The document discusses how people tend to view new situations through the lens of the recent past. It quotes Marshall McLuhan and Quentin Fiore saying "We look at the present through a rear view mirror. We march backwards into the future." The document cautions against extrapolating the past to define the future and asks if the future of the GLAM sector in New Zealand will be like an elder guiding the people. It outlines several principles of how media affects society, such as ubiquity, an end-to-end layered architecture, openness, bottom-up evolution, and being global and universal. The document questions if we are marching backwards into the future and asks what future the audience wants.