In class on thursday we saw the four graphs that represent possible outcomes for the exponential growth curve. I see the first graph as the iminent problem that has to be corrected before the bottom falls out, the second graph represents what will happen if you don't address the iminent problem of the first graph. The other 2 are potential solutions to the problem.
With the idea of "cradle to cradle " rather than "cradle to grave" is a very true and real issue whether you're talking about the trash that we all accumulate, mainly fast food and packaged goods. But I was thinking about how this same issue applies to how we have thrown away piles and piles of people into prisons, and I don't know the numbers, but I'm pretty sure we have way more people in prison than any other country. I'm pretty sure we can find a better more useful way to correct or rehabilitate a lot of these individuals in prisons
Friday, February 15, 2008
minute paper
minutemen fab1408
Happy Valentines day!
I, once again, enjoyed the interesting discussion today. Honestly, I had trouble downloading the articles, so I couldn't actually read them until after class was over, but I like the methods of alternative thinking we are learning. It's giving me some kind of format to go by that makes it easier to think of possible futureS. I agree with the comment about how the power of individual people can truely make a difference; with people such as Martin Luther King and Ghandi. But at the same time you would need to think about people such as Hitler and Castro, who's influence affected the lives of insane amounts of people who did not deserve it. I think its good and scary at the same time, empowering people to change or "better" their environment.
On another note, I like my group and the topic we came up with.
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Minute Paper (2-14-08) happy v-day everyone!
Society is a social invention. One idea that I can depict from this
reading is relating to economic level. The way at looking at this is
referring to money as a social invention. In logic the society is an
exchange medium. In a way of speaking that observable reality can only
be observed because it is information. Information is meaning and
meanings define each other in circumstance. Much of the reading so far
goes to the reality of redesigning and the remaking of the futures. It
is true that the social problems we faced everyday is a product of
social system. One cannot function without the other. With social
problems give the guidelines on what precautions and certain
responsibility to resolve such problems. For the Countdown to Meltdown
article, I see that there is a sequence of the issues which outlines
from a specific scope or level to a broader scope. Starting from the
action of event the cocking of the gun, pulling the trigger, and
bleeding and it can relate to a small fire that can kill less people
and as it spreads out more people are killed.
Andrew's Minute Paper 2/14
One interesting parallel that occurred to me when the two options for the third reading for today were being discussed. It was mentioned that one of the authors of Cradle to Cradle was an architect, which made a segment of Redesigning Society stand out in my mind. There is a section that uses a great analogy for systems design to how an architect thinks about a house and how it paralleled designing a society. In my mind, this then clicked to "Well, just goes to show that architects and futurists really do think on the same wavelength."
Another idea from a book I once read came to mind as the group I was in discussed the various courses something could follow. The book could, in a way, very much support the idea that one person doesn't make the change, but the society as a whole must be changed. While this wasn't something we really focused on today, it was an idea from certain previous discussions and readings that stuck in my mind. Repeatedly within the story, the main character basically attempts quick fixes for various current problems (such as environment, war, and overpopulation), only to have his unilateral changes end disastrously.
Minute Paper 2/14
When we were in our groups, it was a little hard trying to pick a topic to talk about since the instructions were vague to begin with. We talked about industry, environment, or education and we finally picked out topic. As we went through the 4 alternate futures, continuation, collapse, discipline, and transformation, we finally found out which future we are gonna use for our topic and i hope that it will help in Tuesday's discussion.
02.14.08
the idea that really stuck out to me today was the idea of 'cradle to
cradle' as opposed to the idea of 'cradle to grave.' the fact that all
of the products manufactored today are made to be used and then
discarded, never to be used again, seems very wasteful indeed. it's
sad. we talked a little bit about creating products that can serve
different functions after they have been utilized for their originial
purpose, which would decrease waste and maximize the objects
productivity. this reminded me a lot of native american tribes and the
way in which they would use every piece of the animals they killed,
wasting absolutely nothing. i think we could learn a lot from the
lifestyles of older civilizations; applying much their knowledge to
some of the problems we face today might be extremley beneficial. they
survived just fine for thousands of years without causing nearly as
much damage as we have casued in the past two hundred years. Also, it
broke my heart to hear about that oil spill that took place in alaska
and the boom that it created in the economy.. it makes me sick to my
stomach that anyone could possibly view something so horrendous as a
good thing... on a lighter note, i'm really looking forward to the next
chapter of our indiana jones adventure :o) it sounds quite challenging,
but it also sounds like a really good way to put what've learned into
practice, and i'm looking forward to taking active participation in
educationing people about the possibility of futureS.
Minute Paper 2/14
I think today’s class would have made Shiv Visvanathan, author of “Mrs. Bruntland’s Disenchanted Cosmos” quite happy. This is because we further explored and began to apply his ideas on approaching futures as story tellers. This included our reading of “Countdown to Meltdown” and breaking into small groups to begin creating our own stories, both of which really illustrated how turning a possible future into a story can really bring it to life. This seems to work because by striping away jargon and catch phrases and replacing them with places and events that we can visualize, it makes ideas on possible futures accessible and applicable to who ever may hear or read about them.
Mark Alexander
minute paper [14 feb]
I'm really glad that we review the different readings in such detail during class sessions--it really helps to round up my ideas/takes on the articles. It's also cool to hear about how other people interpreted them. Sometimes ideas that hadn't even crossed my mind are brought up and I wonder how I missed it in the articles?!
The article "Countdown to a Meltdown" was kinda frightening. I agree with those in class that said the photo clips in the reading really sold the idea of how the future could be in 11 years. One thing that stuck in my head from the article was when it talked about people letting their homes go & purchasing RVs instead..and decommissioned military bases becoming trailer parks. how can one of the richest, most successful countries end up like that? we can't end up like that.
This new group activity that we're doing seems pretty sweet. It's definitely a creative approach to learning and understanding the concept of the 4 futures.
one minute paper 2/14
In todays class we started off by talking about the four readings that we were assigned to read. What i got from that discussion was that our society is in need of a new leader, a new Martin Luther King, a new ghandi, people like that. After the discussion we broke off into groups of three or so and we were eached supposed to think of something anything that we thought is going to change. My group decided to choose energy and the use of oil. It was a crazy discussion because we talked about how if we keep using oil at this rate Alaska would be like and oil field and, we were just coming up with ridiculous outcomes of how our world could use the same amount of oil.
Countdown to the meltdown was the most intriguing article were discussed in class thus far. Since it was written three years ago you would think that it wouldnt be as close to our present day as it was, essentially our future has easily been predicted. This is scarey because alot of our views on the future are terrifying to society and are 100 percent possible. Also the idea that society is an invention makes me wonder what it is that we are doing now which is normal to us that will be outrageous in the future like the example on slavery. Happy Valentines day!
minute paper
All the authors we have read are right, we need to decide what we want
and in the words of Dator " just do it" . If our society and the world
can figure out what it wants, with out all the worries of what they
personal want, but rather what is best for society and our futures. I
know it is possible, we just need to step up to the plate and do it.
Stop talking about it and take a serious action. It is going to take
more then just one or two people, we need a revolution of change. This
does not even have to involve violence. Just work together for a common
goal.
Minute Paper 2/14
"Doing things right vs. doing the right thing" was the concept that really stuck out for me. To me, doing things right is a learned process that we have developed over the course of our childhood. Our parents have taught us proper manners, language use, and morals. Teachers has taught us the right ways of solving problems, how to treat our fellow peers, and even the things that are inappropriate for the classroom as well as society. So pretty much are whole childhood was a time for molding us to fit in with the "doing things right" way of life. However, it was through the process of "doing the right thing" that brought humanity to where it is today. Our American history is made up of a bunch of "doing the right thing" moments. If the Declaration of Independence wasn't signed because if it would be doing the right thing by just complying with the British in order to avoid a war, we would be sitting around sipping cups of tea with crumpets still. But because the people believed that by signing that document would be the right thing to do, we have developed into the most powerful nation in the world.
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
minutemen feb1208
I thought the readings and conversations were interesting, but, honestly, some of the concepts we were discussing went over my head. The Dator reading was the most enjoyable. Thinking of the future within the four 'templates' of how things progress was another interesting view of how things could possibly progress. Other than that...I think we need to talk more about this.
Andrew's Minute Paper 2/13
One thing I found that really stuck out to me was the irony of some of Nandy's statements in the context of our class. Here we sit, learning about his theories in a classroom, when one of the things that he argued against was in fact that exact thing. By it achieving the status necessary to be studied legitimately in a university, it has lost the battle to not become part of the machine.
I also found very interesting the little exercise that appeared in the Dator reading. I found myself trying to figure out what my ideal image of society. Unfortunately, I found I balked at the first step, choosing the starting "real place", because it seemed to me that that would so much shape the society I was to create.
02.12.08
I found that the readings for this week all fell
together very nicely forming a choherent and well
reasoned argument defending the multiplicity of
possible futures, and why it is so important to keep
our options open. Shiv Visvanathan made a very good
argument by pointing out the ethnocentric views
imbedded in the Bruntland report, which we discussed
in class. Upon originally reading the Bruntland
report, all i saw were good intentions. However, after
reading Mrs. Bruntland's Disechanted Cosmos, i was
reminded of how unquestioning i can sometimes be. I
read the Bruntland report without reading between the
lines and thinking critically about its implications.
Upon further reflection it is now very clear how
limiting and narrow-minded the report is; it allows no
room from the possibility of futureS nor the voice of
the people. Visvanathan also mentions that future "is
being colonized," which i thought transitioned very
nicely into the reading by Dator. I took an
anthropology class last semester, which i really
enjoyed, and we talked a lot about the idea of
de-colonization. Western science and western thought
is a very imposing force that has worked it's way into
the system on a very global scale, and has made a
large impression on many domains of thought, including
the future. One of the main lessons i got out of this
weeks readings is that it is our duty to make sure we
keep the future as our own, without allowing
bureacrats to stake a claim on it.
____________________________________________________________________________________
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sex with robots?
during today's discussion, i had an image in my head the whole time of this notice of proposed development that companies post on a future building site. but on the sign was a whole bunch of words in different languages. the charlie brown phone conversations cam to mind almost how i would say a "wah wah wah"... haha. the issue people in power proposing ideas in language that most average people can't understand really stuck out in my mind. at the same time, these articles that tell us to keep our minds open to futures and try to define different possibilities were difficult to read. i feel like university is an invitation to learn new languages in a sense. we are learning how to speak and in turn how to listen and understand in an entirely new way. we talked today about society ostensibly robbing our ability to dream. we are learning that imagination is the most important factor in being prepared though. in this way, are our dreams political? because we dream and imagine things mostly based on a conscious, or perhaps unconscious world view, how we identify ourselves within a community and in the world... what we want or could imagine for the future is politics. just as the most recent dator article speaks of, it is not up to the politician but the individual. we keep dreaming and using our imaginations to keep politics personal.
Minute Paper 2/12
The "futures" of Hawaii is interesting, but scary also. Anything is posssible. The graphs make for each future make sense and help to understand what can happen depending on what we do. Futurists do not try to predict the future, but they do make forecasts. These forecasts depend on certain things though. There are "if's" that need to take place in order for certain things to happen. The future is a complicated subject, but class is helping make it a little simpler slowly.
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
2/12/08
today in class, we talked about the paper we read in previous class called 'bruinnt report'. can't spell it correctly but it's very influencial text on the future subject that talked about the article we were suppose to read at home. when we were talking about the stuff, I thought 'decolonizing the future' was funny. It's not even there but we need to decolonize it? but what it meant was not that, it was had like something to do with long reaching powers that people have over younger or to common people. parents can plan out the future for kids and government can plan out the future for common people without their consent. and it was interesting talking about the destroying the mental estate and i think it's quiet simple. it's not so hard for people from africa who came to america to start acting like black american while being really studious at the same time. that's like african guy becoming americanized right? that probably changes perspective on things and stuff like that. I wanted to say some stuff in class but i thought class was moving too fast.
Minute Paper 2/12
Today, we talked about how people can change the way they think and feel. It can be over time while you gather information through education or research. But, it can also be changed during an instantaneous event that can make a person totally change their point of view on a certain subject. The whole world also does not have the same morals and values, but a group of people who are able to work together and think together, can also have the same ideas about things.
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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"
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.
Minute Paper 2/12
In today’s class we where ask if it is easier to destroy something physical or something mental, this got me I asking the question, “Can we destroy mental real estate?” I’ve thought this question over a bit and I have come to the conclusion of not exactly. We without a doubt can repress or deny parts of our mental real estate but it will always be some ware in the depths of our minds. Just look at the spread of Christianity and the changes different cultures have made to it. Each one, after excepting it and supposedly replacing their old beliefs, but even with these new ideas taking the place of their old religions they don’t die away, they simply reshape themselves becoming integrated with their new beliefs.
Mark Alexander
minute paper [12 Feb]
What a thought-provoking class.. discussing the different readings really helped me to better understand them. Sometimes reading some of those articles can get confusing because of the specialized wording some authors use.
I really like the idea of futureS. I never thought of the future as being plural before.. but now that we've talked about it in class, it seems weird that I hadn't thought of it before! There are so many different possibilities on the horizon; different possibilities for each and every person. We all have to make things happen for ourselves..take the reigns and make the most of life. Nothing is set in stone!
One Minute Paper 2/12
Today we talked about futures again. We looked back at the last class
and discussed the graphs of each postcard. I am still a little confused
about what the actual meaning of the graphs are. We then talked about
the all of the things that can control the possible futures. I think
that we need to look at all of the contributing factors to our future
and do what we need to do to make it the best future we can
minute paper feb5
We can change our futures, we can make our futures whatever we want.
All we need to do is want it. We colonize other countries and impliment
change, why cant we do the same to our own. I think it is possible to
avoid a negative future. We just have to want it, and start now, and
with our younger generations.
minute paper 2/11/08
Today in class we again talked about possible futures, and how there are about four main possible outcomes of our future based on the actions we take today. I liked the article by Jim Dator about De-colonizing the future, because it brought to light that we have already "colonized" the future and there are ideas already put in place of how the future will run. Without even knowing it, we as humans expect things to be a certain way without taking time to realize how these expectations got there. I think we should de-colonize the future, because we may discover many things that were not available in our common idea of the future.
one minute paper 2/12
In todays class we first talked about the last class and about the four different postcards of what hawaii could possibly be like in the future. We were told that it was important to keep these four images in our mind because we will refer back to them a lot in class. Then after that we had a class discussion about the readings. One thing that i really did not get or understand was the graphs and how they related to the certain postcard. Overall today was a good class and we had a good discussion.
The other day my math teacher was telling our class about a tribe of
people, that had lived isolated from the rest humanity. When somebody
"discovered" them, they figured out that these people couldn't
comprehend any numbers past 3 or 4, I don't remember which one. If you
put five apples in front of one of these people they could see all the
apples, but they couldn't count them.
I think this applies to some of what we talked about in class because
currently our images of the future are limited to only imagining
futures that we can currently perceive. Just like there are endless
amounts of numbers, their are endless amounts of potential ways the
furture can be. If someone in that tribe of people imagined the number
five, and tried to tell his people about it they might think he had
gone mad. If he could get others to understand the number five, then
who knows maybe they would get real radical and come up with the number
six, and so on.
Minute Paper 2/11
Decolonizing the future was quite an interesting concept that I have been introduced to. Especially the portion on the "long ranged" power given to certain people. People we as students see for a good portion of our lives. Our teachers and parents. It's quite interesting on how they have the power to manifest a future for us as they see fit. Parents especially are the main cause for this. A lot of parents want their children to live a good life. Such as here in Hawaii, a lot of parents have multiple jobs just to make ends meet. These kinds of parents are pushing their children to go to school and then furthering their educations after high school in order to obtain a bachelor's degree or even a master or PhD. Just so that their kids can have better jobs with better pay so that they don't have to go through the financial problems that they as parents had to go through. But, when does it become too much for the parent to push their child. A kid is a kid and will want to act like a kid. Maybe when they mature and decide to go to college (on their own) will they find the desire to further their knowledge. From a personal perspective, my mother forced me to attend this university so that I could supposedly achieve a better life for myself in the long run. As a good son I comply and here I am today, but often I wonder if this was the right choice I made. My mother even chose my major for me when I entered here. Now that's disappointing. I, of course, did not want to major in Chemistry to become a pharmacist. On the other hand, I decided to pursue Psychology as a major and then further my education towards a Master's Degree in Forensic Psychology.