By Dan Bloom
CHIAYI CITY, Taiwan — Jewish futurists don’t usually fall for end of the world predictions or alien abductions and UFO conspiracy theories. We steer clear of such pronouncements because such nonsense has never been our cup of tea and still isn’t.
So what do Jewish futurists like to think about in between professional baseball season and college basketball tournaments? For me, my mind wanders into (and wonders about) the next 30 generations of man, and my concern isn’t artificial intelligence or smart robots piloting 747s or driving driver-less cars.
This Passover season, I’m concerned about the future of humankind in the next 30 generations. I want to know where we humans of today will fit in in the coning decades, the coming centuries, in regard to religion, civil rights, gay rights, robot rights and, most important of all, climate change.
So as a thought experiment I’ve created what I call ”The 30 Generations Quiz,” to help people in 2019 and the 2020s visualize what future decades and centuries, as far forward as 30 generations from now, might look like to those living in them.
Did you ever wonder what the next 30 generations of humankind will be like as climate change impact events make themselves felt on future generations of man, of women, of children?
Some people are predicting things will be all over, ”game over,” in 12 years, which is silly.
No way, we have much more time. Others, smart people with PhDs and writing for major publications worldwide, are saying we have one more decade, two at the most, before we’re done for. I don’t buy any of it.
We have plenty of time for what is coming down the road. In my own vision of things, we have 30 generations and we can use this time, these next 29 generations, to start planning ways to prepare for what’s coming, and in the end, to help prepare future generations for what they might very well be facing, come the scary times in 500 to 1000 years. Not now. For the time being, we have time.
Let’s use it wisely and not panic.
Want to take the quiz? You can by clicking here.
Happy Passover 2019.
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Bloom is a freelance writer and inveterate web surfer based in Taiwan. He may be contacted via dan.bloom@sdjewishworld.com
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