Remembering times past and futures to come

It is so strange to hear cutting edge programmes from the past discussing the future and realising that no one really has any idea what is going to happen over the long term. I was listening to a podcast from the archive of In Our Time, one of my favourite radio programmes. This one dated back to early 2000 and was discussing the future of information technology. Bragg was talking to two people who had just written a book on the subject, one with a pessimistic view of the future and one with an optimistic one. The most striking thing was that neither understood how the world would change over the next ten years. One example illustrates this:
In 2000 200 million people had a computer. Now over 500 million people are a member of Facebook alone - something that wouldn't come along for another 3 half years. Neither even mentioned the new driving force in information technology - mobile access to the internet/communication.

So what to draw from all this? Well I suppose the only thing is to realise is that when someone says that something is bound to happen you have just as much chance the opposite happening - a really good example is the latest 'rouge' trader. Banks would have us believe that all their bad habits are in the past and then guess what - they're not - yet we still listen to these people.

That felt better. Anyway, why the drawing of Dominic West? Well last week he portrayed a really evil man - Fred West (no relation to Dominic) - and as I was drawing this this morning something struck me. You might never be able to predict the future with any degree of certainty but you can always be sure that there will be evil in the world. Now there is a gloomy thought to end on.

Sent from my iPad

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