Our world is changing rapidly. Just think of how social media – Facebook, Tweeter, Instagram and others – have changed our societies during the past few years. It has enhanced communication and connected us in ways we have never known before.
But it has also forced us to deal with Fake News, Deep Fake, perpetual Lies that are peddled again and again so that they come to be seen as truth. And it has promoted extremism and the emergence of right-wing extremists throughout the world.
Soon Artificial Intelligence (AI) will transfer the world even more. It will certainly help with diagnosing all sorts of illness but will also kill many things that humans do so well. It will be used to grade students, select employers, enhance surveillance of everything and everyone.
Other recent and emerging issues will have equally deep impacts. Truth has now become post-truth: it is losing its power to guide humanity and shape knowledge. Bioengineering will make designer babies widely available.
Degrading governance will make political stability all but impossible. And on top of it all: climate change will have devastating impact on all of us.
The Postnormal Times Exhibition, which is being held at KL Jazz and Art Centre in Seputeh from 29 September to 15 October, takes the audience on an experiential and pedagogical journey exploring the ways our contemporary world is changing. It uses insights from the field of futures studies to explore the changing nature of change.
The Exhibition suggests that what we have, up to now, taken as normal is evaporating. We are entering postnormal times where established ways of thinking and doing are working less and less and we need to discover new ways of thinking, knowing, doing, and imagining the future. It is divided into two sections.
The upper part of the Gallery shows what we are seeing and experiencing. The lower section reveals what is happening behind – the forces at work. How Speed, Scope, Scale and Simultaneity (4S’s) are accelerating change and leading to a world that is ever more Complex, Contradictory and Chaotic (3C’s). And in the process, increasing Ignorance and Uncertainty.
The audience are encouraged to ask a series of questions. Where are we at? Where are we going as societies and humanity? What does it mean to be human in an era of bioengineering, artificial intelligence and climate change? What can we do about increasing ignorance? How do we cope with rising uncertainty? How do we all work together to shape more viable, sustainable and humane futures?
The Exhibition is a collaboration between the International Institute of Islamic Thought, East and Southeast Asia (IIIT), and the Centre for Postnormal Policy and Futures Studies (CPPFS), a network of scholars who study alternative futures. It will be opened on Friday by the Prime Minister, Dato Seri Anwar Ibrahim. The Postnormal Times Theory aided greatly in the development of Dato Seri’s MADANI policy framework.
This is a unique exhibition: not your average, normal exhibition. An Exhibition like this has never been held in Malaysia. It is a must see for anyone concerned about how the world is changing and what the future may bring.
Post Normal Times – MalayaDailyToday
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