Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Minute paper for February 12, 2008

Today in class we pretty much went over what we did in the last class and the readings for last class and todays.  So there were the four concepts, I suppose you could call them, for the future; collapse, transformation, continuation, ad discipline.  Also, four ideas regarding images were discussed; trends, theory, events, and methods.  I have to say that although I like Dator's ideas and method of writing, i payed more attention to the article "Bearing Witness to the Future"
by Ashis Nandy, this time around.  I like part of his definition for futures studies that went, "by 

identifying emerging or previously ignored social pathologies that have to be understood, 

contained or transcended; by linking up the fates of different polities and societies through 

envisioning their common fears and hopes."  Good stuff!  Honestly, I don't think I have the capacity for all the knowledge I'd need to be a futurist, so yeah thumbs up to them!  I really would like to discuss the whole four ideas behind images and stuff because I still don't think I'd be able to confidently differentiate any ideas or things that were thrown at me, but I'd like to.  

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1 comment:

  1. Stuart CandyFebruary 13, 2008 at 11:19 AM

    Sharissa,

    Thinking systemically, and in a way that does justice to all the different facets of the yet-to-be is a *really* tall order. You're not alone in feeling that way, I (and many futurists I know) do too!

    But I wonder what you think of the idea of designing an institution, or even building into our collective cultural reflexes, a way to bring together and synthesise the different pieces that each of us can bring?

    That is, what if we thought of our challenge not in terms of producing individual futurist "gurus", but of developing a "social capacity for foresight"?

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