Obama, Crown Publishers, 2006, p92

Envisioning the Future of Central Texas

The Central Texas Chapter of the World Future Society will hold its next monthly meeting on Tuesday, March 20, 2007. It will be held at the meeting room of Marie Callender's, 9503 Research Blvd. #400, Austin, TX 78759 (512.349.7151) at 6:00 p.m. Diane Miller will speak on "Envisioning the Future of Central Texas”

The Central Texas region has experienced tremendous growth in recent years, a trend that shows no signs of slowing. In fact, of the five counties that make up Central Texas, three are among the 100 fastest-growing counties in the United States . Our population is forecasted to more than double by 2030 to nearly 2.8 million people. It’s imperative that we proactively address critical issues, such as how and where land is developed for housing and jobs, the types of homes we live in, how we travel around the region and how we preserve and protect our environment. Envision Central Texas, a non-profit organization created in 2001, has been working with the citizens of the region to address these growth challenges in a way that will help preserve and enhance our quality of life for current and future generations.

Diane Miller, Assistant Director of Envision Central Texas (ECT), will provide an overview of the work of ECT, including the alternative future growth scenarios that were developed with the input of citizens in 2003 and the resulting Regional Vision. She will discuss how ECT is advancing the Vision and serving as a catalyst for change in our region’s growth management strategies. Several of ECT’s current projects will be highlighted, as well as private and public sector initiatives that reflect that change in attitude and planning approaches that will help the region achieve a more sustainable and vibrant future. For more information about ECT, visit their web site (www.envisioncentraltexas.org).

Diane Miller has been with ECT since near its inception and works closely with board and committee members, community leaders and policy makers to help advance the organization’s objectives. Before joining ECT, Diane worked in organizational change management for corporate clients and was also co-founder of an event planning and destination management service for adventure-based team-building experiences. She also spent a number of years as a commercial insurance agent working with large transportation clients. Diane is involved with a number of community groups, including Texas Forums (www.texasforums.org), and is a recent alumni of Leadership Austin.

Seating is limited so please reserve your place at:

www.centexwfs.org/index_files/Register.htm .

For more information about the Central Texas Chapter of the World Future Society, visit www.centexwfs.org.

For more information about the World Future Society, visit www.wfs.org.
Paul SchumannPresidentpaul.schumann@centexwfs.org
512.302.1935www.centexwfs.org

Did You Know?

This is a very stimulating video about the present and future. It'll make you think.

It was originally created by Karl Fisch for a presentation to Araphoe High School in Colorado and discussed in his blog (http://thefischbowl.blogspot.com/2006/08/did-you-know.html) and subsequently modified by Scott McLeod in his education blog (http://www.dangerouslyirrelevant.org/). The version linked here is the one revised by McLeod.

http://www.centexwfs.org/didyouknow.wmv