Optimism

"Futurism tells us more about the present than the future" --@mattwridley nails it

Optimistic really ought to be a verb It's something you *do*, not some property you happen to possess. Sometimes it's easy to do, and sometimes it's darned hard, requiring imagination & determination

Chatting with @camwiese today about his New World's Fair (which hopes to paint an optimistic, definite vision of the future), I noticed how these projects so often turn to *retro*futurism in art direction. What would a now-rooted, forward-facing hopepunk aesthetic look like?

The most important technologies that no one is working on are optimism and beautiful visions of the future. A belief in technological progress must include giving people places and futures worth believing in. It doesn't come for free.