bierkergaard

I volunteered at the Vancouver World Future Society Conference to save half of the registration fee. I paid my own way. My school can't afford to foot the bill for the fees and flight. As an aside, we all hear that the children are the future. But, what is the future? That is a pretty important question to ask in education and elsewhere. Trend and Futurist work is not prophecy, instead it is an intelligent examination of available evidence and information and projecting plausible and possible outcomes. And preparing for the implications ahead of time. On the first day as a volunteer, I walked up to the registration table and was given a quick run through and off I went. I sometimes get anxious in uncertain situations. I wanted to be friendly, helpful, and useful. A registrant asked me if lunch was provided. "I don't know" was my totally oblivious response. Always try to be honest than assume anything. Honest ignorance can be forgiven, incorrect information is dicier...

I suppose he was one of these college professors who has smelled his own intellectual gas for so long that he taken leave of his senses. At the World Future Society Conference, at a session about the demise of the written word and the rise of the image, an older professor from a California University was arguing that since 98% of the people in developing countries are illiterate (1 billion people), we should ignore the goal of literacy and then move forward to utilizing technology (i.e. smart phones) to communicate verbal information audibly and symbolically through pictures and videos to them. He argued that the written word is unimportant as a philosophical postulation, not just a practical problem that cannot be solved considering resources. I don't want to be uncharitable but this is idiocy by any name. Consign these cultures to perpetual intellectual infancy. This professor had a Rousseau-like noble savage "Tabula Rasa" belief in the innate superiority in the type o...

I wasn't going to blog until I arrived back to Pa. but I have a lot of new experiences that have plowed up my mind. We were not aware that Vancouver, British Columbia, stays lighter much later in the evening than Pennsylvania. We were soon to find out. After arriving in town, Lina and I went for a wonderful dinner close to the hotel at a hip restaurant. Afterwards, we strolled the streets. Based on our Pennsylvania sensibilities, it seemed around 8:30 or so. Lina wanted to do some shopping at a trendy clothing store, so she pulled on the door. Not open. Door was locked and it said on the door that the store was open until 9:00. What gives? Did we trigger an anti-American security system? We don't want your stinking American dollars... Well, it was almost 9:40. It took several moments for both us to realize that it was much later than we thought. The light had given us hope that it was still day. When Jesus said that His followers were and are to be the "Light of the World...

I have a few moments to reflect as looking into a lake from a boat and I wanted to do so while my awareness is heightened. Special Blog entry! The World Future Society yearly conference in Vancouver, B.C. just concluded last night. It was an interesting and provocative three days. Odd, given the name of the organization, that it was generally quite an aged crowd. I am much more informed about trends. I walk away from the presentations both discouraged and encouraged. Discouraged in that I don't trust in the schemes of man. Our inventiveness can never escape our destructiveness. We bring both to the table and both are in play. Or, to use the canoe metaphor, both oars are in the water. That our inventiveness, creativity, and motives can be, and often are at war with God, is peculiarly pernicious. Creativity is often viewed as a great plus...not so. To what ends are accomplished is the decider. Robert Schuller's Crystal Cathedral is shattering and splintering . And, like Humpty D...