Races for the future: «... And here comes later»

The article deals with the risks and effects of forecasting the future, with the competition between two images of the future in modern forecasts. The article discusses the issue of changing the fundamental concepts of the nature and essence of a man, his most important properties and qualities in connection with the onset of an era of uncertainty, complexity and diversity. The context for predicting the future is described: the transition from the SPOD world to the VUCA world. The author reminds the designers of the future of the importance of relating futurological programs to the expectations and motivational attitudes of different social strata of Russian society. The article presents criticism of today’s educational policy, reveals common features of educational reforms of recent decades and the risks created by their shortcomings. The conditions for constructing a perspective and human-like model of education for the 21st century (the «garden of dignity culture» for «complex free people») are indicated.