possibility studies

As these stories ripple out through the culture, the imaginary futures they portray influence the world we build for ourselves

Curiosity, we argue, is a capacity to connect—to build knowledge networks. Curiosity builds relationships between pieces of knowledge as much as between the people who want to know them. For this reason, we characterize curiosity as “edgework”—constantly laying down relationships between ideas, experiences, concepts, and objects in the world.

Curiosity and possibility are typically subject to a novelty bias. People commonly conceptualize possibility as a harbinger of the new. What is old is already actualized; what is new is merely possible. Similarly, curiosity is thought, among scholars and lay people alike, to be piqued by and to produce the new. Repeatedly, across multiple fields

Becoming aware of what is possible and comparatively assessing various possibilities goes beyond cognitive – or, for that matter, neurological – processes. The possible is not merely a mental representation or way of processing information; it involves the entire being and it especially has a strong motivational and emotional dynamic.

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

So I think we should turn back and pay attention to these fuckers. Use their infrastructure to release information about exactly what these people are doing and how. I think we should take our potential futures back.

They also follow a narrative structure in which choices and opportunities are rendered intelligible by placing them within wider stories of who we are and who we are becoming.

societies that become too specialised, or too optimised in a particular way, are likely to struggle when conditions change. That is just as true if they seem to be doing well, since history never stands still. In this sense, imagination is functional rather than a luxury. It generates possibilities and keeps them alive.

Throughout my career, I’ve learned that with the right mix of determination, focus and patience, change is possible. World-weary realism often turns out to be extraordinarily unrealistic.