possibility studies
“The best way to be superhuman is to do things that you love with other people who love them, too.” - Cory Doctorow, Walkaway
WORLDBUILDING: Multiplayer collaging the future
Large majorities of parents expect their children to be worse off than them, by a margin of 80 per cent to 15 per cent in France, 76 per cent to 15 per cent in Japan, 61 per cent to 19 per cent in Italy, and 57 per cent to 33 per cent in the traditionally optimistic United States.
Geoff Mulgan • Another World Is Possible: How to Reignite Social and Political Imagination
‘the results indicate creative thinking is declining over time among Americans of all ages, especially in kindergarten through third grade. The decline is steady and persistent’.11
Geoff Mulgan • Another World Is Possible: How to Reignite Social and Political Imagination
Every viewpoint is useful and it takes a wide diversity of views for any group to navigate this universe, let alone to act as custodians for it.
Tyson Yunkaporta • Sand Talk: How Indigenous Thinking Can Save the World
Germans talk about the phenomenon of das Verschwinden der Zukunft, the disappearance of the future, and a widening gulf between what people hope for and what they think is likely to happen.
Geoff Mulgan • Another World Is Possible: How to Reignite Social and Political Imagination
What I love about the idea of scenius is that it makes room in the story of creativity for the rest of us: the people who don’t consider ourselves geniuses. Being a valuable part of a scenius is not necessarily about how smart or talented you are, but about what you have to contribute—the ideas you share, the quality of the connections you make,... See more
Further Notes on Scenius
History can get stuck and can go into reverse. Powerful interests will do whatever they can to resist, divert, confuse or disrupt trends that they find threatening. Imagination is one of the weapons with which to confront them—imagination that is compelling, rigorous and thought through.
Geoff Mulgan • Another World Is Possible: How to Reignite Social and Political Imagination
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?
On balance, we should always choose hope over fear. We may be wrong, but at least hope is productive (and there are worse things in life than disappointment).