A brand new research reveals that contemplating the angle of “imaginary future generations” affords new insights into sustainability and know-how, notably by means of the lens of hydrothermally produced porous glass. This methodology encourages long-term considering, revealing a possible way forward for plentiful renewable vitality and sustainable know-how practices. Credit score: SciTechDaily.com
Researchers at Osaka College have found that contemplating sustainability points by means of the lens of “imaginary future generations” supplies helpful views on technological developments and traits in society.
The world stands getting ready to a vital environmental threshold; the alternatives we make as we speak about vitality, sources, and the setting could have profound penalties for the longer term. Regardless of this, most sustainable thought tends to be restricted to the perspective of present generations.
In a research printed in Technological Forecasting and Social Change, researchers from Osaka University have revealed that adopting the angle of “imaginary future generations” (IFGs) can yield fascinating insights into long-term social and technological traits.
The Case Research: Hydrothermally Produced Porous Glass
The researchers organized a collection of 4 workshops at Osaka College, with members drawn from the college and pupil physique of the Graduate College of Engineering. The workshops mentioned the state of future society and manufacturing normally, and in addition checked out one know-how specifically: hydrothermally produced porous glass. Throughout the workshops, the members have been requested to consider this know-how from the angle of IFGs, to think about how this know-how is perhaps adopted sooner or later, and to evaluate its future potentiality.
Processes of producing utilizing hydrothermal know-how. Credit: Hara K, Miura I, Suzuki M, Tanaka T, Assessing Future Potentiality of Technologies from the Perspective of “Imaginary Future Generations”– a Case Study of Hydrothermal Technology, Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 202, 123289, 2024
“We selected hydrothermally produced porous glass for the case research due to the generational trade-offs concerned,” says lead writer of the research Keishiro Hara. “Porous glass is extremely helpful as both a filter for eradicating impurities or an insulator for buildings. Additionally, it may be recycled into new porous glass kind of indefinitely. The issue is that making it takes lots of vitality – each to pulverize waste glass and to warmth water to very excessive temperatures. There’s a putting trade-off between prices now and positive factors sooner or later.”
Within the workshops, the members first checked out points involving society and manufacturing from the angle of the current and have been then requested to think about themselves within the sneakers of their counterparts in 2040.
Stream of workshop (deliberation experiment). Credit score: Hara K, Miura I, Suzuki M, Tanaka T, Assessing Future Potentiality of Technologies from the Perspective of “Imaginary Future Generations”– a Case Study of Hydrothermal Technology, Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 202, 123289, 2024
Imagining a Sustainable Future
“The longer term the members imagined was fairly completely different from the longer term as seen from the angle of the present technology,” explains Toshihiro Tanaka, senior writer. “Most teams described a future by which sustainability has turn out to be a central concern for society. In the meantime, advances in renewal vitality imply that vitality is plentiful, as are sources, as frontiers such because the moon and deep ocean are opened to exploration. On this context, hydrothermally produced porous glass comes into its personal as a sustainable technique to recycle glass, and the vitality wanted to supply it’s available.”
Outcomes of know-how evaluation primarily based on questionnaire survey (Group A). Credit score: Hara K, Miura I, Suzuki M, Tanaka T, Assessing Future Potentiality of Technologies from the Perspective of “Imaginary Future Generations”– a Case Study of Hydrothermal Technology, Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 202, 123289, 2024
The members have been surveyed between workshops and requested to rank indicators associated to the longer term potentiality of the know-how. Apparently, these rankings seemed fairly completely different after the workshops by which the members have been requested to tackle the angle of “imaginary future generations.”
“We observed that when the “imaginary future generations” methodology, which has been confirmed to be efficient in facilitating long-term considering, was adopted, members perceived the feasibility of this know-how in a different way, and their adoption situations modified accordingly,” says Hara.
The research means that the straightforward act of placing ourselves within the place of future generations could present new views on problems with sustainability and know-how, serving to us to rethink our priorities and set new instructions for analysis and growth.
Reference: “Assessing future potentiality of applied sciences from the angle of “imaginary future generations” – A case research of hydrothermal know-how” by Keishiro Hara, Iori Miura, Masanori Suzuki and Toshihiro Tanaka, 29 February 2024, Technological Forecasting and Social Change.
DOI: 10.1016/j.techfore.2024.123289
The research was funded by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science.
