Now and then I give my students the assignment to develop tools which will improve a particular situation using advanced technology on a scientific base. A further restriction is that tools which are already know are not allowed – it has to be new.
The vast majority of the students comes up with devices which either control the mind, transfer a state of mind or that translates someone’s mind. Also common are general translation devices (human – human, animal – human) or transportation devices through time and space. Of course all of these concepts need a reasoning based on scientific facts.
If I ask the same students to analyse the daily routine and to come up with suggestions how to improve it, the outcome is normally not more than the sticky-finger-while-eating-chips, the annoying-traffic-jam-issue or other problems, which are directly related to the daily experience.
So the same students come up with complete different approaches only because of a rephrased questions which points in the future. Why so some stick to the now if we do not open the mind to the then with a trick?
Of course it is the teacher who points a directions for students who want to move on the safe side to get good grades. Nevertheless the version of the question which does not use the term future explicitly still leaves all the options to do so. It was not forbidden to come up with advanced and futuristic ideas.
As one might know from previous articles: humans are a child of their culture. So the suggestion is that the culture keeps some students close to the floor. But once the word future is mentioned the floor is left in a very particular direction of taking influence on the mind. One might say that the one end is to be mind-controlled and the other end is to control the mind oneself. Cause and effect.