The University is oriented toward the future. It is also concerned with lending force to knowledge and intelligence in every area of public policy. In effect, this means every field of knowledge, for there is no science or art today that is removed from public controversy, there is no science that is not being abused by policy-makers. Finally, the University is continuously probing for operational definitions of universal benevolence and beneficence in every field.
Therefore, the capacity and ability to help influence and shape public policy are sought for Members in every subject. A physicist from the University of the New World is not expected to stand idly by when the grounds of his science and the safety of himself and his fellows are being threatened by militarists, technocrats, or the uninformed. A painter or a sculptor is helped to express his political and social messages in effective terms, if and when he is moved to do so, and at all times to act so as to protect himself and his fellows from being mucked about by the bull-dozers of the establishments. A businessman should be armed at the University of the New World with the power of choosing his own work and of influencing his work-groups toward enterprises that are organized justly and directed at production having social value.
It is erroneous to believe that the world lacks scientists or educated leadership for social effort as well as intellectual effort. The two go together, and can fashion a better science and better industry as a result. Today, AB's and PhD's are a glut on the market, so there is no scarcity of talents. At the same time, there is an exorbitant wasteful exercise of human energies and resources selling soap, records, dogfood, etc., even while the cry is raised that the supply of brains and talents is excessive. The world could quadruple its educated and talented specialists and still not have enough women and men to handle the problems of science and art (growing, making, meaning, creating, and governing), and to handle them in the heat of social and political controversy. The humanistic salvation of both the intelligentsia and the world future depends upon the development of a new tutorial class throughout the world that is technically and politically equipped.
For these reasons, the University observes in every studio the possibility of giving to its resources and knowledge some impact upon the world. And, in certain studios, especially those of Governing: Decision, Power, Rich and Poor, Crime and Society, Group Violence, Community, and Decentralization, the University seeks to develop special skills in the art of influencing and decision-making, and these in the subject-matter that the activist tutor must know.
The Studio on Futuristics has a critical role in this regard. In recent years, there has been a rapid development of studies of the future. No field of study and no institution has been exempted. Techniques of prediction and control have been abundantly provided from many sources. All too often, these techniques have been applied in sorting out the rebellious, by precisely the wrong social parties -- centralized bureaucrats, school administrators, militarists, chemists searching for doomsday materials and palliatives until that day arrives, and industrialists bent upon style manipulation at the expense of safety, utility, and durability.
Therefore the task of the University's Studio on Futuristics is to assemble resources for and teach the kind of knowledge of impending events that can most obviously benefit people and their societies. Great hope lies in the considered benevolent development of studies of the future. A leading expert in this area, Dr. Anthony Weiner, is charged with the organization and conduct of the Studio. He is co-author of The Year 2000 and of numerous studies and reports and manager of conferences on futuristics in government, international affairs, social accounting, and corporate planning. Assisting as Proctor is Peter Tobia, author of' Futurism in Political Science", formerly of the Young Presidents Organization.