Technolandy

Day 146 (of 2024/25) #booktok Flash Forward – Rose Eveleth – great for #tEChursday 

Some extended thinkings from trading this collection of possible (and not so possible) tomorrows…

Delicious short graphics with essays extending some of the thinkings of future focused ponders. Delightful as some of us find it ‘fun’ to look back and read what the old times thought that we’d be up to ‘today’ (eg The Jetsons took place in 2062… and Back to the Future took us to hoverboards in 2015…). Many boring predictions have been accurate – longer lifespans, instant communication, remote work (well, some of that is being clawed back…) overpopulation and resource scarcity. Some are scary – the ‘next war’ will be for water; not sure how WWIII will be fought, but the next war will be with sticks and stone… Some are fanciful – robot doctors (coming soon) meteor mining (…coming soon?…) flying cars always seem to be a wish (also… coming soon…?) In education, people envisioned it would evolve into a foundation for a more successful and meaningful life with a focus on practical skills and ci vic responsibility – with broader access to learning with teachers having more effective and engaging instruction. While we can mostly (sorry, not Florida) say that school no longer plays second-fiddle to ‘work’, and some things from 100 years ago have faded: segregation – faded, not gone…; dress codes ebb and flow; hands on punishments; not everyone ‘had/went’ to school (smaller class sizes, but more of an age range, and many excluded); – Readers Digest has a neat reflection on school ‘back in the day’ – https://www.rd.com/list/what-school-was-like-100-years-ago/. Will a look back influence a look forward?

Tomorrowville by Ben Passmore – do “smart- tools” support or enable its users? How much is too much? 

Portrait of the Artist as an Algorithm by Julia Gfrörer – is AI an emerging artist or is there implicit bias that ‘only’ humanity can be creative in these realms…? Will future art be deserving refinements to AI creations? Who edits the editors?

Piraceuticals by John Jennings – medicines obtained via pirates? Not a metaphor for big pharma! And what if more grassroots operations differently did things

Animal Magnetism by Sophia Foster-Dimini – “pets” an outmoded term? Fur babies having civil rights? What’s next… an acknowledgement that plans feel things too? (They do…) and can “rights” be ‘a limited number’ (as some countries do for some genders) or ought it be all or none?

Don’t lie to me by Box Brown – love the true/false detector – good for self AND others! But do we really always want the truth? Especially when the free trial ends…?!?

Moon Court by Maki Nara – good reminder about concepts of justice (love the little nudge that concepts such as restorative justice aren’t new… ) I do appreciate the reflections that have been going on around policing (why some do/don’t trust the police) and love the push into thinking what the rules of the future will be… especially beyond earth…

Unreel by Chris Jones & Zack Weinersmith – love the buildup to become wary of big Parma (the cheese) and how you can’t/won’t even believe something is fake, even if the source admits it…  what is fake news? 

Ghostbot by Kate Sheridan – can consciousness be transferred? Is our digital footprint or is it a restart – ‘we’ die, and another ‘us’ starts up? If we are missed, is it fair for a loved one to recreate us? What if there was someone you were obsessed with – and had an option to ‘buy them’ for a year or ten… is that creepy or romantic? (I coulda gone on a long time with my thoughts that came from this one!)

Bye-Bye Binary by Ziyed Y Ayoub and Blue Delliquanti – love the essay tone: what if gender was more like a hair colour? And the weirdness of gender assumptions (especially with babies and colours of clothes) in general, and even more so when you pause… in specific. And the ‘fight’ about pronouns makes me laugh… cuz I only care that everyone finds themselves and can be proud to share who they are – whether through writing… through clothing… through who they do/do not love – and I don’t have to know!

Under the Sea by Amelia Onorato – ooh – the ecotourism opportunities of climate change! When currently coastal cities are underwater… will people be good with the compression/decompression time to go to see the sites?? Expensive real estate…

Never Lay Me Down To Sleep by Matt Lubchansky – love the wonder about what happens when/if rest becomes a luxury… or not ‘as needed’ as we currently operate.. naps (polyphasic sleep) vs pills vs pressures on the body. It would make ‘home’ seen/used differently – subscription based bedrooms? 

Popnonymous by Sophie Goldstein – ooh, when an audition is just for voice/likeness and then a onetime license fee? Will future role models be avatars? Is digital just a more refined/precise choreography? What is ‘real’? Autotune? 

12 out of an infinite number of future possibilities… tomorrow will be a share of a future possibility of school via me…