FLAGS OF UTOPIA

One utopian flag – one utopian thought

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What if we stop focussing on defense and start focussing on cooperation? On november 13th, 23 countries of the European Union signed a security pact called PESCO, that aims to increase defense cooperation. The E.U. foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini stated: “What we can do together, we can do better than alone.” Wouldn't her words sound more credible, if we would as well sign binding agreements on unified tax regulation in order to stop tax havens at least within the E.U. Could we even use this new cooperative commitment for real regulations on environmental protection without emission trading? Or does fortress europe finally become real? https://guardian.ng/news/eu-countries-sign-key-defence-pact/ #flagsofutopia #utopia #utopianidea #flag #concept #idea #whatif #PESCO #defense #fortresseurope #cooperation #eu #graphicdesign #graphicthoughts #thehat

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What if design is about systems and not just about objects? "In 1963, Richard Buckminster Fuller argued for the 'Comprehensive Designer', a non-specialist who could stand apart from industry and be able to observe the potential for creating useful tools without creating unbalanced systems." - Justin McGuirk in the foreword of the exhibtion catalogue 'Fear and Love' The Design Museum, Phaidon, London, NY 2016 - https://www.bfi.org/about-fuller/big-ideas https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2016/nov/17/fear-and-love-design-museum-review #flagsofutopia #utopia #utopianidea #flag #concept #idea #whatif #bfi #buckminsterfuller #mcguirk #thedesignmuseum #london #design #comprehensivedesigner #graphicdesign #graphicthoughts #thehat

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What if we are realistic and demand the impossible? #utopia #flag #idea #flagsofutopia #utopianidea #elche #cheguevara #68 #thehat #graphicdesign #illustration

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What if democracy had no borders? Our societies are confronted with a wide range of different issues concerning a globalised economy. So far we have very few tools to tackle these issues on a transnational democratic level. The two authors Jo Leinen and Andreas Bummel who initiiated the project „democracy without borders“ plead for a democratic world parliament which could be implemented into the UN. See for yourself what they have to say: https://www.democracywithoutborders.org #flagsofutopia #utopia #utopianidea #flag #concept #idea #whatif #democracy #democracywithoutborders #un #unitednations #democraticworldparliament #graphicdesign #graphicthoughts #thehat

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What if we could study other models of society and take what's best? In the 1974 science fiction novel „The Dispossessed“ by writer Ursule K. Le Guin, the twin planets Anarres and Urras are inhabited by very different societies. Urras has a profitdriven, capitalist, patriarchal system, class divisions and different competing nations. Anarres however, was colonized a few centuries ago by a large group of Rebels from Urras who now live as anarchists, with a decentralized organisation and without private property. The story follows Shevek, a physicist who travels, as the first person since the colonization, to Urras, to develop his theory of simultaneity of time.Le Guin doesn't idealize one society before the other. She narrates Sheveks doubts, thoughts and beliefs but also the structures and mechanisms on Anarres so openly, that the reader is invited to a very detailed and differentiated thought experiment. The power of the story lies in reversing what is seen as normal or conventional. So is Shevek's opinion, that men's motivation to work, comes from selfinitiative and inner creative energy, when he notices, walking around on Urras, that profit seeking is a more powerful thrive then he expected. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dispossessed #flagsofutopia #utopia #utopianidea #flag #concept #idea #whatif #sciencefiction #feministutopia #novel #thedispossessd #ursulakleguin #urras #anarres #graphicdesign #graphicthoughts #thehat

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What if we start measuring success by wellbeing, instead of by GDP? #flagsofutopia #utopia #utopianidea #flag #concept #idea #whatif #gdp #wellbeing #success #thehat

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What if we can learn Kung Fu by pushing a button? Transhumanism is looking to eliminate the frontiers between man and machine. In a posthuman or transhuman world, men should have overcome biological limitations of the human body. Radical transhumanist thinkers even suggest that if a human identity became entirely digital, it could be uploaded into virtual reality and thus become immortal. But what would the consequences of such a developement be? Could we just easily upgrade our brains and all of a sudden be able to do Kung Fu like Neo in matrix? Or would updates only be available to a few wealthy ones? Would transhumanism result in a more egalitarian distribution of education or would there only be healthy, intelligent, white people left? Could a technologically enhanced brain influence our thoughts and morals or „just“ our bodies and what would technologized humans mean for our industries? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transhumanism https://web.archive.org/web/20120214194015/http://www.stanford.edu/dept/HPS/Haraway/CyborgManifesto.html https://www.humanbrainproject.eu/en/ https://openai.com/about/ #flagsofutopia #utopia #utopianidea #flag #concept #idea #whatif #transhumanism #humanbrainproject #openai #donnaharaway #cyborg

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What if Robots need to be educated? According to numerous leading technologists and scientists (the most famous ones being Stephen Hawking, Sam Altman, Elon Musk) Artificial General Intelligence poses a huge threat to humanity. With the invention of a superintelligent machine, that is able to self-improve and build even more intelligent machines (that then would by far surpass human intellect), it is not unlikely that an intelligence-explosion happens in the course of the 21st century, triggering technological singularity. Although machines don't (yet) have intentions of their own, they thrive towards efficiency. What if the way to reach this efficiency is not in line with the goals of humanity, or just in line with the goals of very few people? In order to build friendly AI rather than unfriendly AI (which might win the competition because it is likely to be easier, faster and cheaper to do) it will be crucially important to develop machine ethics. Already in 1942 Isaac Asmiov proposed three laws of robotics: 1.: A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm. 2.: A robot must obey the orders given to it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law. 3.: A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws. What a complex ethic code has to contain, how it could be implemented and if friendly AI would stay friendly are questions we rather urgently need to find an answer to. https://futureoflife.org/2017/08/29/friendly-ai-aligning-goals/ https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1411/1411.1373.pdf https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Existential_risk_from_artificial_general_intelligence https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technological_singularity #flagsofutopia #utopia #utopianidea #flag #concept #idea #whatif #ai #agi #technologicalsingularity #asimov #futureoflife #robotics #machineethics

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What if ideas belong to everybody? In the information age, the right to intellectual property contributes to a growing inequality in society. Machines do work for free, around the clock. The only people getting paid, are patentholders and companyowners. At the same time a lot of open-source-projects show, that the right to intellectual property and the prospect of profit is not necessarily the drive behind innovation. With the abolition of intellectual property, open-source-projects would become even broader, innovation could become more cooperative and thus benefit, and the whole of society would have a more affordable access to products and innovations. Jonas Salk, the inventor of Polio vaccination, and more recently Elon Musk, showed us how it's done. #flagsofutopia #utopia #flag #sketch #idea #foodforthought #intellectualproperty #creativecommons #shareyourthoughts #textile #pattern #thehat #illustration

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What if Pirates were actually idealists? In the late 17th century James Misson, the educated son of a wealthy french family, and the former priest Seignior Caraccioli mounted the ship Victoire in the port of Leghorn. After the captain and the officers were killed, in a fight with a british warship, Misson and Caraccioli undertook the command of the ship and asked the whole crew if they would like to „live a free live as pirates“ or go home safely. From then on Captain Misson lead the ship and his crew with rather anarchistic tendencies but high moral principles around the globe. They conquered other ships, freed slaves, shared their prey evenly and had a pirate code which, amongst other topics, restricted the rights of the captain and included the „respectful“ treatment of women. They then founded a colony in Madagascar named Libertalia. The Liberi, were a multinational society, of the conviction that every human was born free. They rejected slavery and religion and indeed created some sort of shared economy.
It is not clear whether or not Libertalia really existed or if it arose from the fantasy of one of its chronists, Daniel Defoe. But fact is, that at the time of its appearance, in the 17th century, Libertalia and other similar stories, were highly popular and offered an utopian possiblity that stood in high contrast to the society of the 17th century. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libertatia #flagsofutopia #utopia #flag #sketch #idea #foodforthought #pirates #libertalia #libertatia #defoe #textile #pattern #thehat #illustration

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What if we let machines do the dirty work? Automatisation and Innovation augments. Jobs, before done by humans, are now, more efficiently, done by machines and the trend continues. A study by Oxford University states that by 2030, 47% of the jobs in the United States could be done by machines. Although this may sound worrisome, and societies for sure face a big challenge, innovation and automatisation can help us to live happier, healthier, more sociable and even more sustainable. This however, requests a general redefinition of work. Maybe work shouldn't be seen any longer just as producing things or offering services. Work should also be seen as work on society, work in the family, work in and on nature, education in whichever form and the creation of experiences. Things we all are doing or should be doing anyway, but so far don't get paid for. A Basic Income, which every woman and man, living in a country would receive unconditionally, could support this new definition of work financially. Many people wrote about this topic. Here is one of them: https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/304706/basic-income/ http://basicincome.org/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEkT14RBzDI #flagsofutopia #utopia #flag #sketch #idea #foodforthought #basicincome #textile #pattern #thehat #illustration