possibility studies
As these stories ripple out through the culture, the imaginary futures they portray influence the world we build for ourselves
Eliot Peper • The Possibility Engine
Without curiosity, the space of the adjacent possible would exist but remain unplumbed and inactive. Curiosity then opens up adjacent possibilities, whether that means new nodes and edges or the reformulation of existing nodes and edges (and ultimately of the network itself).
Perry Zurn, Dani S. Bassett • Curiosity and Networks of Possibility
In order to see more diverse possibilities in the world around us, one needs to widen the lens of perception, and imagining multiple futures attribute to that. When we imagine more, when we explore multiple futures, we perceive more in the present.
Loes Damhof • Imagining the Impossible: An Act of Radical Hope
Real possibility, however, is a potentiality that is live precisely because it is rooted in the material here and now (unlike either faux or formal possibilities). Importantly, real possibility can open onto the past just as much as onto the future. The present has the potential to be curiously disrupted along both its edges: the “forward-dawning”
... See morePerry Zurn, Dani S. Bassett • Curiosity and Networks of Possibility
Collectively, these four forms of the possible (i.e. new node, new edge, changed node, changed edge) in network science are studied under the notion of the adjacent possible (Björneborn, 2020). The term “adjacent possible” refers to the fact that what is possible is what is adjacent to what exists. What is impossible is what is not adjacent to what
... See morePerry Zurn, Dani S. Bassett • Curiosity and Networks of Possibility
While scientific progress, then, proceeds by curiously exploring adjacent possibilities, preference is given to work closely tied to existing science and conducted by a privileged subset of scientists.
Perry Zurn, Dani S. Bassett • Curiosity and Networks of Possibility
The way the future is imagined is inherently selective, because the future is inherently unknowable. Anything could happen, so the things we choose to imagine must necessarily be a subset of what is possible. Given this fact, it is important to carefully consider who gets to be involved in the act of imagination, and which ontological and
... See moreCassie Robinson • Imagination Infrastructure - what do we mean?
Most germane for our purposes, knowledge, too, can be analyzed as a network. In this case, nodes can be pieces of information, or experiences, or words, or knowers themselves, while the edges can be the relationships between those pieces of information, those experiences, words, or knowers.
Perry Zurn, Dani S. Bassett • Curiosity and Networks of Possibility
Like any currency of value, the human imagination is a coin with two inseparable sides. It is our faculty of fancy that fills the disquieting gaps of the unknown with the tranquilizing certitudes of myth and superstition, that points to magic and witchcraft when common sense and reason fail to unveil causality. But that selfsame faculty is also... See more