Of Singularitarianism and Flying Cars: Our Changing Images of the Future, and Our Changing Economic Models

Abstract

This article considers the evolution of images of the future — the "flying cars" of mid-century and the promises of freedom, empowerment and uplift for all more recently identified with the Internet, virtual reality and the Singularity — and explains the image, and their associated attitudes, in the shift from one economic model to another, namely, from "Keynesian-Fordism" to "Neoliberal-Digitalism."