Technology is a creation of the collective human mind. It was made to protect us from the direct influence of the surrounding world, which it has eventually filled in. The technosphere has become our natural environment we called to being, but are hardly able to shape any more.
Technology initiated culture, providing the primary minimal comfort zone. The rapid increase in knowledge and technical possibilities in the recent decades has made the scope of our effect on the surrounding environment and ourselves so significant that it starts playing a dominant role in shaping the future of the Earth. It is necessary to design methods of forecasting the direction of the progressing changes, and mostly – the resulting threats. The key role belongs to those who purposefully apply the ability of creative thinking and can cast the light onto the road taken by the civilisation. Scientists, artists, designers constitute the outpost of humanity on its way into the future. Their minds spark up the ideas, further igniting collectives. We need to determine the necessary scope of competence to allow purposeful creation, but foremost to manage the risk resulting from the initiated processes of changes.
Keywords: technology, technology vs. culture, futurology, designing future
