Show notesThis is the final episode of season one. Today’s guest is Dr Jennifer Gidley. Jennifer is an Author, Climate Educator, Psychologist, and International Futurist. She’s a global thought leader and advocate for human-centred futures in an era of hi-tech hype. Jennifer is an Adjunct Professor, Institute for Sustainable Futures (UTS) Sydney, and has held academic posts in four Australian universities. She is a Fellow at the Botin Centre, Santander, Spain, and a non-Resident Fellow of TRENDS Research & Advisory in Abu Dhabi. She’s held a Visiting Professorship at Olomouc University, Czech Republic and a Visiting Research Fellowship at SciencesPo, Paris, France. She was also the longest serving elected President of the World Futures Studies Federation from 2009 to 2017.Jennifer's most recent project is the founding of Global Futures Education, as a platform to provide high-level online education for professionals and executives. Over several years she has created a series of executive-level online courses on 'Grand Global Futures Challenges and Solutions'. She’s also the author of 2016’s The Future: A very short introduction from Oxford University Press.In this interview, recorded September 2024, we discuss the difference between what Jennifer calls a technocentric future and a human-centred one. Advocates of technocentric futures tend to assume that technology can solve everything. These sorts of futures are also based in a strongly materialist worldview. By contrast, Jennifer advocates human-centred futures, which see human beings as kind, fair, consciously evolving agents with a responsibility to maintain ecological balance between humans, world and cosmos.If you’re feeling disempowered about the future, then I hope you’ll find our dialogue as inspiring as I did. And I’d like to thank all my audience for listening this season. What Lies Beyond will be back in February 2025 for season 2!Thanks for reading What Lies Beyond! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.Jennifer’s official site:https://www.jennifergidley.comHer book:Gidley, J. (2016). The Future: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press.Site for Grand Global Challenges:https://www.globalfutureseducation.comResourcesSome of the books discussed: Erlich, P.H. & Erlich, A.H. (1968). The population bomb. Sierra Club.Herbert, F. (2018). The Great Dune Trilogy (Dune, Dune Messiah and Children of Dune). Gollancz. (Denis Villeneuve’s movie series is pretty excellent too!)Jungk, Robert & Johan Galtung, eds, (1969) Mankind 2000. Oslo & London: Norwegian University Press & Allen & Unwin. Future Research Monographs (1).Meadows, D.H., Meadows,D.L., Randers, J., Behrens, W. (1972). The Limits to Growth. https://www.clubofrome.org/publication/the-limits-to-growth/MacAskill, W. (2022). What we owe the future. Oneworld. (Longtermism).Murphy, M. (1992). The Future of the Body. Tarcher Putnam.Reubenstein, M. (2022). Astrotopia: The Dangerous Religion of the Corporate Space Race. University of Chicago Press.Rushkoff, D. (2022). Survival of the Richest: escape fantasies of the tech billionaires. Scribe.Zuboff,S. (2019). The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power. Profile Books.Some of the people mentioned:Henri BergsonTeilhard De ChardinJean GebserTristan Harris and Humane technology movementThomas MalthusMarshall McLuhan. “Any invention or technology is an extension or self-amputation of our physical bodies.”Thanks for reading What Lies Beyond! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit whatliesbeyond.substack.com

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