FARSIGHT

The Limitless Future w/ Thomas Moynihan

Dec 8, 2025
In this engaging discussion, historian of ideas Thomas Moynihan explores the nature of the future as open and contingent. He delves into how perception shifts, tracing the moment humans realized the future wasn't predetermined. Moynihan contrasts religious apocalypses with the secular notion of extinction and discusses how nonhuman minds, like dolphins, reflect our own fragility. He also tackles the challenges of post-apocalyptic narratives and the philosophical implications of plenitude, urging a rethinking of survival duties amidst planetary risks.
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INSIGHT

Humility From Historical Track Records

  • Historians temper futurist overconfidence by showing past predictions' poor track record.
  • Thomas Moynihan argues humility is the historian's main contribution to future studies.
INSIGHT

Geology Made Novel Futures Thinkable

  • The idea of genuine novelty arose as global exploration and geology proved irreversible historical change.
  • Moynihan links geology's 'bookending' of deep time to the intellectual possibility of progress.
INSIGHT

Extinction Is Not Apocalypse

  • Modern extinction differs from religious apocalypse because the universe continues without humans.
  • Moynihan highlights that extinction is the 'end of sense', not a moral consummation like Judgment Day.
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