Imaginative anticipation: Rethinking memory for alternative futures

Abstract

There is a well-known story that describes the twenty-first century as our final century: global ageing and youth populations simultaneously explode exponentially; geopolitical complexity grows to the point that there isn’t a conference table big enough to sit round; and energy, water and food will be so scarce by 2050 that no one can remember the days of careless consumerism. In Our Final Century (2004), Martin Rees offers a scientist’s warning about the threats to humanity in the twenty-first century: even if global warming occurs at the slower end of the likely range, its consequences — competition for water supplies, for example, and large-scale migrations — could engender tensions that trigger international and regional conflicts, especially if these are further fuelled by continuing population growth.1