FYEC - FYEC 171-172 Foretelling and Forecasting Your Future: Prophetic Inspiration vs. the Dismal Science

Institution:

Randolph-Macon College

Subject:

Description:

Everyone has a History course in college but not everyone gets a Future course. Why not? History is very important but it seems that the Future might matter as well. But how does it matter and why does it matter? What will it look like? Our course on the Future of things will attempt to get at just these questions from two very different starting points Economics and Literature. The dismal science, Economics, will begin with some mechanics on mathematical and economic forecasting, primarily using linear regression and Excel spreadsheet trend lines. Once we have a foundation in basic forecasting, we will move on to examine a wide range of literatures which attempt to forecast all sorts of human behavior. The range will include world demographic trends, stock market returns, the future of social security and Medicare, education attainment, technological innovation, Virginia and U.S. budget and economic trends, your retirement accounts at various interest rates and of course, the Presidential winner in 2008 and the likely policy implications of such a win. Now all of this might be exciting but it could also be depressing, especially after you see your retirement projections. So in order to balance the course a bit, we also offer more creative accounts of the future as well. Utopia and Dystopia, promise and admonition, potential and disillusion- these are all the stuff of prophecy and the subject of some of our greatest works of art and literature. Artists as different as Sir Phillip Sidney and Percy Bysshe Shelley tell us that art is meant to tell us not how things are, but how they could be. Jeremiah (the Prophet) and George Orwell warn us of the dire consequences of our actions-or our failures to act. We will explore the specifically didactic and persuasive features of prophetic writing and consider the way humanity continues to blunt our anxiety about the unknown by contending to know it. Welcome to the future. Area of Knowledge requirement met: one economics course in the Social Science area, and one literature course under

Credits:

3.00

Credit Hours:

Prerequisites:

Corequisites:

Exclusions:

Level:

Instructional Type:

Lecture

Notes:

Additional Information:

Historical Version(s):

Institution Website:

www.rmc.edu

Phone Number:

(804) 752-7200

Regional Accreditation:

Southern Association of Colleges and Schools

Calendar System:

Four-one-four plan

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