Mystery and the Sacred as Mediators of the Future: Caught between Climate Collapse and Techno-Acceleration

Abstract

How can we still engage with the future, in a time when hopes for a better world feel distant and unrealistic? Instead of clear pathways towards bright utopias, can we learn to engage with illusion, tragedy and imperfection? This paper engages with these questions by questioning the entrenched preference of light over darkness. It does so by returning to, and discussing, Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, where light and darkness play an especially interesting role. We must learn to see in the dark: to become acquainted with the mysteries that are implicit in future visions that are common in modern society, of which this paper will discuss two. On the one hand, fears and projections of climate catastrophe gives rise to apocalyptic visions of collapse. On the other hand, techno-optimists anticipate the acceleration of technological progress towards the ‘singularity’ – a mythical event that would mark a turning point in  history – and the advent of superintelligent artificial intelligence. What can we learn from these futures, which have captured the imagination of many? Based on these discussions, the paper engages in a conceptual exploration around notions of mystery and the sacred. Mystery is what we encounter in the present, what meets our present emotional state, and what invites us to enter into exploration. The sacred is intrinsically valuable, and resists deconstruction and extraction. In these ways, mystery and the sacred are mediators of desirable futures, and fostering them is an indirect approach to futuring, that avoids the pitfalls of control and colonization.