Dave Farber
2018-10-10 02:45:47 UTC
Subject: Sci-Fi and Innovation
Date: October 7, 2018 22:01:28 JST
Dave - I thought you & the list might be interested in this spirited essay at Fast Company by Lee Vinsel.
âââââââ-
Recently, Iâve heard several people suggest that a lack-of-positive-futures, or optimistic visions of tomorrow, have hampered advances in science and technology and society. This idea builds on well-known gripes about supposed deficits in recent technological progress. As billionaire vampire Peter Thiel put it, âWe wanted flying cars, instead we got 140 characters.â
The conceptâcall it the lack-of-positive-futures hypothesisâsuggests that one reason technology hasnât improved is that we have become too pessimistic, that we have been watching too much apocalyptic zombies-slash-climate-change-destroy-the-world porno, that we are strapped for optimistic scenarios, which we could use to build a better world.
Problems with the lack-of-positive-futures hypothesis became clear to me when I heard someone describe the founding of the Center for Science and the Imagination at Arizona State University (ASU). The story went like this <https://worldpolicy.org/2011/09/27/innovation-starvation/>: One day, science fiction author Neal Stephenson gave a talk at a conference called Future Tense. Stephenson was complaining about howâââwhen compared to things like the Apollo Program of the 1960s and 1970sâââwe have become a people who fail, in his words, to âGet Big Stuff Done.â Another speaker, ASU president Michael Crow told Stephenson, âYouâre the ones whoâve been slacking off!â
In other words, the bottleneck in technological progress is science fiction writers.
And, thus, in 2011, began the Center for Science and the Imagination <https://csi.asu.edu/>(CSI).
(snip)
https://amp.fastcompany.com/90247038/sorry-but-we-cant-fantasize-our-way-out-of-this-mess <https://amp.fastcompany.com/90247038/sorry-but-we-cant-fantasize-our-way-out-of-this-mess?__twitter_impression=true>
-------------------------------------------Date: October 7, 2018 22:01:28 JST
Dave - I thought you & the list might be interested in this spirited essay at Fast Company by Lee Vinsel.
âââââââ-
Recently, Iâve heard several people suggest that a lack-of-positive-futures, or optimistic visions of tomorrow, have hampered advances in science and technology and society. This idea builds on well-known gripes about supposed deficits in recent technological progress. As billionaire vampire Peter Thiel put it, âWe wanted flying cars, instead we got 140 characters.â
The conceptâcall it the lack-of-positive-futures hypothesisâsuggests that one reason technology hasnât improved is that we have become too pessimistic, that we have been watching too much apocalyptic zombies-slash-climate-change-destroy-the-world porno, that we are strapped for optimistic scenarios, which we could use to build a better world.
Problems with the lack-of-positive-futures hypothesis became clear to me when I heard someone describe the founding of the Center for Science and the Imagination at Arizona State University (ASU). The story went like this <https://worldpolicy.org/2011/09/27/innovation-starvation/>: One day, science fiction author Neal Stephenson gave a talk at a conference called Future Tense. Stephenson was complaining about howâââwhen compared to things like the Apollo Program of the 1960s and 1970sâââwe have become a people who fail, in his words, to âGet Big Stuff Done.â Another speaker, ASU president Michael Crow told Stephenson, âYouâre the ones whoâve been slacking off!â
In other words, the bottleneck in technological progress is science fiction writers.
And, thus, in 2011, began the Center for Science and the Imagination <https://csi.asu.edu/>(CSI).
(snip)
https://amp.fastcompany.com/90247038/sorry-but-we-cant-fantasize-our-way-out-of-this-mess <https://amp.fastcompany.com/90247038/sorry-but-we-cant-fantasize-our-way-out-of-this-mess?__twitter_impression=true>
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