tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27290920.post8787743582949512504..comments2024-01-06T03:54:46.267-05:00Comments on the sceptical futuryst: Branching possibilities in BerlinStuart Candyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11847397597090443677noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27290920.post-65060639360543767292007-07-11T03:58:00.000-04:002007-07-11T03:58:00.000-04:00Sean, Geert -- thanks very much for stopping by!Se...Sean, Geert -- thanks very much for stopping by!<BR/><BR/>Sean, I'd be especially interested to hear the results of your reflection on this. Futures epistemology is really tricky, I think, not necessarily because it's complicated per se (grasping the value of creative hypotheticals in a realm where facts don't exist is fairly straightforward, if you're prepared to hear out the arguments). No, it seems to me the hard part is in contemplating the renovation of our philosophical assumptions on a large -- i.e. culture-wide -- scale. To folks who (understandably) have not had the opportunity, or resisted the temptation, to go deep into philosophy -- and I'd say they have a clear majority -- the concept of "futures epistemology" would probably be bound to seem abstract and self-indulgently theoretical. But we all have one, and I think it makes a big difference to how we behave (e.g. economically and politically, in terms of the range of possibilities that we're prepared to entertain for a given organisation, or polity).<BR/><BR/>So, it seems to me that a useful strategy for addressing its usual shortcomings on this larger scale may be to communicate through art, storytelling, media, and so on; using the valuable insights, but not the ponderous language, of theory. Indeed, I gathered from our EGS prof Sandy Stone that this is more or less why she resists the pressure to publish reams of academic papers, instead being content to "perform her theory" in her life, in all kinds of other ways...Stuart Candyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11847397597090443677noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27290920.post-90234427159268727562007-07-02T08:05:00.000-04:002007-07-02T08:05:00.000-04:00One could ask: what's wrong with cutting a few tre...One could ask: what's wrong with cutting a few trees when they are replaced by new ones anyway? The point here is urban aesthetics and pleasure of lush green environments. It takes anywhere near 50-70 years for a tree to reach its 'mature' lushness stage. People from the sub-tropics often do not understand the fuzz around cutting trees, specially when they are replaced. In colder climates it basically takes a lifetime to enjoy the shade of a tree when it rains, for instance. So it is really questionable whether even the next generation will fully enjoy the new tress along the Landswehrkanal (which indeed is very beautiful right now). Here in Amsterdam we have to time and again suffer big tree losses.Geerthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03017410690756589843noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27290920.post-17992767900207912882007-07-01T08:16:00.000-04:002007-07-01T08:16:00.000-04:00Great question Stuart. And I don't have an answer ...Great question Stuart. And I don't have an answer right now, but will think on it. That said, I think that's why it was important in your postcards piece that you presented *several* sets of future imagery. By doing so, you made no claims to "truth" but rather forced the viewer to trace the paths that would be required to get to each future, compare one to the next, and ask which one might be most plausible. And I think that dramatic imagery can shock a viewer into doing just that.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com