From: Natasha Vita-More (natasha@natasha.cc)
Date: Fri May 23 2003 - 17:18:51 MDT
At 06:59 PM 5/23/03 +0100, Steve wrote:
>Natasha said
>
>. Inasmuch, it seems to me that a future oriented political agenda would
>pertain to the current issues - even the ones we like to ignore because
>they are beneath us - rather than so dramatic a belief about how things
>ought to be. It isn't productive or promising to be staunch in any one
>20th Century political sphere. A more apt agenda would be one that is
>workable and global. This is why I tend to imprint on catalytic schemas
>such as the ones produced by Bucky Fuller. I'd like to know of someone who
>is thinking more futuristically when discussing political models.
>
>Me too! There's clearly an interest in/demand for this but it doesn't
>happen. I think the problem in part is the lack of a vocabulary or
>discourse for discussion of such matters. The only kind of language that
>seems to be widely used now is the apocalyptic one, according to which the
>world is going to the dogs, we are on the edge of catastrophe, nothing can
>be done but a pure remnant will be saved and start afresh. The whole
>language of "progress" and "improvement" has been tarnished unfortunately.
Time for a memetic tune-up!
>Natasha
>> > 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 :-)
>>Anders
>>I would be delighted! After all, there are different kinds of
>>futures and futurists too. However, that sounds somewhat different
>>from the inherently political quiz I suggested in this thread.
>Maybe that's a misleading distinction?
>
>
>> >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 think we need to think about what the quiz should reveal or be
>>used for. One approach is to show the assumptions about the
>>speed/size of future changes and one's valence to it (e.g. Bill Joy
>>is close to our idea of the size and speed, but not that it is a
>>good thing, while many conservative thinkers are negative but do
>>not believe any real change is on the horizon). Another approach is
>>to look at how radical changes are conceivable within different
>>areas, and how well these can be integrated into coherent world
>>models of the future.
>>
>>I think this is very important. It's amazing how little work has actually
>>been done on how people generally conceive of change, the future, and
>>their place in it.
I hope you can help us out Steve.
Best,
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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