Albert Einstein stated that those who believe in physics know that the distinction between past, present and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion… But where is free will and moral responsibility in this?

The purpose of investigating «possible futures» is not to predict the future – to reveal it to us as if it were already there – but to help us «build» it.

The demographer, Byron Kotzamanis* invites us, within the framework of the Athens Science Festival 2022, to consider it as something that can be constructed, to be «built» rather than as something that is fated and we would only have to guess.

If therefore, the future is not existent, fated and instead is open – a field of freedom – to many futuribles, can we try to see what these «futures» are and then seek the «coming» of someone or any of them?

And if so, what are the basic postulates on which we will rely, what is the method that will allow us to foresight, how does it differ from projections/forecasts and what is the usefulness in strategic planning and in taking policy measures – the future as a field of power and will?

Byron Kotzamanis: Demographer (Docteur ès Lettres et Sciences Humaines (Université Paris X, France)

PURIFIER

Saturday 22/10 | «The future: a field of freedom, power & will?” | 19:00 – 19:50