FUTURE CONSCIOUSNESS

This sweeping magnum opus – subtitled 'the path to purposeful evolution' - integrates findings across science, technology, philosophy, psychology, sociology, ecology and futures studies to present an inspiring vision of the future based on individual embodiment of character virtues, principally wisdom. Lombardo states his core argument at the beginning of the book: 'we create a good future, defined as flourishing in the flow of evolution, through the heightening of future consciousness, which is achieved by developing a core set of character virtues, most notably and centrally wisdom'. He then elaborates on each of these in turn, emphasising that we are 'fundamentally dynamic, evolutionary, creative, and interactive beings embedded within this universe of possibilities. We exist within the evolutionary flow and evolutionary flow exists within us', and indeed has become conscious and potentially purposeful in humans.

In the first part, the author engages with the evolutionary and dynamic nature of reality and how this applies to human consciousness and society. He introduces the important concept of reciprocity, discussing this in relation to the line and the circle, broadly representing Western linear and Oriental cyclical understandings in terms of complementarities including yin/yang, masculine/feminine, order/chaos, and stability/change within a systems view implying interdependence and interconnectedness. Later, we see how this broad distinction has interesting implications for contrasting uses of the term enlightenment in Western and Oriental thought. In the West, there is a striving towards individual autonomy through the use of reason and science, while the term in the East is associated with realising oneness and transcending the egocentric (pp. 539 ff.) These seem to be coming together in interesting ways.

Lombardo discusses the history of well-being, ethics and the good, then moves on to the Aristotelian idea of flourishing through virtue, placing this in a modern context through his definition of heightened future consciousness. Bringing this back to the individual level, he elaborates on the importance of self-control and self-responsibility, including the development of willpower, a frequently neglected topic. This brings him to the end of the first part with an exploration of the ecology of future consciousness and the affordances of the environment and society, including technology. He introduces the notion of the 'wise cyborg' based on the idea that humans are evolving with their technologies and are becoming increasingly urban animals. He quotes Ray Kurzweil, the apostle of Singularity, and I found his idea that we have always been functional syntheses of the biological and technological somewhat overstated, certainly in historical terms. Tools seem to me a different category than actually modifying the human to incorporate technology in the body, although I recognise that there are strong movements in that direction and that it is true to say that technology is both an extension and enhancement of human capacity (pp. 328 ff.) However, he does emphasise the importance of ethics in this domain and that technological evolution should be subsumed under ethical and psychosocial evolution (p. 336). Personally, I am also more cautious about the idea that biotechnology, pharmacology and high-tech medicine are steadily improving worldwide health and longevity, as other aspects of modern life directed by Big Food and Big Pharma are actually undermining our health in the interests of consumption and profit.

The second part explains the process of the heightening of holistic future consciousness by developing a core set of character virtues in terms of future-oriented psychological processes. There is a series of very informative chapters on emotion, motivation, purposeful behaviour, learning, memory and habit, consciousness and understanding, thinking and imagination, and creativity. Then the last two chapters discuss the self and the personal narrative related to a grand narrative and the contemporary Wisdom Renaissance. Here, Lombardo reviews many perspectives on our mental and emotional lives, discussing both positive and negative aspects and the role of challenges in personal growth. He delves deep into these various topics, and has a useful consideration of the selective and interpretive nature of perception and understanding in terms of grand narratives and worldviews. Individually, there are recognised ways in which we can control and develop the flow of our own consciousness, while developing intellectual virtues through a future visioning process. Here, imagination and creativity are central and treated at length, while specific and appropriate virtues are elaborated in each chapter.

The author reviews many concepts of self with an emphasis on self-reflectivity and evolving a holistic future consciousness and overall sense of purpose, relating the personal to the collective, also through a discussion of Damasio's theory of the autobiographical self. He provides a number of exercises in this respect to help readers develop their own ideal future personal narrative centred on the growth of wisdom and facilitating flourishing in the future for oneself and others. The chapter on wisdom provides the culmination of the argument as the 'highest expression of self-development and future consciousness' (p. 718). Importantly, wisdom is seen as evolutionary and dynamic, hence the phrase 'flourishing in the flow of evolution'; crucially, it unites knowledge and ethics in enacting future good. Lombardo spells out the virtues corresponding to balance, reaching towards what he calls a wisdom narrative, both individual and collective. Importantly, the priority of wisdom should also be applied to education, as suggested by Nicholas Maxwell and others.

The book envisages a New Enlightenment and an Age of Wisdom, which partly corresponds with the purpose of the International Futures Forum with which I have been involved since the early 2000s. One of our key people is Maureen O'Hara, whose work is cited here, especially her idea of the transformative self. The IFF has always prioritised praxis joining theory or insight with action, and has been talking about a Second Enlightenment in the context of the 18th-century Scottish Enlightenment. It emphasises many of the same themes highlighted in this book such as handling uncertainty, the need to unite intuition and reason, and the contextual nature of knowledge – it is perhaps humbler in asking the question how we can best operate in a world that we cannot fully understand or control, and the answers are sometimes very specific and pragmatic as well as small scale.

The sheer length of the book makes it a challenging read, but the narrative is very clear and the arguments well summarised as the book proceeds. The author's erudition is very considerable, but I missed a consideration of the work of Jung and allied figures like Erich Neumann and Mircea Eliade on the role of the unconscious, gnosis and initiation. Further discussion of the feminine (as in the work of Anne Baring) would also have been useful, and in especially in relation to science drawing on the work of scholars like Evelyn Fox Keller. The books of Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan have a lot to offer on the East/West dialogue. Given the complexity and interweaving themes, would have been extremely useful to have an index so as to cross-refer in different parts of the book. Having said all this, the book is an extraordinary achievement in its scope and vision, and in integrating a creative and evolutionary view of the future with the development of character virtues, especially wisdom. As such, it deserves the widest readership.