From: Natasha Vita-More (natasha@natasha.cc)
Date: Wed May 21 2003 - 19:11:15 MDT
At 02:36 PM 5/21/03 -0700, Michael wrote:
> > To some extent this is the same method as in scenario planning - find
> > the "driving forces", and look at the different combinations.
> > However, I think one could usefully (for our discussions) add a
> > third axis: technological coercion. Some people want to determine
> > what and how technology is used and developed, others want to leave
> > this free and legislate when actual problems develop. So there is
> > an issue of technological freedom, or freedom to tinker.
> >
> > So we get the following cube (I won't try to ascii it), with +
> > representing freedom:
>
>Anders, this is a really good explaination, and something which
>libertarians can easily grasp. Do you think you could put this together
>in flyer form for the Escape to New Hampshire conference next month?
>Adding a technology axis maps us into the liberty sphere really well.
>Perhaps we need a new Worlds Shortest Political Quiz?
It's David Nolan's "Worlds Smallest Political Quiz" (1969). It doesn't
work well because its 10 questions require quantifying by people who take
the test.
At ExI, we are working on a "Worlds Smallest Futurist Quiz, and I'm working
on a version for my talk at the TransVision Conference. For this, I was
planning on solicitating Ander's keen mind :-) I think you would be good
at critiquing it Mike, but you tend to push your own political views too
strongly for a unbiased quiz. I think the key here is to help people
understand their beliefs, not to design a quiz that causes them to vote one
way or another. Delicate balance, but it would not hold up as a good
design if it intentionally slants one way or there other.
I'm not sure just how to does this for a futurists' quiz, but at least I've
got the first 2 questions. The night before last, my mother, Max and I
tossed around a few ideas and this was provoking because of the differences
between an 85 year old and baby boomers. We focused on biotechnological
questions and my mother proved to be extropic in her thinking here. But
not everywhere! I think that to design a balanced quiz, it would require
either a person who is very sharp or a team of people from diverse
backgrounds to test the questions. I'm just a beginner with this sort of
thing, so I don't have enough experience to know right now. With a futurist
quiz, the design issue would be to help people rate their own ability to
accept change and to adjust to change. Its pretty obvious that not
everyone is futurist thinking in all areas. Politics and religion are
probably the most backward areas for futurism.
Inasmuch, one key design element is to steer clear of positioning tactics.
There are a lot of spin-quizes based on Nolan's quiz and a few pretty funny
parodies for a socialist design using Nolan's prototype.
Natasha
Natasha Vita-More
http://www.natasha.cc
----------
President, Extropy Institute
http://www.extropy.org
Founder, Transhumanist Arts & Culture
http://www.transhuman.org
http://www.extropic-art.com
http://www.transhumanist.biz
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