Paper short abstract:

What does it mean to shape the future? We only can intervene into the present by action, or by decisions which then might have consequences for future developments or events. This loop from the present to futures and back to the present is regarded as an exemplification of the ‘hermeneutic circle’.

Paper long abstract:

It is a commonly used rhetoric phrase that we develop ideas how to shape the future and that we shape the future exactly by implementing those ideas. In particular, the world of NEST (new and emerging sciences and technologies) is full of narratives and pictures how NEST should be developed in order to shape the future, e.g. by solving the global energy supply problem, by enhancing human performance, or by designing artificial life.

However, what does it mean to "shape the future"? We are only able to intervene into the present, by communication, by action, or by decisions to be made. These interventions then might have consequences for future developments or events. Thus, the phrase should better be formulated in the way of the title of this Session: we do not shape "the future" but we intervene into present constellations and thereby influence future developments.

In my presentation I propose to understand this loop as an exemplification of the 'hermeneutic circle'. Its promise is that after having processed the loop we do not return to the same point but rather have gained new insight which could be used for orientational purposes. However, to really achieve this 'value added' depends on some preconditions to be fulfilled. I will take the history of the socio-technical futures brought forward over the past 15 years and will try to trace some ways how the present was shaped by those futures.