The Idea

Imagine a brighter future.

Quite often we have difficulty “seeing” the future. We know its out there but somehow it always seems beyond our grasp. Owing to the future’s elusive nature, we dismiss any attempt to forecast beyond a very limited time frame. This bias is deeply embedded in American culture. 

We are obsessed with the next quarter, the next election, the next fiscal year, but we seldom think about the next decade, let alone the next twenty five years. This prejudice is most clearly reflected in the language used to describe the future. The word futuristic often has pejorative connotations. It has become synonymous with something nebulous and imagined. Ideas such as rocketing to the Moon, home video machines, laser guns, robots, wireless communications, palm computers, and gene manipulation, were considered “flights of fancy” in the worst 1950’s sci-fi movies. 

Of course, all of the aforementioned “flights of fancy” are now common aspects of modern life. All of these staples of “science fiction” have spawned multi-billion dollar global industries that have profoundly and irrevocably transformed human civilization. Yet just four decades ago, they were considered inconceivable.  Clearly, we disregard the future at our own peril. The future demands our attention...

Now more than ever, society needs to cultivate a new army of elegant inventor - artist -statesmen and women, who work together to imagine a brighter future, just like Lewis Latimer.

The Latimer Fellows Selection Committee

August 2021