A non-profit corporation dedicated to creating and implementing educational initiatives that connect students in a meaningful way with their own future world.
"In this way the first men were made, and soon they filled the far reaches of the earth. But for a long time they did not know what to do with their noble limbs or the divine spirit which had been breathed into them. They saw, yet they did not see; they heard, yet they did not hear. . . . Then Prometheus [Forethought] came to their aid."
Gustav Schawab, Die Sagen des Klassischen Altertums, translated by Marx and Morwitz; Pantheon Books
The Foresight Project: Today's Students Confronting Tomorrow's World.
The Foresight Project was formed to give students and teachers, particularly at the high-school level, an opportunity to examine issues of the current day, and consider the possible consequences of decisions that we make or fail to make, and their eventual outcomes in our increasingly interaction and global world. Our strategy is to create programs that work within existing curriculum and academic programs, acknowledging the many existing demands placed on educators.
Our initial and current program, IMAGINING TOMORROW: ALTERNATE ENERGY FUTURES focuses on the dual challenge of providing energy resources for our growing world economies while addressing the issues of global warming resulting from increasing levels of carbon dioxide and other green-house gases in our atmosphere, encouraging students to look at these problems in all aspects: science, technology, political and economic implications.
The program is inquiry and web-based, allowing for learning on a real-time basis. Web-based programs create a short-cut through the traditional path of knowledge to textbook to teacher-training to classroom. Students can think critically about the important issues of the day, on a real-time basis, with materials changing in parallel with our changing world. Inquiry-based programs allow teachers and students to learn together, inspiring the students to follow the path of their curiosity; the experience of independent learning and critical thinking creates life-long learners, empowering them to become active citizens and participants in our world.
Why The Foresight Project?
Foresight studies are not about predicting the future. We now realize that the future is a "garden of forking paths" influenced by variables both under our control and beyond our control. Foresight techniques instead explore the potential outcome of a particular set of choices, influenced by a particular set of variables, and allow us to explore the implications of the choices that we make.
Government programs of scenario-based foresight studies are common, using a range of tools, from creative writing to "What If" essays, to explore potential futures for the purpose of developing real-world policies and practices. For students, this same practice can inspire understanding of a critical issue in depth, as well as develop the practice of critical thinking that must become commonplace in the institutional and commercial lives of our future employees and citizens.
Science fiction is a way of making real and tangible the vague and even invisible threats to our future. It has long been used as a way of understanding new information and its potential consequences. In The Road to Science Fiction, James Gunn writes: "Science fiction is the branch of literature that deals with the effects of change on people in the real world as it can be projected. . . and it usually involves matters whose importance is greater than the individual or the community; often civilization itself is in danger."
The creative challenge of The Foresight Project programs requires students to reach an understanding of an issue at an emotional and personal level; the resulting work reaches out to touch others --their peers, their families, their immediate and global communities. The addition of video -- both creative and documentary -- includes a wider range of students who have talents in different areas, as well as allows students to explore and connect with the realities of the world around them.
