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.
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Minute Paper 2/11
Saturday, February 9, 2008
minute paper 2/7/08
Today in class we were given post cards from the future, and we were told to read these post cards and try to interpret what the setting was like at that given point in time in hawaii. There were four differnet scenarios, which were all possible outcomes of the quality of life and standard of living in hawaii. The post card interpretations were ordered from least amount of change legislation, to most amount of legislation required to maintain the sustainibility of the islands. The moral of the story is that we need to discuss these emerging issues so that we can come together on a general consensous and prepare for the future and shape the future of tomorrow today.
Friday, February 8, 2008
Minute Paper 2/7
I found the group assignment today eye opening. I think part of the reason for the activity was to show how important tourism is to Hawaii. Without toursim, I do not think Hawaii would survive. That being said, I do not think the future of Hawaii as an independent nation is likely because it would be too hard to get rid of tourism and ration the amount of visitors we allow. As for the complete opposite of this future, Mauihattan, is possible because we are continuing to grow and build our community to fit the population and help the tourism expand for our economy. My conclusion is the future is scary and unpredictable.
Thursday, February 7, 2008
POST CARD BLOG
First id like to touch base on the emerging issues we discussed in class. Two that really stuck out to me were the Robot Servents and the Educational Bill. Also, I would like to mention that the post card exercise had some sort of reality to them. Out of each post card only one can hold the true future of Hawaii and if no changes are made then I feel as if the post card where Hawaii was polluted and tourism controlled than thats our future as an island. Another major concern is Global Warming which as time passes it only gets worse. As of rite now our grandchildren will suffer from Global Warming and the high raise of water levels, that in itself is scary to imagine. I would hope that some sort of action would be done about this issue because it is so close near to our future.
02.07.08
I thought the exercise that we did today involving the postcards was an
excellent way to illustrate the concept of Future'S'. All of the
different scenarios are real possibilties for the Hawaiian Islands, and
it was interesting to hear everyone's different takes on the issues at
hand. While i found most of the futures quite disturbing and
unsettling, i must say that my favorite was the one where Hawai'i
regained its sovereignty, although it did seem a little radical. I
would like to also say that aside from feeling a little scared by the
realness of the scenarios, i left the class feeling quite empowered. As
fundamental as today's exercise was, it gave me quite a bit of insight
into what kind of place I would like the future to be. While i've
always had some vague idea, today i gained a more concrete
understanding of where my vision falls into the four categories, and my
personal vision for the future is now clearer. I'm looking forward to
the next class, and i'll see you all on tuesday :o)
Minute Paper 2/7
The futures exercise was an eye opening experience today. My group had the hurricane scenario and i was thinking that that could actually happen since there have been some major hurricanes in the world in the recent years and that Hawaii hasn't had a hurricane in awhile. I also felt a little weird when the first group presented their scenario about "Mauihattan" since i am from Maui and i don't want anything like major hotels and casinos to be there.
Andrew's Minute Paper 2/7
I think perhaps the thing that stood out to me most today in class was how vast the differences of opinions among the people were. For example, when the topic of mandated disease testing came up as an emerging issue, the class became quickly divided by their views pro or con. It seems that such situations as this demonstrate one of the points that several of the readings for class have made, even if people seem to agree on what the issue is, so vastly different are the ideas of how it is to be approached that it simply can't be mandated by one group with one point of view.
I also wanted to say that I rather liked the postcard activity, because I found the reading that brought up the 'four futures' idea was a little vague on defining what precisely certain of the categories were.
Re: 1 Minute paper 2/7/2008
The image i got from today's class was an image of change, future change that escalated from advanced retroactive tourism to guerilla warfare. Pro. Candy seemed to order the groups as they would chronologically happen. Some where actually concieveable, but other to me were totally off the wall. The card that I thought had the most realism to it was the one that had the underwater casino. Because our earth is in a Global warming sphere that will indefinitely cause waters to rise, and polar ice caps to melt. Only if our generation pulls together and starts to question this endless tornado of non- pro- environmental actions will it see that we can suceed. let me know if that is enoungh PRofessor Candy
its just that simple?
after todays class, i was thinking about the four futures discussed. of course hawaii was used as the example because that is where we are living now, but i began to think about a lot of places in the rest of the world and how one or all of those models fit with how i see things now. we looked at the possible futures in terms of tourism, but what about in terms of local community... people will be living differently from the way they do now by a lot. i guess that is an obvious statement... the four options were such a simple way of looking at it. when "futures" was first presented, i felt super overwhelmed with the limitless possibilities. the possibilities are still endless but its nice to have a few frames to see options through. i am excited to be living in this time when everything changes so quickly. we will get to see so much in our lifetimes. as for societies skyrocketing, collapsing, becoming exclusive and different, or transforming into something way out of left field... we get to watch it happen probably to our own society. yikes.
Minute Paper 2/7
In today’s class we continued introducing our different emerging issues. I found everyone’s examples to be quite interesting, but the one issue that really caught my attention was about homeless children being admitted to public schools without any type of medical records. I found this to be particularly intriguing because it brings up the question of which is more important, the safety of the group or the protection of the individual. Personally I think public schools should be catering to the safety of tax paying citizens children and teachers before the feelings of those that education is being extended to in charity, but that’s only my opinion, and especially in this particularly case, I can see how others would have very contrasting views. Along with the emerging issue presentations we also look at four potential futures for the Hawaiian Islands which each represented one of Jim Dator’s four generic alternative futures. So far we have looked at three of these alternative futures using examples like the story of Easter Island to look at collapse, population increase to look at growth, and technological changes to look at transformation, but as far as I can tell we have not looked at an actual example of control which I personally think could be quite interesting.
Mark Alexander
Minute Paper 2/7/08
The activity that we had participated in today came across some interesting ideas about the future. The four scenerios of a future Hawaii seemed a bit extreme, yet very possible if some big changes were to happen to our state. To be honest, I didn't like any of the four futures that we had discussed. All of them seemed either very depressing or just not the paradise we live in today. Even the postcard about Mauihattan just didn't fit the fun in paradise feel, the idea about the underwater casino didn't fit the relaxing Hawaii atmosphere either. The other extreme scenerio about Hawaii being severely devastated by a hurricane also seemed like it was impossible to imagine. The idea that our own government would pull away and not give us any aide seemed very absurd, but then again that extreme scenerio also could be part of the Hawaiian nation gaining their own control which would explain the US government's decision on withdrawing help. This activity actually made me not want to think about the future of Hawaii as the future will probably hold drastic changes and won't be like the paradise we live in today.
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One Minute Paper 2/7
The postcards that we talked about today were really crazy. It was
weird to think of what could happen to places of paradise in the
future. I think that hawaii could very possibly turn out to be like
anyone of those postcards in the future. The postcard that my group got
was called Mauihattan. On the front of the postcard it had a picture of
a underwater hotel and casino. With the way technology is progressing,
i think that there is deffinetely a possibility for this to happen in
the future. If this does end up happening i think that it will kill off
all of the coral reefs and sealife that there is today
02/07/08
the activity today in class was pretty fun. the whole emerging trends for future talk continued on from last class and once again there was whole lot of new ideas, concept and technology. The group activity we did today was some what extraordinary. The whole idea of picking a random scenario and trying to find out what happend and all that was really interesting. O and I think there is too much stuff to read haha. lucky we didn't talk about the reading material today.
2/7
four futures. Four different ideas of what hawai'i could become. Many
were very unsettling, but all seemed to have a possibility of becoming
true. All of them are scary in their own way, and shows that if the
tourism industry in general continues as it is, terrible things could
happen to the place we call paradise. In one way or another it will not
be the same. From becoming completely destroyed by nature or man, we
need to get together and try to help hawai'i. Help in whatever way is
necessary to make all inhabitants happy and make hawai'i a place for
living as well as visiting. Allow people to share what we experience
everyday with out hawai'i having to suffer. thanks .
one minute paper 2/6
In todays class we talked about the different possiblities of how hawaii was going to be shown. There were four different postcards and for each postcard there was a group that went up and described their postcard to the class. My postcard was a virtual reality world, and i was not sure of what to make of it. It did not make much sense to me because i would not like to live in the a virtual world. In conclusion, my reaction to todays class was that it was cool to hear about different senairios about what hawaii would be like.
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
Minute Paper 2/5
I agree with the fact that there is a limit to growth, but what can we do about it? It is going to be really hard to control the population growth. Some people like having a lot of children and I do not think it is fair to tell them they need to stop. I also think it is good to just think about the future because it can't hurt. Sometimes though, it can be really scary thinking about how the future is going to be and the consequences are going to be because of our choices now.
Minute Paper 2/5
In class, we talked about the limits of growth and we also talked about the readings that we had to read prior to today's class. When we talked about the limits of growth and seeing that small video on how the world population looks, it made me feel like we're pretty much fucked. I thought this cause we only have a limited number of resources in this world and we will sooner or later use them all up. We're gonna have to start killing off people, or finding other ways to increase our resources, if its on this planet or another one. The reading about horses in the past, sounds like how we will be later on in the future.
minute p 02/05/08
today in class, we talked about 2 authoritative document called 'our common future' and i can't remember the name of the other one. The homework we brought to class was to predict what emerging trends will become the main stream stuff in the future. It was interesting to listen to other classmates' ideas and what they thought was new and revolutionary. When we were talking about the documents, we were talking about how we are still not prepared for what's coming to us in the future. in the video we watched today, the story of Easter Island was so amazing. and how that professor compared the fallen Easter Island society with our world now. I thought it was such a good comparison in a way how they had such a advanced polynesian technology and culture and all of sudden they are wiped out. not because of outter invasion but collapsed slowly within.
I thought it should be a warning for all of us.
minute paper 2/5/08
The Chinese government introduced the policy in 1979 to alleviate the overpopulation, social and environmental problems of China. The policy is controversial both within and outside China because of the human rights issues it raises; because of the manner in which the policy has been implemented; and because of concerns about negative economic and social consequences.
The one-child policy promotes couples having one child in rural and urban areas. The limit has been strongly enforced in urban areas, but the actual implementation varies from location to location. In most rural areas, families are allowed to have two children if the first child is female or disabled. Second children are subject to birth spacing (usually 3 or 4 years). Additional children will result in large fines: families violating the policy are required to pay monetary penalties and might be denied bonuses at their workplace. Children born in overseas countries are not counted under the policy if they do not obtain Chinese citizenship. Chinese citizens returning from abroad can have a second child.
These two above captions were found on wikipedia
China's so-called "one-child" policy was officially adopted as law.
The new law is known as the Law on Population and Family Planning, 2002. The previous policy gained its name from the one-child per couple norm that China’s government has encouraged since 1979, although both the old policy and the new law contain limited exceptions to the "one-child" rule. The shift marks an important change in China's approach to population control, as it brings the greater legal force of legislation into an arena that has been fraught with abuse and inconsistently applied features.
I found the above caption above at reproductiverights.org.
I think it's an interesting topic, because here in The U.S. a law like that might sound "ridiculous" given the constitution, human rights etc. However, I feel that this is a very serious issue, and I believe there should be some kind of child limit law. Maybe not as strict, maybe a 2 child maximum. I know it sounds ridiculous but it is obviously one of the driving forces of global warming, there is obviously world hunger issues and we have to take the initial steps and passes legislation which will shape our future. Although ultimately I know that if our population does continue to grow exponentially there will be a natural correction such as natural disasters or outbreaks such as the flu, hunger and drought. We have to undertand that there is a limit to that graph we saw in class today and we have to face it either today (by implementing child limit laws) or wait until we actually hit the limit and let it naturally correct itself.
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After class today I thought a lot about the word hope. One of the
things I thought about was how hope is sometimes the only motivation
left when a situation seems so hopeless. I think and feel as though
there is a large majority of people that have used hope in a poor way.
Those who hope that their government or leaders with solve the problem
and take care of them and the hope that some god will float down from
the place it has been hiding and right all the wrongs that humanity has
caused.To me, this seems like a way of passing their responsability
elsewhere.
I would see a good form of hope as being, a hope in humanity. Right now
I feel as though there isn't much hope for the future. Our population
growth is growing beyond the capacity of life sustaining resources. If
this happens it one possibility is a world war fighting over water,
food, and other life sustaining resources.
The real hope lies in the fact that we aren't their yet. There is still
a chance that things can be done to soften the blowback of
consequences. I believe their is a strong hope in informing as many of
the people on this planet as we can, without scaring the shit out of
them. The real hope lies in the capability of humanity to alter their
environment. If people who are aware of the future problems we are
facing do what they can to let those around them know, then a shift
will occur, and the future won't look so bleak. The problem is getting
habitual human beings to give up comforts, and rituals in order to make
a better future that they won't even be alive for.
Minute Paper 2/5
Today we discussed the limits to growth and how at some point everything that continuously grows (in this case population growth) will either (1) be brought under control by devising solutions to bring this growth down to a sustainable rate so that it evens it’s self out or (2) if our increasing population is not able to come to an equilibrium with the resources that are fueling the growth it could result in a potentially violent fallout. We looked at both potential outcomes through the article “Horse Power to Horsepower” which illustrated how we can come to solutions to avoid disasters caused by population growth and Jared Diamond’s lecture on the collapse of society on Easter Island through the depletion of resources which lead to civil war and cannibalism causing complete devastation of their society. As much as I would love for us to find a way to correct the path to destruction that we seem to be following I can’t help being a bit pessimistic because we seem to be caught in a vicious circle where even when we are able to solve a problem that solution generally leads to another problem such as in the case of our switching from horses to cars.
Mark Alexander
Minute Paper for February 5, 2008
Okay so honestly I only came to class with like half an hour left so I couldn't exactly dive into the conversation with everyone else. However, i do have comments on the three readings. First of all, I don't know if it was just me being dense, but i thought the whole horse thing was just a metaphor for the pollution humans have committed themselves to. of course once I heard the discussion in class I realized it was all just a coincidence. It was written in such a clever fashion and I hope everyone can see the relation it as today, but instead of horses it would be cars and instead of polluting the street they're causing our ozone to deplete, with possibilities of bringing an extinction to the human race. And then, the portion in "Our Common Future" about our resources not being enough to sustain the rapidly increasing population reminds me of like ancient civilizations where if they didn't have enough to sustain the whole civilization they'd migrate or rebuild new cities for people that couldn't fit. Of course, if we did that we'd have to move to an entirely new planet actually, because we've pretty much used and abused this one. In reference to the Meadows' piece, we should totally have our own Club of Rome integrated into our government, who like meet with the president every month. Maybe it would really hit people then. I mean Al Gore's doing a pretty god job and him going on Oprah really helped. I think honestly, I know for a fact, that if you get environmentalists and scientists on Oprah more often word would seriously get out. I mean thats the women of America, even some men that you've captivated right there. Seriously, a few times she's put up most wanted ads or whatever on her shows and the next day the guy would be caught. Oprah is a doorway to the people of America.
one minute paper 1/5
In todays class we talked about the population growth in this world. We
saw a video showing the estimated population growth from the beggining
of time to the year 2020. The last 30 years the numbers were stagering.
One student today said that she believes that the world has a way of
controling the population by way of tornado or other natural disasters.
I agree with that comment because i believe that eventually if the
world becomes to populated and there are not enough resources to
provide for the people, the world will have a way of controling it by
some sort of natural disaster.
BLOG 02-5
Perhaps one of the most urgent issues facing the United States is that of population. The population of the U.S. (and much of the world) has increased significantly in the last half century. Population grows exponentially, which means that the population will continue to skyrocket in the future if there is no intervention. This creates many problems for our government in the attempts to care for the growing number of people. Problem areas will include health care, social security, and poverty. Social security has been predicted to fail before our generation even retires. This means that the government must develop a new program for senior citizens or else millions of people will fall into poverty. In addition, a new health care system must be adopted in order to accommodate the population increases as well.
02.05.08
I just finished reading the excerpt from "Our Common
Future," and I am in utter disbelief. Not because
these issues have never been brought to my attention,
because they have, but because these issues were
brought to the attention of the world over twenty
years and virutally nothing has been to affectively
the change the self-destructing path that mankind is
walking down. Until recently, actually until this
class, i was under the impression that many of the
global issues we are covering were brought to the
attention of the general public within the last
decade, but most of them are twice that old. As an
occupant of this planet i find it extremely
frustrating that the great leaders of our world have
not done more to thwart the devasting and catastrophic
impact that we as a species are inflicting upon the
earth. While i whole-heartedly believe that individual
initiatives and personal lifestyle changes can
collectively have a large and beneficial impact on our
current situation, i place a large amount of the
responsibility on policy makers and government
officials. If the change is to be as drastic and
effective as necessary, i believe it would be most
efficient and most successful if the change were to
come from within the system itself. I understand that
the change would not be easy and the solution is not
obvious, but how will we make any progress if we don't
even try? While the task ahead of us is absolutely
daunting, it cannot be overlooked. I really am scared
for the future generations, and i agree with the
readings: that some serious changes need to be made.
____________________________________________________________________________________
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minute paper feb5
The limit of growth, that was todays question. how far can we grow
until it stops and we destroy ourselves. I think that we can change.
and that we can correct ourselves. Some of the problem are people are
not informed about this, we need more impact as al gore's an
inconviente truth did. All issues we have had in history, started out
as no big deal, until it was made public, or emerged. However there is
always the fact that maybe this time we have pushed everything to far,
and we wont be able to correct, or inform everyone fast enough to help
. But i think we can and our growth will be slowed once people allow it
to and realize when enough is enough. thanks
Re: 1 Minute paper 2/5/2008
The environmental trends that threaten to alter our planet where dealt with today in class. Global warming is upon us whether we decide to acknowledge it or not. The population is over 6 billion and growing. I found that environmental trends,global trends, and global perspectives shape our world today.along with industrialization will we ever be able to overcome our need to feed or will we ever find a global equilibrium? those are the question we face now in the present time what will you do in the future and how will you shape yours?
one minute paper 2/5
In todays class a few students talked about their emerging issues that they found and it was cool to see what everyone brought in. After that we watched a video on this instructor telling the story of the eastern islanders and how their society eventually would collapse because lack of resources for the growing population. Then we looked at this cartoon of the earths populatioin from 1 ad to 2020 and we saw the poplution sky rocket from about the 1990's to 2020. This brought up the discussion about the issue of our growing population and the abliltiy for us as a nation to care for all of our citizens.
Friday, February 1, 2008
Breaking the internet
"Fiber Optic Cable Cuts Isolate Millions From Internet, Future Cuts Likely"
by Ryan Singel, Threat Level (a Wired Blog), 31 January 02007
http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/01/fiber-optic-cab.html
Large swaths of the Middle East and Southeast Asia fell into internet darkness after two major underseas fiber optic links were damaged off Egypt's coast on Wednesday.
[...]
Telecoms in Egypt, India, Pakistan and Kuwait (among others) are scrambling to find other arrangements to carry their internet and long distance phone traffic.
Moving on to the next question that was asked, about why wireless doesn't simply replace this kind of cable, take a look at this picture:
It shows how ultra high-bandwidth, long-distance data delivery happens via "intercontinental fiber" while wireless spectrum is used to deliver locally to the user, what they call in the industry the "Last Mile".
Like I said, fibre-optic cables didn't go away, they just went underground. :)
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Minute Paper 1/31
When reading about how to be a futurist, i thought to myself that some main things you need are: common sense, imagination, and a good search engine. Talking about futures in class though, felt kinda like a discussion in philosophy, because you never know what could happen. The reason why "futures" has an 's' on the end instead of just "future". Also, talking about history and what if someone didn't start talking about, or writing about what happened in early life, what might have happened. Would we be in a linear world where we only know how to do one thing, or that the generations would make the same mistake over and over throughout life, would we then annihilate our race if someone hadn't made history possible?
Minute Paper 1/31
I found today’s discussion about how history has effected our perspective on the progression of time, and how that shift of perspective has resulted in a change in the way we view and approach the future very enlightening. Originally I interpreted the idea of how the Jewish people wrote the first history as being a result of these people experiencing limited change(s) in their lives. This, I thought, caused them to study their past, which would have seemed diverse in comparison to their present existences. Unfortunately I was missing the entire point of why we looked at “From Death to Life” in the first place. Professor Candy’s explanation, of why we read the article, outlined how the Jewish peoples’ creation of a written history made them rethink their cyclical view of time and adopt a linear model in which the future is unknown and constantly changing. This, in my opinion, brings up the question: if written history is in fact the main reason people began to look at time in a linear fashion, causing us to try to prepare for the unknown instead of believing we are simply going through known cycles, is it possible that it is also where more complex forms of society like towns and cities (both of which seem to generally be inhabited by people with linear outlooks on time) originated from, as an attempt to better protect ourselves or be prepared for the unknowns of futures?
Mark Alexander
minute paper 1/31/01
First off I think that bionic exoskeleton propulsion thing was sick as hell! I think UH should buy 10,000 of the prototype test suits for trial, testing and evaluation. With the idea of the long now, I think it's crazy to think we can even remotely predict what life will be like 10,000 years from now. With all the possible futures that we may be anticipating and all the possible forks in the road we will encounter with the rate of change at which the world has been accelerating, (especially with this bionic exoskeleton idea) the future will definitely be exciting to see. It's kind of crazy to think the future is already here as we communicate through cell phones, laptops and the numerous other innovations of technology that was originally thought of in comic books and sci fi movies/books and originally thought of to be ridiculous.
Re: 1 Minute paper 1/31/2008
I learned something new today the concept of counterfactuality, and its a type of thinking which is a,"would of could of" mentality. The actions that we make during our lives give us thoughts of what if i would have done it (it being an action) this way, or that way. Just as people talk about being at a fork in the road and which ever way they decide to go is up to that person and their choice. We as individuals each have a destiny and its different depending upon which way down the road we decide to go.
Andrew's Minute Paper 1/31
While the concept of a longer now does have great merit, especially in the context of encouraging forward thinking, the Long Now group seem to be taking it a little far. It seems to me that if the concept of the new were extended forward and back 10000 years, it further promotes one of the continuing problems I find in the promotion of futurism. Like a previous one, one of the readings for today again made the assertion that this concept the longer important time and future are at the expense of the present, which seems to me to be an over all hard to sell pitch. By telling someone that what matters is people 10000 years from now, it seems more likely to alienate them from the idea, rather than encourage it. One thing that really jumped out at me when I was doing the readings for today was a kind of funny connection to a sci-fi book I once read. In the reading, the point of putting off present sensation as the cost of better sensation in the future, reminding me of a line from that book in which humans are referenced as withstanding pain in anticipation of revenge.
As an unrelated note, I was really glad to find out other people seemed to be having the trouble of finding an emerging issue that hadn't already hit the mainstream.
Minute Paper 5 (1/31/08)
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minutemen #4 Jan3108
today we spoke about the concept of "futureS." It was really unexpected how philosophical the conversation became. I understood the idea behind the creation of "history", and thus the creation of the concept of "future," and I feel as though we, as individuals, can create alternative futures and thus creating a multitude of possibilities; but the idea of "creating" or having some control over our future is also a limiting state of mind. This is all a really broad concept, but I feel as though there would be some basic similarities in these concepts across cultural regions, based on each culture's belief system, morals, concept of what life really is, and "who" or "what" controls or does not control the fate of we as humans, spirits, or life energies.
it was interesting. sorry i was late.
virgi*
Minute Paper for January 31, 2008
I have to say the most intriguing portion of class was when the idea of counter factual thinking was introduced for it's something I do frequently, but have recently tried to avoid, thinking it would be considered dwelling in the past, which is frowned upon by many of my dearest friends. However, the whole idea of "what if" is difficult to not ponder because there are so many huge moments or little events that lead us to where we are and where we go. For instance, what if Britney Spears' aunt hadn't died? Would she be as unstable as she is today? Maybe not. Or what if Brad Pitt hadn't made Mr. and Mrs. Smith with Angelina Jolie? Would he have like a whole bunch of kids right now? Probably not. I like the idea of referencing the past to look towards the future as well. And the whole clock in a mountain thing is pretty interesting. I think I'm going to try and keep up with the development just to see the end product and how it affects people. Good class.
minute paper...
Everyday in this class, a new idea that i have never thought about is brought to my attention. before today, i sometimes ask "what if..." but it is not usually in the sense that was brought up in class. its very true, the whole notion of pluralism... if thats a word. thats how i would say it at least. sticking out in my mind from todays discussion is an image of the world, and then like a time line with at one end the beginning of agriculture and recorded history, and at the other end, some futures beings finding a clock in a mountain 10000 years from now. hopefully by then our society will not have self-destructed. right now is when we should be asking "what if" though... instead of looking back on mistakes (not that we can avoid some of them) we can look forward and play out as many of the infinite possibilities starting right now. every moment may be a pivotal point. we may not even realize it now... is there a way we can look holistically at say, all of time past present and futures all at once? perhaps in chunks is less overwhelming... i really like the idea of systematically diversifying ideas. systematic implies ordering and diversity is basically abundant differences. ordering different ideas to make more sense and give value to a variety of thoughts and opinions. how much healthier and happier would we be if we all had more open minds? i feel like the more diversity we have in everything, the more educated and aware we can be of our environment and ourselves... so as to better actively pursue creativity and... in a sense... alternativity?
one minute paper 1/31
Today in class we had a big discussion about emerging issues that have yet to hit the mainstream media. One student talked about this robotic vest that you wear and it reads your muscle senses and sort of helps you walk and move. I found that to be really interesting because i had yet to hear about that. Then we discussed the papers and talked about how it effected us as we read through it. Overall todays class was mostly a discussion about what were some emerging issues.
one minute paper 1/31
In todays class i found the topic about that outer shell thing pretty
interesting. I think that in the next couple of years that will become
a huge deal on the market because it can help with rehabilitation and
walking. One thing that i was sort of confused about was disscussion
about the mixing of the genes between animals and humans.
minute paper 1/31
I really enjoyed the discussions and content of todays class. I think one of the topics that really had my attention was the counterfactual thinking concept. It's amazing to actually realize some of the things in life that should or would have happened if it weren't for, mostly, minute incidences. I'm actually enjoying thinking about many of those times, and wondering "what if". I think it will help me learn to appreciate everyday decisions that could be life-altering. Another topic that struck my attention was how societies decide to thrive or fail. The Easter Island example was interesting because.... i knew of self-destructed civilizations, but i never really thought about them, or how they came to the point of self-destruction. The notion that self-destruction was a possibility for other civilizations, and very well is a possibility for our civilization, is very scary, but intriguing. Great class.
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Your emerging issue
This is a quick reminder of the exercise you're preparing for tomorrow's class.
On Tuesday we talked about the fact that society is changing must faster now than it once did.
Another way of speaking about this accelerating change process is to note, as we did in class, that novelties (as opposed to cycles or continuities) comprise a larger part of the "landscape of change" than in earlier eras. To clarify this using the landscape of change metaphor, as time goes by and we look around us as our world, those elements that seem to have always been there, we could call continuities (arguably, some features of "human nature" might be counted here). Those that we see regularly cropping up ("I've seen that before!") we could call cycles (such as swings between boom and bust in the economy, freedom and order in politics, or the regular procession of the seasons). The things we have not encountered before ("What the hell is that?") can be labelled novelties (for instance, to preliterate societies, writing was a novelty; to preindustrial culture, the steam engine came as a novelty).
All novelties have to start somewhere.
They begin very small. Then, as they get more attention, become more common, or more widely used, they reach a sort of saturation point. (Later on, they might drop off as other novelties enter the picture and replace them.)
One of the techniques of futures thinking is to try to identify novelties in their earliest stages (things at the left-hand end of the curve shown below, which depicts one way of evaluating the rise and fall of new innovations, technologies, trends, and so on).
The S-curve used in Emerging Issue AnalysisWildman & Inayatullah Image from metafuture.org
Your job is to try to identify and tell the class (very briefly -- less than a minute) about an Emerging Issue you've found which you think has potential to grow into a fully blown trend, and which -- if it did -- could be quite shocking or disruptive. And the challenge is to find something that no one else in the class has heard of. Tell us where it's starting, how you found it, and why you think it could be important.
Remember, if it's been in the mainstream media we've probably already heard of it (i.e., it's no longer an emerging issue -- it's a full-on phenomenon!) so you might try fringe communities, e.g., subcultures of sport, art, fashion, or thought. Maybe you're involved in one that could give you some ideas.
If you can't do it in time for this class, that's okay -- we'll be touching on this next Tuesday also.
Cheers,
Stuart
Minute Paper 1/29/08
Wow, today in class we really brought together a lot of the ideas that we had been hinting at all week. The whole concept of what it means to be future conscious is really important. I think what stood out to me the most was the idea that instead of creating strict rules or regulations about future planning, the point we instead seemed to get to was that it needs to be part of the individual. I believe that the readings bring that to light when talking about government. Democracy is good, but the candidates job is to get elected. They're trying to get the people behind them and what people today care about is advancing themselves and their country economically. In the end, if the people themselves don't take future planning to heart, then the government will not be stressed to deal with the issues that planning ahead beyond this generation or the next will bring.
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
ridiculousness
Today's class makes me excited to be alive in the time we all happened
to be born. The concept of this... exponential growth of the rate of
change in the world is something that has been brought to my attention
before. everyone in this class should watch the movie waking life. its
a good one. however, i have never thought about the issue quite like
this. i understand the need to "anticipate massive change." the idea of
useful statements needing to be ridiculous makes sense. but what i
can't wrap my head around is how there can be genuinely novel ideas yet
to be thought up. i feel like anything that is "new" these days is just
a cheap copy of something from the past... what is revolutionary
anymore? there is no way we can know what is going to happen next. all
i can do is keep an open mind, i guess. the phrase "surfing tsunamis of
change" is such a fantastic idea i think. surfing takes practice,
knowledge of waves... so what we should do for ourselves and our future
generations is be as conscious as possible of the waves of change
(whats going on in the world around us)... and practice being creative
and open minded. these ideas make me think for some strange reason
about childrens theatre, and art in school systems... the best way to
ensure a positive future is to instill creativity and a sense of
improvisation in the youngest generation...
lets practice ridiculousness with everyone around us? haha
minute paper 01/29
today at class, we discussed about the reading material we read before the class. There was 2 articles and they were both talking about looking at future and concerns for future generations.
I think I chose a very good class. Because I've been thinking of changing my major to PoliSci and I found out during the past class times that UH has very good future oriented political science program. When we were talking about the future, there was many ideas on what we need to do or what we can do. After hearing everything, I thought there isn't much we can do except trying our best to preserve the planet's resources and take steps in technological terms to make sure human race prevails. Even that technological way we decide to take for the future generation fails, we had good intention and Socrates said as long as the intention was good, it's better then not trying at all.
I wish we will get to talk about this subject more so I can think and reflect on it more.
-minho jeong-
Minute Paper 4 (1/29/08)
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Andrew's Minute Paper 1/29
One thing that particularly struck me both about the discussions in class today as well as the readings that were assigned was that the arguments for a futurist outlook focus entirely on the how of futurism, not the why. Because, while it is all well and good to state such things as "it is ethical to give a damn about the future" or "future generations are our conscience", such arguments aren't necessarily going to win over those whose overriding obsession is the now. One segment in particular from the reading caught my mind with regards to fore thinking. There was a section implying that the future generations might be entitled to more weight in decision making than present generation. While one might admit that helping the future is worth accomplishing, one might also question a belief that requires that to be at the expense of the present.
minute paper 01.29.08
Unfortunately today I was thirty minutes late to
class, so I missed the beginning of the discussion.
The part that I did hear, however, I found educational
and quite alarming. Novelties were defined today as
something disruptive that require radical change.
Based on the estimation that 80% of future experiences
would be novelties, I thought Prof. Stuart made a very
sound point when discussing our current educational
system and the idea that it may be a misplaced
investiment if the proposed estimation is true. It's a
very scarey thought. Also, the excerpt read from the
geology book about mother nature being 46 years old
really hit home and put it all in perspective. The
word "staggering" was used, and i can think of no
other word that better describes the radical changes
that mankind has undergone in the recent past. It's
even crazier to think that our generation is the very
first to experience first-hand all of mankinds major
technological advancements. In a sense we are
inevitbaly the guineapigs of the technological age. In
reference to the assingment we were given today, I
find it a lot harder than expected to think of new and
orignial ideas regarding the future. Hollywood images
and cliché concepts keep clouding my thoughts and
hindering my ability to come up with something
untainted by the opinions of others.
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Minute Paper 1/29
Today was the first class that I truly saw all of the ideas that we’ve been discussing separately in each class start to piece themselves together. Through the readings and the ensuing discussions we looked at how or current political systems approaches and quite often avoids the future, and how thru attempting to be better prepared for possible futures, we and our governments can at least give ourselves and generations to come a chance for a better future. Today’s class also helped me to better understand the full effect of our mental real estate in not only on how we view our future but also on how we are able to cope with the extreme changes that we have been living through. When I read the article “The future as a way of life” and how it addressed the concept of future shock, my first response was that I have never experienced this overwhelming shock/disorientation to the changes in this society that I grew up in. In this observation I found what I believe to be the answer to why my generation hasn’t experienced what I would roughly interpret as a “novelty adaptation puberty”. This is because most of us don’t really know any other type of society or patterns of change. In fact our mental real estate is comprised almost exclusively of ideas from this information society, meaning that we have not really experienced any change in our ways of life because these drastic changes are simple how things have always been for us.
Mark Alexander
I think thinkers that imagine the future and figure things, that we can do today, to make life as good as possible for future generations are the ones who keep hope alive. Humanity may or may not survive without people with foresight, but if humanity wants to continue without considerable suffering then we need to make a plan that will counter the actions of the past and present. We are currently on the course for probable extinction, and we wouldn't be going out alone. We would drag the majority of life with us.
One Minute Paper 1/29
In todays class we talked about planning for future generations. In my
opinion i dont think that we should really plan for future generations.
I think that we should worry about what is going on in this world in
our own generation. One thing that i was sort of confused about was
when you talked about how the people gave the percentages about the 3
subjects
Week 3 readings
A couple of notes about the reading for this week. Below are the bibliographical details for the readings we covered today.
Jan 29:
- Jim Dator, "Caring for future generations" [pdf], July 02007
And for Thursday, Jan 31:
- Stewart Brand, "Uses of the Future", [jpg], from The Clock of the Long Now: Time and Responsibility, Basic Books, New York, 01999, pp. 1:18-1:23.
- Thomas Cahill, excerpt from The Gifts of the Jews: How a Tribe of Desert Nomads Changed the Way Everyone Thinks and Feels, [jpg], Nan A. Talese/Anchor, New York, 01998, pp. 123-132.
- Jim Dator, "What Futures Studies Is, and Is Not" [doc]
- Jim Dator, "Aiglatson (To Be a Good Futurist)" [pdf], from "Futures Studies as Applied Knowledge", 01993, http://www.futures.hawaii.edu
I am sending these to you as a zipped folder attachment. Please remember to bring your hard copies to each session.
Keep those minute papers flowing in -- I'm interested to know what you all thought about today's class.
Cheers,
Stuart
Minute Paper 1/29
Today in class, we talked about future generations and futures. We also talked about the articles we were supposed to read for class. We do want the future generations to inherit the earth without it having any big problems. To be able to do this, we need to start solving the major problems that we have right now in our world. Future generations, whether it be people, animals, or whatever you want to look at, will be happier if we start to solve our problems now instead of when they are growing up.
The pace of change
Folks,
Here's the piece I read to you in class today to illustrate how quickly events around us are unfolding, especially when compared to geological time...
[W]e can depict Mother Earth as a lady of 46, if her “years” are megacenturies. The first seven of those years are wholly lost to the biographer, but the deeds of her later childhood are to be seen in old rocks in Greenland and South Africa. Like the human memory, the surface of our planet distorts the record, emphasising more recent events and letting the rest pass into vagueness – or at least into unimpressive joints in worn down mountain chains.
Most of what we recognise on Earth, including all substantial life, is the product of the past six years of the lady’s life. She flowered, literally, in her middle age. Her continents were quite bare of life until she was getting on for 42 and flowering plants did not appear until she was 45 – just one year ago. At that time the great reptiles, including the dinosaurs, were her pets and the break-up of the last supercontinent was in progress.
The dinosaurs passed away eight months ago, and the upstart mammals replaced them. In the middle of last week, in Africa, some man-like apes turned into ape-like men and at the weekend Mother Earth began shivering with the latest series of ice ages. Just over four hours have elapsed since a new species calling itself Homo Sapiens started chasing the other animals and in the last hour it has invented agriculture and settled down. A quarter of an hour ago, Moses led his people to safety across a crack in the Earth’s shell, and about five minutes later Jesus was preaching on a hill farther along the fault-line. Just one minute has passed, out of Mother Earth’s 46 “years”, since man began his industrial revolution, three human lifetimes ago. During that minute he has multiplied his numbers and his skills prodigiously and ransacked the planet for metal and fuel.
(From p. 11 of Restless Earth, a geology textbook by Nigel Calder published in 01972.)
one minute paper 1/29
Today in class we went over the readings and we discussed weather or not it was good to prepare for future generations. Weather we should be encouraged to help our childrens childrens lives be better or should we focus on the problems that we have in the present. In my opinion i feel that we first need to figure out the problems that face our society now before we can move towards the future and help the future generations. I enjoyed todays class and it was fun to see how people viewed this topic
Minute Paper 1/29/08
I thought today's discussion on caring for our future generations covered a lot of interesting points. Some of the readings did bring up some good points, but I think in general most of the readings were more focused on the vast changes that mankind is experiencing now. It is true that technology is reinventing itself so often that even a 3 year old computer is considered old as many programs are constantly upgrading. It has only been 13 years since the world wide web was accessible to most people and now the internet is used globally by everyone for almost anything. If you really think about it, it is really scary to imagine the possible role the internet or advanced technology will play in the future as humans won't be needed for various types of jobs. I also thought the percentages of the novelties, continuities, and cycles were explained very well in terms of what the future will be like.
Paula
minute paper 1/29/08
Both of the articles we read and discussed in class today brought up the issue that we(mankind) have an obligation to look at the potential problems of the future in order to implement resolutions today that may (as we see it) help out our children tomorrow. This demand to implement sustainability for our children is a recent phenomenon as the industrial revolution and technology have driven such change in such a short amount of time. For thousands of years mankind has seen little change (until the last 100 years) and there was no need to think outside the box because things were so constant with little to no change.
Re: 1 Minute paper 1/29/2008
Mario Hernandez <mariohernand@pacbell.net> wrote:
WHAT UP EVERYBODY i felt that all the articles focused on the same idea, that the future is coming and we have to do something that will allow future generations to live in a world that has been sculpted by previous lives. Tofflers article about the "future shock" was by my opinion the most informational he actually predicted some thing that did not exist in 1970. For example he spoke of the computer programmer soon being as absolete as the black smith. Which unfortunately is very true, for our country is now outsourcing to other countries for less wage laborers. And how our society has gone from precivilized, to civilized, to "post civilized". Toffler also spoke of our generation to be that of the "second industrial revolution". What was the most intriguing was when he talk about human brains being "plugged in" which is, i think not to far away, we have already uncovered the human genenome allowing us to create ourselves without fear of irregularities. All the articles made points about what kind of future we want so what kind do you want?
29January Mintue paper
Think about the future is a little scary at times. But it does have to
be thought about and something does have to be done.I think that we
should learn more about the futures, but not eliminate learning about
our history either.Because history does repeat itself. Also the paper
by Toffer, was dated but it also had good points. One reason i dont
think we notice the future shock as he called it is because we do not
know anything else. We are living it , and not taught anything
differnt. I dont remeber who said it, but i agree with him who said we
are not affect by the future shock. We could be, but we arent, we dont
know any thing different to be effected by it. Thanks.
Friday, January 25, 2008
minute paper 1-24-08
Like i said before, i think Al Gore's documentary "An Inconvenient Truth," is responsible for all of this mental real estate in our heads. The issue of global warming and sustainability was not thought of by him. He just put his ugly mug on the issue which had been around for decades. I bet he wishes he would have focused all of his efforts on the issue back in 2000 when he lost the election. Al Gore is not a scientist, but he sure plays one in his move, he is a jounalist. However, he is responsible for this mental estate, after all he did get a lot of publicity for this one, such as winning a pulitzer and the nobel prize, and was all over T.V. the radio and newspapers. I feel that he's taking credit for this one like he took credit for inventing the internet.
Re: 1 Minute paper 1/24/2008
Today was really great I thought everones 2038 predictions were great especially robotic futures thats my favorite. I also felt good about the people who metioned California in their papers. The truth of the matter is this though Global warming, Fossil fuels,and politics are rising concerns for our society. And I heard all of these things metioned in the papers today. Mainly Fossil fuels,Oil prices are rising and the future of gasoline powered cars
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Minute Paper for January 24, 2008
Yeah today went the way I was hoping it wouldn't go. Public speaking is nerve racking, especially when sharing your imaginative side. However, I got through it all in one piece. So about the community papers, they were pretty cool. Actually, Andrew's metaphoric paper about "the hive" was quite intriguing, though I must say I wasn't really able to interpret it too well. Otherwise, most papers were about the same pattern, little change, huge change, and economically aware ideas (my favorite part!). Honestly, I have to say, I have NO IDEA what type of order Mr. Candy had those papers in. I mean I thought I did until I heard the paper of the young lady that read after me. Oh, and last note, Nicole's paper worried me, seemed to fit well with humans tendency to be self-destructive, plus global warming. All in all, the class is full of a bunch of brilliant minds!
ch-ch-ch-ch-changes
Out of the many different projections of the future today, i would like to comment on the prevalence of robots in our future lives. many of us mentioned robots in a few different positions in society. To quote Mario, "can i borrow your robot?" that makes me chuckle a fantastic chuckle. Also, someone mention that we could employ our homeless to fix the robots for us. i don't know where homeless people suddenly found computer engineering skills but i am impressed with the bums of the future. i just want to give a frank *right on* to the skilled homeless people. everyone loves a dude with skills. robots in a few stories actually replaced spaces that people take up now. this possibility makes me quite nervous. this has happened in the industrial world already with computerized assembly lines and everything... but to ask a computer to make a meal for me past putting ingredients in a bread maker, makes me sad that everyday life continues to become more and more impersonal. another part of today that i enjoyed was listening to quite the extended metaphor based on a bee hive. thats such a wonderful and creative way of looking at society. everyone has there part and we move in swarms and generally are working for a common goal. i am sure the comparison has been made before but then again, what idea that any of us spoke of today was genuinely original. someone mentioned individuality, and its importance in the lives of people in our culture. i feel like individual expression is necessary for me to be happy, but i begin to wonder if anyone will actually come up with something new at any point in the future. everything we do has been done before. finally, with all these endless possibilities, who's to say that any one is negative or positive? can the fact that anything is possible just be accepted as differences instead of flaws or nice features? a grim future in your eyes may be an ideal future for another. either way, i am not sure what order the papers were in today. i had a great time listening to all the points of view though!
Minute Paper 1/24
Today's class showed that people have some of the same ideas on how the future will look like. A lot of people talked about the future being powered with hydrogen and some people had the idea that we won't have flying cars in the future, I on the other hand did say that we would have flying cars. People did have some interesting ideas on how the future will be and i hope that the next 30 years turn out to improve our world and that our generation will help in improving and protecting this world.
1-24-2008 Future Com.
For most of us our future communities are directly tied to our outlook on our own personal lives. One thing I highly notice from the papers is that most everyone in corporate high technological advances or the negative outlooks on our environmental and overall “personal” lives. Why is it that we envision robots and tools that will do all our work for us in less than 30years, is that what we truly want our futures to be like? I feel that if all these assumptions were true a major part of who we are as humans would be endangered. Our minds would ultimately change and so would the way of everyday “thinking”. For example; cooking your own meals, doing your own shopping or chores as well as many other day to day tasks that are good for us in many ways. I am not saying that all the idea and predictions are not possible because it could be but I do feel that being the future generation we are also the customers of these technological goods it is our choice to purchase and endure ourselves in it. So essentially it’s our call in the end.
Andrew's Minute Paper 1/24
As soon as I stepped into the classroom today, I could already see where this class was going to go. When I saw the chair up front again, I knew we were going to have to read our second paper in class. And then I got nervous. I had chosen what could be considered a somewhat nonstandard format for my paper. And as I had suspected, my format for the paper, that of an anthropologist who was not of the society being observed, turned out to be fairly far from the rest of the class. As far as the order for this set of papers, a few possible progressions occurred to me. The first that I noticed had to do with the view of environmental issues. It seemed to me that the papers presented earlier showed a more environmentally devastated world, while the later ones seemed to have solved in some way the environmental question.
Minute Paper # 3 (1/24/08)
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minute paper [1/24]
Today's class was..different. I wasn't expecting to read aloud my thoughts about my community in the future. I did enjoy listening to everyone's papers, though. From flying cars, to robot maids, to Hives and nourishment pills..they were all fun/weird to think about!
Everyone's ideas were so different, yet had things in common. For example, lots of people talked about how the environment would be shot to hell in 2038. I can't help but think that if all of us picture a polluted, destroyed earth in the future, why aren't we doing more to stop what we think is inevitable? Maybe we think there is nothing we can do.. but I think we can change our ways and help clean up and save the earth. I really liked the last student's paper, where he described the earth as clean and safe and better than ever. That's a really great, optimistic view on the future that more of us should probably have.
minutemen#3 jan2408
today in class we read our community02038 papers. I, once again, thought all of the essays were really fun to listen to. In relation to mental real estate, its obvious that terms/ideas such as global warming, go green, recycle, and hydrogen powered vehicles have really niched a mark on all our brains, and have become one of the commonalities between most of the groups of papers. I think it's interesting to think that theories, such as global warming, is being taken as something that is definitely happening, rather than being seen as a theory of was could occur. And in a way, the idea of global warming will always win because if global warming does not progress as it is thought to continue, then it will seem to prove as though we, the human race, have actually made the difference; when there could have been no problem at all. A possibility....
On another note, I once again thought the papers we ordered in range of scope, from the more narrow to the wide range.
Minute Paper 1/24
Although everyone’s essays illustrated varied ideas on what our communities may be like in the year 2028, there where many recurring concepts from the “Day in My Life” essay and today’s readings that stood out to me. Whether with a pessimistic or optimistic outlook, global warming and other environmental issues where present in close to every essay. This along with a lesser emphasis on the financial conditions led to many speculations on how our world will be powered, which included solar, hydrogen, dams, and even wind. There where also many statements made on our communities achieving harmony and even a few mentions of a singular world nation. In my opinion neither of these are remotely possible in a mere thirty years, when our current day countries can’t even come to basic agreements or keep promises, and if you have had a sibling on a soccer team, it is painfully obvious how easily a harmonious community can become fraught with conflict. There was also a heavy emphasis on an increasingly powerful government, which, depending on the essay, could have been in relation to the food we eat, the cars we drive, the ideals that are taught to our children, and how we use our resources with the occasionally disturbingly Marxist concepts like a government run healthcare system and even assigned jobs being mentioned. Personally I think Virginia summed up the most prevalent point throughout today’s essays, in her description of a world where we are slowly losing our freedoms, with our governments or other powerful groups easing them away from us under the disguise of a well meaning big brother.
Mark Alexander
minute paper.01/24
Today at class, We were ask to read our 'my community in 2038' papers. I was bit nervous at first because I didn't know if i wrote my paper properly or not. When I was reading it, I felt much better but I felt like I should have checked my paper double times to check for grammatical errors. In my paper, I described future world that was devastated by global warming and everyone was having little harder time then now. That is how I honestly felt when I was asked to imagine future 30 years from now. When Stuart told people who missed class on tuesday to reflect this on the things we learned last Tuesday I was thinking, 'Why do I think the world is going to mess up like that?' and I thought It's because of the Mental Estate in my brain that Hollywood movies have bought from me. It was weird. To think that movies and books can influence my imaginations and stuff like that. Mental Estate is powerful thing. So I think the hollywood people should use it to make people better by making movies that touches the heart. It was really fun to hear other people's papers because half the class thought that world will be worse place in 30years and other half thought that the world will be a better place in 30 years. I honestly thought that optimistic view on future sounded really good. and I thought I should have take the optimistic path to write my paper.
Minute Paper 1/24/08
Today in class I thought the ideas expressed were more broad than the last set of papers. I think that because we were forced to think about the world or "community" we basically had to make a choice about the positive or negative future that we may one day live in. Many people stated in their papers that clearly there was no way to know or predict the future, but everyone either decided that the future was going to be a better place because mankind recognized its faults and corrected them, or failed to do so resulting in a world that was faced with change because of the degradation of the planet. That's my take on how the papers were organized, I did make note that many people believe that we are going to experience a major change in environment due to global warming. That seemed to come up in over half the essays.
minute paper 01.24.08
After hearing todays papers I thought it was much more
difficult to figure out the order than it was on
Tuesday. Although in the beginning there were a couple
of stories that suggested all countries would unite
under one nation, it seemed as though the outlooks got
more and more optimisitc as we neared the end of the
papers, with Nick's having the brightest outlook. Once
again, global warming was a major theme that reoccured
through out many of the papers, and i find it
promising and encouraging that so many people in our
generation view it as a real threat and serious issue.
Many of the papers mentioned eco-friendly ideas, which
i also noticed in the papers read on tuesday. Although
i didn't mention the growth of industrialization in my
paper, i found it curious that it was only mentioned
in one paper when it plays such a large role on a
global scale. I'm glad that Lea brought it up and gave
us all a glimpse of a possible future for the islands.
Its a scary one, but one that i dont believe is that
farfetched, and it was good to be reminded that that
possibility exists.
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minute paper #3 jan 24
I really enjoy hearing what people see the future as. Some see it as a
happy place and others as a unhappy place. I think that is how they
were sorted out today. The more dark futures were first and the happier
ones last. I like to see the future bring good rather then bad. Because
if you think that something bad is going to happen just as the
predictions and so on say will happen, then it actualy might. Like if
you get your fortune told, and it says you are going to get your dream
job. Then you are more set on finding it, becasue it must happen. Or if
you get a bad fortune like your boyfriend and you will break up, its
more prone to happen becasue you think about it. Okay i dont know if
that is exactly what class was but just my take on the futures.
one minute paper 1/24
Today's class was a lot like Tuesday's class. I really enjoyed hearing about what others thought our community would be like in the year 2038. There was a lot of creative ideas, and it was interesting to see how people would view the world. The worry about Global warming was found in many papers and I found that to be interesting. Also, the banishment of gasoline, and the most interesting similiarty in all the papers, was that many thought that our world would join as one, and be lead by one United Nation. I found that to be very interesting, and again like Tuesdays class i really enjoyed hearing others opinions on the world in the year 2038
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
wahoo--the FUTURE
soo... about todays class period. i want to apologize for going over class time. i was also really nervous about reading aloud. i believe the progression of papers read was from least mentioned change to most noticeable from today until then. perhaps some things about the world change in the earliest read papers but it wasn't remarked upon. its fascinating to see what everyone did with the opportunity to sort of write about whatever we wanted. i was hoping for some crazy, morbid, post-apocalyptic fantasies but for the most part it was very mild compared to today. the exciting part is that who's to say anyone of our projected futures isn't exactly how it is going to be. i am looking forward to next time and our next assignment!
Minute Paper 1/22/08
Today in class we all read our accounts of what we thought the future thirty years from now would hold for us. It appeared to me, that the first people that went viewed things through the eyes of someone living in a world that had changed but not drastically. As the readings progressed it appeared that more and more of the people reading felt that the world would undergo more radical changes be it either through technology or through changes brought about by war or other things which damaged the Earth. This was an interesting way to show that when people look at the future and try to predict what it holds, there are many different ideas that are stressed. Some took a close look at their family lives while others postulated more on other aspects of daily life. Quite an interesting idea to have everyone read their papers, but I will say that it was nerve racking and that I could have done without having to read what I wrote so unexpectedly.
To the class I will say this, great job on your papers and I believe everyone who read had something different and interesting to contribute. Some made me laugh, others made me sit back and think, while others gave me a great understanding of who some of you are as people in terms of your values, dreams, and attitudes towards life. Great job everyone!
Minute Paper for January 22, 2008
Todays class was pretty chill, we pretty much just read our "A Day in My Life in 2038" papers. It was interesting how advanced some people think we'll be in 30 years. Hannah's poetic, "Waterworld" like paper was pretty nice. And Adam's paper was the most interesting. Actually a question on his piece, did 80% of the population die or become walking dead like in "Resident Evil: Extinction?" Also, I wouldn't mind hearing about what Mr. Candy thinks the world will be like 30 years from now. I thought it quite charming that most of the class had their ideal family mapped out and I like how detailed Virginia got with her simplistic fashion world. The part that most pleased me was that I noticed most of the class was concerned about a huge issue in the world right now, global warming. Basically, the class was great. Awesome creative minds at work.
Re: 1 Minute paper 1/22/2008
I feel that everyone that predicted robots being within the near future were enlighten i mean within the last 60 years the ingenuity of our minds have created some of the most complexed machines imaginable. And each generation is getting smarter and smarter, so another thirty years. robots aren't that far away they already have Asimov, one of the first robots with the likeness of a human. so keep a look out.
minutemen #2 jan2208
Iʻm really happy we decided to read all of the papers in front of each other today. yeah, it was really awkward, but it was nice to hear everyoneʻs personalities come out. I noticed that the papers progressed from a narrowed scope of what "my life in 02038" would be, to a wide exposure of what oneʻs life would be. I like that we did that. Teachers are usually the only ones that get to read all the goods. thanks, virgi
Andrew's Minute Paper 1/22
Much to my own surprise, I find that I actually enjoyed today's class. When I heard that we were going to be reading our first papers aloud in class, I started to get nervous. Truth be told, I am not much of a fan of public speaking. I began to worry that, either by the format I had chosen for my paper, or the content of my supposed future, I would come across as weird. However, I was relieved to discover that everyone's papers were a little odd. Looking over the sequence of the papers as they were presented in class, I saw two possible reasons for that arrangement. One possible factor was that, for the most part, the papers seemed to go from a more positive future through many neutral futures into some somewhat grim futures. The other possible factor determining the sequence that stood out to me was the format, with the earlier ones being closer to an essay format, and the later ones leaning more and more towards the narrative.
Minute Paper
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Minute Paper 1/22
In my opinion today's essays where arranged in order of their scope in regards to our outlook on the world in the future, going from the most individually focused to looking at our lives in relation to the changes in our future world. I also noted a marked influence of our mental real estate on how each of us approached portraying the future. Whether intentional or not the political, technological, economical, and environmental concepts that where touched on in each essay showed the heavy influence of films, written word, politicians, and the ideas and discoveries of our current day scientists.
Minute Paper 1/22/08
I thought today's class was really interesting and the exercise did bring everyone to be more comfortable with each other. It was interesting to hear other people's ideas of what the future will be like. I liked the ideas of some students in which they hope to make the world a better place for everyone. I also thought that the idea of a plague or a contamination of some deadly disease that wiped out most of the population was interesting as well. Overall, I thought that each students' paper had some uniqueness to it all. This discussion or the exercise we practiced in class today, was an eye opener in seeing people's different ideas.
Paula Kawajiri
minute paper 1/22
Today's class was a unique way of looking at the future in which we all share. I found it interesting that so many people incorporate such high level technology into the next thirty years, personally I don't think society is ready for such a large step so abruptly; like having robot maids or self driving cars. Also, I feel like because we assume these things and desire them that society will continue to relie on better and more advanced things eventually dominating mankind. This can also be related to the two articles from last class because it shows what our society continuously focuses on and the strive for better things. I can only hope that these things wont happen in my lifetime.
Melissa Ginn (via email)
Minute paper #2
Class was intersting today. It was cool to see how everyone saw the
future and how they thought it would be. Like if they would have kids
or what would happen. It was cool to here some of the boys talk about
all the kids they would have. And how some others had creative stories
such as the pirate idea. It was cool .
minute paper 1-22-08
Todays class was interesting with the wide array of interpretations of the topic. I thought that the class progression went from a more steady/no change perspective, to a radical need for change due to certain issues such as global warming, and water shortages/sustainability. And I hate to say it, but I think that this common idea orginates from Al Gores Documentary "An Incovenient Truth." Nonetheless I enjoyed the miracle machines,and robots that people were describing.
1-22 minute paper
I thought it was great to hear everyones' papers today in class. It was interesting to hear everyones' perceptions on how the future might be, as well as where everyone sees themselves in 30 years. I thought that the order of the papers was something along the lines of how much things had changed within the 30 years. I noticed at first, most of the papers were about a normal day with family and at work, and as the papers progressed, they became more futuristic. I also noted that the papers that were read in close proximity to each other had some things in common... which related back to the "tragedy of the commons" discussion we had last class. Very interesting to see that actually pan out in the papers.
minute paper 01.22.08
today in class i really enjoyed hearing everyone's
papers, although at first i was quite apprehensive. it
was very interesting to hear what kind of expectations
and imaginative ideas people store in their minds for
the future. I know not everyone wrote their papers
from a realistic point of view, but the ideas were
captivating nonetheless. There were quite a few
reoccuring themes that caught my attention, which i
thought clearly illustrated a commons of the mind. For
instance, hydrogen cars, global warming, and
computerized agents such as robots. Of all the
different types of cars that are possibilities for the
future, hydrogen cars were mentioned at least five
times. It also seemed that the papers were arranged in
order of least change to most change, change meaning
anything from technology to environmental changes. All
in all I took much pleasure in hearing everyone's
stories and the many different scenarios that are
possible for the future.
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One Minute Paper 1/22
Todays class was very interesting to hear all of the stories that
people wrote and to hear their creativity. The papers were read in
order from the least futuristic to the most. Some of the information
could have came from what media has been talking about but other info
was totally made up from the peoples creativity.
one minute paper 1/22
Today was a very interesting class, we got to hear what people thought their lives would be like in the year 2038. I really enjoyed what everyone had to say and everyones style seemed to be so unique in their own way. Prof. Stuart, said that he put the papers in order, but he would not tell us what the order was. I thought that the papers got more futuristic as they went on. In conclusion, todays class was very fun and interesting at the same time.