James Dator, Professor at the University of Hawaii at Manoa and Director of the Hawaii Research Center for Future Studies, recently visited Korea, granting an interview with Korean monthly magazines. Professor Dator has shown a remarkable interest in Korea of late, asserting that the flow of global future is intimately linked to Korean society. He asserts that Korea may be the first nation to enter the next stage in social evolution: the dream society.
Professor Dator is known as an "eccentric dreamer" to his students for his knack of coming up with ideas years ahead of their implementation as reality. He has been using e-mail since 1970s and predicted the onset of nanotechnology and biotechnology. He went so far as to draft a bill of rights for robots, foreseeing a day when robots will have evolved enough to demand their rights to humans. Along with Alvin Toffler, he led the drive to found the World Future Society.
The following is an excerpt of his interview conducted after he arrived in Korea for a visit.
Q: How many times have you visited Korea?
A: This is the third time, after coming here in 1980 and 1992. It's only been ten years since my last visit but Korea changed immensely.
Q: There are just too many people out there who claim to foresee the future, no?
A: Not only are there too many, they are mostly opportunists. They go to companies offering their services in forecasting future in return for a monetary reward.
Q: Alvin Toffler made a great fortune; would you call him an opportunist?
A: He is a good man and I'm also close to his wife Heidi. I also heard that he's coming out with a new book. He is an exception to the rule. His book "the Third Wave" advanced the theory of societal change. There was not a book with such an insightful analysis before it.
Q: It is said that in the East people tend to uphold a fatalistic attitude whereas in the Western tradition, people favor a pioneering spirit. Some would say Korea tends to considering adhering to fate as a laudable trait.
A: Actually Spain has a saying, "Que Sera Sera", which reflects just such an indifference to the future. Such attitude was correct in the past. But as modern age set in, people emerged who wished to create the future. They started changing laws too. Around the same time, science and technology advanced. That transformation also changed the world. Korea has a history of proactively changing society.
Q: Well, it seems a mindset to prepare for the future hasn't been established firmly in Korea. For example, there are no future studies departments in any of the universities in Korea.
A: It must've been challenging for Korea to catch up with the West and Japan. As for Japan, after they caught up with and passed the West, they were at a loss as to what to do. When Japan found no other country in front of it, a movement to prepare for the future started building up in Japan. I think Korea is precisely at that stage right now. For instance, in computer game development, Korea is so far ahead that they can't find any precedent in other nations. A society that keeps dreaming is an ideal society.
Q: In 2004, you wrote a thesis on "Korean Wave" or "Hallyu", asserting that Korea was entering a dream society. What kind of society would that be?
A: The concept of a "Dream Society" originates with Danish futurist Rolf Jensen. His theory is that human society has evolved from the primitive state to an agricultural one, to an industrial one, to an information one and now to a dream society. If "words" were important in information-based society, it's "images" that are pertinent in dream society: it is an era of images, icons, and cinema. It is critical how you are perceived.
Q: Is Korea the only country entering dream society?
A: It's probably the first country where preparation for a dream society is being undertaken at the government level. While Japan has advanced cartoon and electronic games industries, their government doesn't say it would invest in them to promote them. It's the same with the United States. TV soap operas are being created that sustain the "Korean Wave" and the government wants to support computer game development. I also watch Korean soap opera in Hawaii and they are hugely entertaining.
Q: What is your concept of the future?
A: There are three kinds of futures we can imagine: utopia, etopia, and dystopia. The future described by films like "Minority Report" and "Matrix" is a dystopia (a hell or purgatory). The "u" in "utopia" means "no place", meaning it is an ideal place that cannot be found in real life. The future with most potential and imaginable where life is good is etopia, and it's something for which I'm striving. It doesn't have to just the United States that determines the future. It should be a world where countries like Korea, India, China, and Africa are able to create their own vision and turn it into a reality. I guess then the world I'm dreaming of could be utopia after all. (laugh)
By Randy Moon
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