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Bulletin of Science, Technology & Society
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Why the Future Doesn't Come From Machines

Unfounded Prophecies and the Design of Naturoids

Massimo Negrotti

University of Urbino

Technological imagination and actual technological achievements have always been two very different things. Sudden and unpredictable events always seem to intervene between our visions regarding possible futures and the subsequent concrete realizations. Thus, our ideas and projects are continually being redirected. In the field of naturoids—that is, artificial systems designed to simulate certain features of natural ones—the above-mentioned tendency is particularly frequent and illuminating, giving all prophecies a flavor of fiction rather than of reliable technological forecast. The dream of reproducing complete natural systems—man included—by means of technological strategies clashes with the "nature" of artificial objects and also with that of natural exemplars. The only certainty is that the future will exhibit growing rates of variety and heterogeneity, and we cannot know, from our present standpoint, what this will imply for our species, or, at least, for our cultures.

Key Words: artificial • complexity • emergence • future • imitation • model • nature • naturoid • observation level • prediction • reproduction • science • technology

This version was published on August 1, 2008

Bulletin of Science, Technology & Society, Vol. 28, No. 4, 289-298 (2008)
DOI: 10.1177/0270467608319636
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