David Staley, an associate professor at The Ohio State University, dives into the future in this engaging discussion. He presents "twenty histories of the future" from his book, exploring predictions about AI, democracy, and education. Staley emphasizes the importance of historical context for anticipating future events and reflects on his past pandemic predictions. The conversation also touches on social mood's impact on governance, innovative suburban energy solutions, and even the intriguing concept of city secessionism. Prepare to envision some thought-provoking futures!
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question_answer ANECDOTE
Accidental Historian
David Staley became a historian reluctantly and accidentally.
He was an economics major and took a history course as a requirement, taught exceptionally well by a professor on ancient civilizations.
insights INSIGHT
History as Inquiry
The Greek word for history, 'historia,' means 'inquiry.'
Historians use inquiry to understand the past, not just memorize facts.
insights INSIGHT
Future as Possibilities
Predicting the future is impossible in complex systems, especially those involving humans.
Focus on imagining plausible possibilities and scenarios instead.
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My guest today is David Staley, associate professor in the Department of History at the Ohio State University, where he teaches courses in digital history and historical methods, and holds courtesy appointments in the Departments of Design where he is taught courses in design history and design futures, and the Department of Educational Studies where he has led the forum on the university.
This is his fifth appearance on Historically Thinking, which means I owe him a coffee mug. He has previously been on with co-author Dominic Endicott to talk about their book Knowledge Towns; with Brent Orrell to talk about "The History of the Future"; explaining the beauties of historical context; and, in our very first conversation together, describing some potential Alternative Universities. This time we'll be talking about his book, Visionary Histories out for a few years now, available for free on Apple Books.
In it David has written "twenty histories of the future"–originally essays in the Columbus Underground–which range from the future of artificial intelligence, to democracy, capitalism, education, and leisure. So this means that this will be at least the fourth time that David tries to convince me that historians have something to say about the future other than giving a shrug.
[Art generated by MS Copilot; not an accurate representation of David Staley, or his dog.]
Historically Thinking 
