possibility studies
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
The possible emerges in human experience whenever there is a multitude of perspectives available for individual, groups and societies to draw upon in understanding themselves and their environment.
Vlad P. Glăveanu • Possibility Studies: A Manifesto
(5) But the Real is much more than this “reality”! The real refers to the endlessly changing stream of life, “the unbroken wholeness,” to use Physicist David Bohm’s wonderful expression, out of which everything comes, including the Planet we all share. As the Manifesto puts it, the real is characterized by radical open-endedness and becoming. In
... See moreArturo Escobar • Welcome to Possibility Studies
a good futurist spends a lot of time trying to decipher the present and to try to see it through the mask of present-day biases.
I sometimes think of “seeing the present” as trying on alien eyes; looking at the world as if I were an alien from another planet.
Trying to see beyond the immediate cycles of news is a challenge, because rather than being... See more
I sometimes think of “seeing the present” as trying on alien eyes; looking at the world as if I were an alien from another planet.
Trying to see beyond the immediate cycles of news is a challenge, because rather than being... See more
Kevin Kelly • How to Future
It is designed to be an antidote to fatalism—to remind us that other worlds are possible.
Geoff Mulgan • Another World Is Possible: How to Reignite Social and Political Imagination
Consequently, when we think about possibilities it’s not as much about what we do in the present that shapes the future, but more about how we use the future to shape the present (Damhof, 2022).
Loes Damhof • Imagining the Impossible: An Act of Radical Hope
lack of institutions working seriously on issues where technology and society intersect.
Geoff Mulgan • Another World Is Possible: How to Reignite Social and Political Imagination
No matter whether we are talking about realistic or unrealistic possibilities, at the heart of this notion stands a commitment to the idea that the world is not yet finished, that it is in a continuous process of becoming, and that this becoming – for as much as we might anticipate it – is never entirely predictable. Beyond ‘what currently is’,
... See moreVlad P. Glăveanu • Possibility Studies: A Manifesto
Potentialities for growth, then, are available in all directions—toward what has never been thought and back to what must be rethought.