#speculative futures

[milocore18]

We don’t swipe. We match.

A small, human‑led experiment exploring alternatives to swipe culture for Gen‑Z. Not a dating app. Not social media.

[wayfaresociety]

Currently Reading:

The Tenant Class - Ricardo Tranjan

Yes! (Fall 2023 Issue)

Decolonizing Design - Elizabeth (Dori) Tunstall

What should we read next?

Speculative Futures - Johanna Hoffman

Decolonizing Design - Elizabeth (Dori) Tunstall

Watershed Sentinel (Summer 2023 Issue)

Homo Deus - Yuval Noah Harari

Voting ended onOct 29, 2023

Let us know if you have any book recs!

-Wayfarer ❤️

[redshift-13]

Reviews

ETSF: lyrical, comical and, regardless of its "pornographic" content, magical... one of the most unrestrained flights of fancy (albeit warped). -- Literal Latte, October 2001 Extraterrestrial Sex Fetish is nothing short of brilliant. -- Absinthe Literary Review, Spring 2002 Extraterrestrial Sex Fetish is one of the most astonishing books to come out in years -- Sex and Guts Magazine The weirdest damned thing we've ever seen -- Science Fiction Chronicle There is much dark humor throughout the text, which brings to mind Burroughs or Cronenberg... -- Zombiegirls.net, Spring 2002 This is a crazy cyber paranormal sex book... Heralded as a kind of 2001: A Space Sodomy. -- Exquisite Corpse, Spring/Summer 2002 What intrigued me was Supervert's seductively nasty way of showing the dark side of Sagan-ite speculations about our celestial cohorts -- San Francisco Bay Guardian

[anniekoh]

Flash Forward is a critically acclaimed podcast about the future. In each episode, host Rose Eveleth takes on a possible (or not so possible) future scenario — everything from the existence of artificial wombs, to what would happen if space pirates dragged a second moon to Earth. What would the warranty on a sex robot look like? How would diplomacy work if we couldn’t lie? Could there ever be a black market for fecal transplants? (Complicated, it wouldn’t, and yes, respectively, in case you’re curious.) By combining audio drama and deep reporting, Flash Forward gives listeners an original and unique window into the future, how likely different scenarios might be, and how to prepare for what might come.

[calculated2stagger]

what future careers do you imagine the euphoria characters have?

Hello! Thank you for the lovely ask 🤩

My thoughts on the future of the euphoria characters vary significantly based on what universe I think they're gonna end up in. Like my "all happy endings" universe (not shipping, just everyone lives and makes something better out of the lemons life has handed them) is drastically different from my "well, based on their current trajectories..." (aka nothing changes) ideas. I guess I could provide both?

Under the cut out of consideration for others' dash.

Rue: If we're going NC -- she's going to end up dead or disappeared. Not to be pessimistic but she's set up for a season of Taken where her Liam Neeson dad-character is already dead so she's not getting rescued. HEA I think she'd end up working in some sort of rehab capacity. Ideally she'd get her act together enough to become a sponsor/counselor but at least I'd see her in some sort of administrative position in an office of an environment that supports her sobriety.

Jules: NC she runs an OnlyFans and is like, a pharmacy tech at Target. She actually turns out pretty OK either way, all things considered. HEA is an artist/model. Possibly she's a photographer but I think she's more of a traditional media artist, e.g. paints, charcoals etc. No gallery of her own, but she's popular enough to make decent sales. She does end up being called a "darker shade of pop art" at some point.

Lexi: NC she ends up working some corporate job, eventually ending up as upper management in later life because she's competent and dependable and driven. HEA is an award winning playwright/author with a movie/series deal. Honestly, I have a lot of ideas for Lexi because the girl has range but this is what she wants. If we're not going dream job but still HEA, she's either an assistant director off-Broadway or a junior editor for a major publishing company.

Cassie: NC she's probably going end up married to the wrong person (looking at you, Nate) and miserable about it, working some admin job for a company whose name she can barely be arsed to remember. HEA could go a lot of ways for her. I personally love the idea of her being an engineer of some kind -- it's so not what anyone thinks of her character but the groundwork is there. Otherwise, I think she finds someone she really loves and gets to settle into being a home-maker but, before that, I honestly think she could be a teacher. We never see her with kids but she loves to love and be loved and kids love unconditionally. She's also got the open, optimistic personality that I feel would allow her to be successful with younger kids especially.

Maddy: NC goes on to become a make-up artist in Hollywood and possibly buys her own salon at some point. She also becomes an influencer because it's Maddy. How is she not already? HEA she still starts out doing make up but makes some big moves and ends up managing / being creative director of a major make-up brand for a celebrity she's worked with, something both cutting edge and inclusive like Fenty Beauty or Bare or whatever. She's industry-level successful, like make-up's Virgil Abloh.

Kat: NC also runs an OnlyFans in conjunction with having like 2 other jobs. I'm thinking she's a copywriter for a small-to-medium sized publication and she also does freelance work on like, Fiver or something. She makes enough to be comfortable but she's always tired. HEA she starts out doing some entertainment journalism but somehow blows up as a talk-radio/podcast personality. She gets a book deal and her show stays relevant all her life.

Fezco: NC my boy is headed down a dark road. I think he'll end up getting pulled further into the drug game but want to get out. Like Rue, I'm not sure I see him surviving. Which is very difficult for me to admit but also Sam seems to want to put him in mortal peril every season so IDK? In the long run, if he does survive, I think he's probably going to end up just running the store. If he sells it, he might work at a dispensary and maybe do something part time at a community center because he wants to try to help kids like Ashtray. In a HEA his possibilities are infinite but ... I like to think he ends up being a very successful tax accountant to some unsavory people but he keeps his head down and doesn't say shit and gets paid well. He works a few weeks per year and still owns his grandma's shop for sentimental purposes but doesn't actively work there anymore. The flexibility in his schedule means he can house-husband for Lexi 90% of the time.

Nate: NC he somehow goes on to become a member of Congress. Don't look at me like that, they'd ask him to run for president one day and you know it. HEA he takes over his dad's company, does a terrible job, bungles the whole thing and loses it all. Ends up working in gym where none of his coworkers like him. He changes gym jobs a lot for saying inappropriate shit to women, both colleagues and clientele.

Ethan: So Ethan is a werid character for me because I think his potential is the only one that doesn't really diverge regardless of the course of events. He's not really involved in the great drama so for him it's more a question of dream regular or dream big? Regular-degular Ethan would probably end up working behind the scenes in either theatre or Hollywood. I see him being an English teacher later in life. Big dream/HEA Ethan does become a TV star, maybe grabs an Emmy nomination but isn't really into chasing fame. He eventually chooses to leave acting and becomes a professor at UCLA, eventually becoming a member of the academic senate and professor emeritus. Either way, he and Cassie cross paths in her HEA 😁

Elliot: NC he dies young of a drug overdose, probably working in retail. HEA he gets mostly sober and becomes a middling-ly successful indie artist. He might also do some work as a session musician? IDK, he's not exactly fleshed out.

McKay: Speaking of not being fleshed out, McKay. NC he gets through college, doesn't make any kind of impression, goes into sports medicine or physical therapy. HEA he has some kind of breakout moment in college and gets drafted to the NFL.

Bonus Ashtray: NC = fertilizer; HEA = not dead, either running some ridiculously successful tech start-up or a partner in a small, disrupter pharmaceutical company who also works in R&D.

Did I forget anyone?

[atelierblacutt]

https://www.2021.primerconference.us/ 

@primer_conf & @primereurope.

PRIMER is a conference about FuturesIt was created to prepare you for the future and to equip you to help shape it.

It is the annual conference produced by the Design Futures Initiative, a 501c3 nonprofit based in San Francisco, CA, and the annual gathering for the Speculative Futures community.

PRIMER conference was first organized in 2015 by the Design Futures Initiative and was originally created to serve its growing network of Speculative Futures meetups. The conference brings together futures communities from around the world by connecting a diverse spectrum of thought leaders, practitioners, artists, and academics to showcase their work and teach/learn new methods through workshops.

[the-apocalypse-project]

Dismantling the Apocalypse: Speculative Futures in Pandemic Times

Dismantling the Apocalypse: Speculative Futures in Pandemic Times

June 10, 2020: For the FuturesX series of Speculative Futures Bangkok, I was invited to do an online talk on my work in the context of these pandemic times:

𝗙𝘂𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗫 𝘀𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗲𝘀

How can we use speculative futures to think about systems and enterprise in the COVID-19 era? In this part-science, part-art, part-design talk, Catherine Sarah Young elaborates on her experimental practice that explores our environmental and collective futures, and how using a systems-led way of thinking and global perspectives can help shape the new world emerging from the pandemic.

My favorite thing about today aside from talking art, science, design, and taekwondo: finally being able to do my first acknowledgement of country as this is my first talk in Australia: I am on Gadigal Land of the Eora Nation, traditional custodians of this land. I pay my respects to elders past, present, and future.

Drawing from my martial arts experience, I also talk about how dismantling the apocalypse is a way of life and how we should train for this for the foreseeable future:

Thanks, Speculative Futures Bangkok!

[redshift-13]

The state of humanity’s imagination about the future

What is the state of the public’s imagination of the future or its capacity to imagine the future?  To what extent can individuals understand or imagine social, political or economic arrangements that differ from the present?  How valid, reasoned, rich in detail, indicative of independent thought, creative, or some sense interesting is the capacity of individuals to think about possible, probable or preferable futures?

I think a futurist literacy could measure this capacity.  But in the absence of such research a source of qualitative evidence exists in the form of observations from futurists and practitioners who, in whatever field, have an eye on a more distant horizon.  So, when I come across quotes from people who are in a position to make informed judgments about imagination of the future or futurist literacy or whatever we might call it, I put them in my notes.  Although I won’t argue for it here, I’m somewhat optimistic about humanity’s ‘futurist awakening’.  However, in a great many context I’m willing to bet that the following characterizations prevail:

1. From an interview with UCLA Professor Russell Jacoby on Changesurfer radio, 'The Decline of Utopianism and the Public Intellectuals', from June 6, 2010.  Jacoby teaches a course on Utopian thought, and is author of The End of Utopia: Politics and Culture in an Age of Apathy.

"When I teach this class on utopian thought I ask students...design your own utopia, or what should utopia include.  And generally I'm amazed at the poverty of imagination--how limited people can think."

2. This quote is from Vera Novak, a green building early adopter and blogger, and the first person to receive the US Green Building Council LEED certification:

"I had the opportunity to work with a very progressive design team, which had full participation of the owner, contractor, designer, and engineer in a highly integrated process.  They were amazing in their ability to deliver on project specifications.  At first, I thought there was no more room for improvement, they were so exemplary.  But there was an Achilles heel, and that was the ability to collectively see and design a future state which transcended the limitations of current assumptions. They were their own obstacle."

http://www.ecobuildtrends.com/2012/11/giving-thanks-for-opportunity-to-create.html

3. The following is from an interview with Reinhold Martin, by Lee Stickells and Charles Rice.  Martin is author of Utopia's Ghost:

"Much of the impetus for writing the book came from sitting on design juries and teaching studios in which it was clear, time and again, that students were simply unable to think structural change in the present. ‘‘Architecture or revolution?’’ had ceased to be a question. Not universally, but predominantly."

"The utopian function of the university as a world apart, always-already compromised and ambivalent to be sure, is itself in danger of vanishing altogether."

http://www.scribd.com/doc/93395957/Interview-With-Reinhold-Martin-Utopia-s-Ghost-2010-Architectural-Theory-Review p. 325

4. Joseph Coates, a globally recognize name in futures thinking, had this observation in the book Viable Utopian Ideas: Shaping a Better World:

"If there is any hope of utopian thinking, there must be a broad-based change in thinking about long-term futures, in ways that go beyond relief of the current problems.  Would-be utopians must supply complex detailed images of the social, economic, political, and personal lives of all people if they are to have any credibility or have any value in directing the evolution of society.  Utopian visions must be at least as grainy and engaging as their dystopian competitors.

Numerous things underline the absence of positive thinking about the future but at its core is a fundamental lapse in education, in thinking positively, in thinking systematically, and in thinking optimistically.  A recent issue of the New Scientist reported on a contest looking merely to 2050; none of the contestants dealt well with the social and personal aspects of life.

My own experience, reported elsewhere, in conducting 250 people at a World Future Society meeting through a three-hour exercise on the next thousand-year future, was disappointing.  People were asked as a wrap-up to create a picture or an image of some tiny piece of life in the world 3000.  The responses could have been drawn from situations found in the previous six months of the New York Times.”

Creating the School You Want: Learning @ Tomorrow's Edge (Educational Futuristics). Chapt. 4, Utopia: An Obsolete Concept. pp. 29-34. (Among its wealth of suggestions, future studies is proposed as the core of the k-12 curriculum.)