The uses of speculation and how we approach the concept of futures.

b1nman

What is the legacy of our role in this particular time and place and what shape will society take in 25, 50 or a hundred years due to the actions and decisions we make today? What impact do we have on a potential and speculated society? How as individuals do we foresee our role in the everyday lives of a future society in which we may no longer be present?

"If we have learned one thing from the history of invention and discovery it is that in the long run – and often in the short one – the most daring prophecies seem laughably conservative"

Arthur C. Clarke

Speculation has uses beyond sheer fiction, we forecast the short term everyday in preparation for the following moment but our predictions can never truly be accurate. Our predictions can however be inaccurate in a very interesting way, how we speculate currently in the present moment characterises who we are and what we believe more than any other archival text could ever represent. Our aspirations and our interpretations of what is possible define who we are here and now more so than what we believe we know about our present moment, just look at classic science fiction texts and the fact that no matter how imaginative and intricate they were conceptualy they just couldn’t shake certain social bias and perspective of there own time. No how matter how advanced the supercomputer or anti-gravity system described in these stories were certain aspects of the time the tales where written in persist like the archetypal lead male or the Nuclear Family.

Discuss.

Priori

b1nman wrote: »

Discuss.

A bit peremtory. Is this an exam?

b1nman wrote: »

Our aspirations and our interpretations of what is possible define who we are here and now more so than what we believe we know about our present moment

This is an interesting point. I'm not convinced however that they define us more so than what we believe we know about our present moment. Can you give an example of this (more specific than "social bias")?

I would imagine a figure like Leonardo might make a good focal point for discussion, due to his historic importance and admirable attempts to see beyond his own time. Do his inventions/predictions of what was possible tell us more about him than the things he knew, there and then? They may tell us a lot, but consider this scenario: Leonardo is concentrating in a "present moment" back in 1510, teaching himself of the anatomy of the arm and the movements made by the biceps:



This tells us an amazing amount about his unquenchable thirst for knowledge, the empirical methods he used (which were very rare for that time), his attention to detail, and the pain he went through to understand/depict the human being in as complete and comprehensive a manner as possible.

Learning about Leonardo on the basis of what he may have predicted I believe hinges on "what he knew about [his] present moment". It may supplement considerably and build upon such knowledge, but ultimately I believe what Leonardo thought he knew about his present moment defines him more than anything else. Everything else he did was derived from this.