From‘intelligent’ fridges to climate change:
Britain looks to the future with sciencehorizons
Many people would not mind strangers knowing what was in their fridge, if it meant that supermarkets could help them plan meals and automatically restock it to make grocery shopping a thing of the past, the UK’s first public discussion about the future of science and technology has found.
The sciencehorizons programme was the first public engagement exercise in the UK to focus on the potential future uses for science and technology, using a set of fictitious potential scenarios set from 2025.
While light-hearted issues such as the future of fridges were on the table for discussion, more serious subjects such as climate change, health, genetics and the loss of the ‘human’ touch in an increasingly technological world were debated.
Participants were broadly excited about the future for science and technology, particularly its capacity to help improve our health, environment and lifestyle.
However, this was tempered by concerns about over dependence on technology, potential risks and worries that some technology might not be distributed equally to benefit ordinary people.
The results of the sciencehorizons programme, funded by the Department of Innovation, Universities and Skills’ (DIUS) Sciencewise public engagement programme, were unveiled at the BA Festival of Science in York on 12th September 2007. It is part of the Government’s ongoing work to gauge the public’s views about particular issues well in advance of policymaking decisions.
Minister for Science and Innovation, Ian Pearson, said:
“I spend a lot of time thinking about what the world will be like in 2025 and how we will live our everyday lives. It helps with thinking about how policy needs to move forward. For instance, I can’t believe most homes won’t have smart meters and energy management systems by then – and probably intelligent fridges too. This public discussion represents a new, different way of talking with the public about science and technology – finding out people’s hopes, fears and ideas on a range of topics.
The presentations from the event on 12th September are available in the resources section.
sciencehorizons was funded by the DIUS Sciencewise programme and was run by a consortium of Dialogue by Design, the Graphic Science Unit, BBC Worldwide Interactive Learning and Shared Practice.