Wed, Sep 01
|OLLI UM via ZOOM
Prophecy, Prediction, Science Fiction: A History of the Future
Since ancient times, philosophers, prophets and prognosticators have been looking beyond their own era and forecasting what the future holds. What did they get right, and wrong? The answers may surprise you!
Time & Location
Sep 01, 2021, 1:00 PM – Oct 06, 2021, 2:45 PM
OLLI UM via ZOOM
About the event
Week 1: Ancient Historians and Philosophers. Plato on why democracies fail. Herodotus' and Thucydides' predictions about future political conflict. Sun Tzu on "The Art of War."
Week 2: Apocalypse When? Biblical and Postbiblical Prophecy in the Old and New Testaments, Apocrypha, Pseudepigrapha and Gnostic literature
Week 3: Medieval and Renaissance Prognosticators. Ibn Khaldun; Nostradamus Leonardo da Vinci
Week 4: Philosophies of History in the 18th-19th centuries. The rise and fall of civilizations (Edward Gibbon). Utopianism and progressivism. Dispensationalist Christianity. New technologies inspire science fiction (Samuel Clemens; Jules Verne; H.G. Wells).
Week 5: 20th Century. Worlds Fairs and their Fantasies. Hopes and fears in the nuclear age. Totalitarian dystopias (George Orwell; Aldous Huxley). Expectations for the 21st century (Isaac Asimov; Rand Corporation).
Week 6: Anybody’s Guess? The Future of Futurology