Created 26/6/2011 10:21:09 AM

We must examine the nature of the image of the future, study how it is formed and developed, and deepen our understanding of its relationship to human's historical comprehension about "time". According to Polack, "The image of the future represents a major insight, and creates within itself its own intellectual imperatives for a further working out of the idea." (Helm, 2005). This idea became the essence of a two-volume book "The Image of the Future", which was originally written between July and December 1953, first published in 1955 (in Dutch), later translated by Elise Boulding (in 1961) and finally abridged from 800 to a 300-page one volume edition (1973), which is most commonly known.

The concept of a vision that leads human's actions is very old. Human beings are engineered so that they may be able to choose and write their preferred futures. The future not only must be perceived; it also must be shaped (Polack, 1953). The images of the future that man has created throughout the history are related to the concepts of "time" he has ever held. We can see that all of the images of the future that carry man out of and beyond himself contain a time- related concept that is beyond present time. Polack (1973) believes that "in a systematic study of the future we must unfortunately exclude one of the most important sources of ail knowledge, human experience. We can experience what has been, but not what is to be." Do you agree with such predicament?


References:
Helm, R. (2005). The future according to Frederik Lodewijk Polak, Futures 37, pp. 505–519.
Polack, Fred. Translated and abridged by Boulding, E. (1973). The Image of the Future. Amsterdam: Elsevier Scientific Publishing Company.