History looks to the past while science drives us forward. Both disciplines are often employed in the business of prediction and advances in each are hotly debated. In his award-winning dystopian novel A Scientific Romance (1997), Ronald Wright paints a picture of the future as "the overgrown, empty, devastated ruin of today". (Boston Book Review) His subsequent non-fiction work A Short History of Progress (2004) uses history to predict the challenges that will confront us in the 21st century. Our growing understanding of the human genome is already changing the way we approach fertility and mortality, but evolutionary biologist Armand Marie Leroi, author of the award-winning book Mutants (2003), rejects the tendency of commentators on genetics to predict or moralise about the future, declaring he has neither the information nor the knowledge to do so. Do we demand too much of science and history as our guides to the future, or do they bear news that is essential for the survival of the species?

 

 

Concession Pass to 15 Writers Upfront sessions of your choice: $150 [FR $140]

 

If this event interests you, you may also like The War Zone and Making News.

 

18 Mar, 2:15pm