I spend a lot of my parenting thoughts contemplating my son's future. I suppose its natural, since so much of my responsibility is to prepare him -as best I can- for what awaits. Incidentally, I am constantly reminded of how monumentally difficult that task is.

The generations before me witnessed the birth of television, the Civil Rights struggles, the emergence of new nations, the fall of old empires, the power of a microwave, the splitting of the atom, and the birth of the internet. All of those things are truly wonderous to behold in context of how quickly they blossomed.

Yet with all of that awe and recognition, I still say with confidence that my generation -Generation Y, The Millennials, The Echo Generation, whatever- has seen the greatest and fastest social transformation in modern times. Nay, perhaps of all time. With each glance at the news we are shown a new technological innovation like 3D televisions, a new social dynamic like revolutions beginning on Facebook, or a new way for children to be brought into this world as we strive toward perfection via genetic modification.

We eliminate geographic distance barriers through Skype and email and replace them with emotional barriers by never interacting. It seems we are spending more time developing ways to spend less time with each other. Just today I read an article about a "train of cars" being developed by Volvo in which the lead truck is driven by a human, but all of the cars behind -as well as their human passengers- are controlled by computers monitoring the lead truck. When asked why they would do this, a Volvo spokesperson responded that it would enable the human passengers to eat breakfast and read the newspaper on the way to work. Do we really need to spend millions of dollars and thousands of hours devising ways to eliminate a meal with our family?

As I said in the beginning, one of my primary responsibilities is to prepare my son for his future. Quite a job. I find myself in a quandry about how to go about doing so. One resolution I have made is that he will not be raised with a bend towards social compliance. I hope he understands a moral difference between right and wrong and to stand up for himself and others when an injustice is being committed. I want him to him know the value of hard work, the meaning of an investment of time or money or emotion, the power of persuasion, and the responsibility of leaving this world better than he found it.

The responsibility of raising a child crosses all our minds. What paths does your mind stroll when thinking of tomorrow? What do you hope for? What do you fear? And most importantly, how do you prepare your child for the unknown?