Thomas Frey predicts futures.
He's a self titled Architect of The Future.
He's a lateral thinker and not afraid to take risks with ideas.
His interesting blog The Futurist is here
but let's look at how he sees a new future for public libraries.
The Colorado based Thomas Frey was the keynote speaker at a recent Library conference in New Zealand and told the audience that a new chapter was beginning for libraries as
community based assets.
As well as continuing to loan out books, games, movies and music, they would be lending flying drones, have 3D printers available, become movie and music studios, theatres, that libraries would obtain newly invented products and through corporate sponsorship, make them available for community use.
He has an optimistic view of life as we know it. And that's good...
Wow, I hope he's correct on the library one. Maori have an concept of well being consisting of, physical, mental, spiritual and family/community health. Each being like one of four walls in a house - "Whare tapa wha". Strong community centres, like libraries, offering diverse, socially edifying services, fit into this model well. Smells great!
ReplyDeleteI'm inclined to doubt that the sort of Jetsons future prognosticated by Mr. Frey is the one we're going to get. House bots and camera drones will be a reality for some well-off people for a while, perhaps; but over the long haul, I suspect that writers like Jorgen Randers and Richard Heinberg have painted a more accurate picture of futurity: population overshoot, resource depletion, and industrial decline.
ReplyDeleteI've no wish to be a bummer, but how many past promises of techno-abundance have failed to materialize? Where are our Moon vacations? Our undersea cities harvesting the riches of the vasty deep? Our nuclear power that's too cheap to meter? Why am I still waiting for delivery of my flying car?
In the world economic situation that seems to be developing, I think most municipalities will be lucky to keep any kind of public libraries at all. If it were up to me, they'd go back to using card catalogs, which can't be erased by a power outage. Hard-copy printed materials are a far more reliable repository of our culture's intellectual wealth than digital tech whose marketing and development are based on planned obsolescence.