Dutch doubts and desires: Exploring citizen opinions on future and technology

Because the future belongs to all of us, not just to experts or professionals, knowing what people think about the future is not only interesting, but also relevant to the functioning of modern democracies. This study about what Dutch people think about the future and about technology shows, among other things, that they are generally positive about technology and science, but more gloomy when it comes to the future of society. People find it difficult to think about the (distant) future and spend little time reflecting on it. It is precisely the current speed and complexity of global changes that ensures a revaluation of the historical context when the world was still manageable. Another outcome is that the respondents are relatively down-to-earth. Representations of the future that are vastly different from our current state of affairs can count on little support. Dutch realism is also reflected in a long list of technologies that the respondents would rather not see developed.