Monthly Archives: January 2002
Here’s one I wrote when I was feeling a bit daft. Last poem for a while, I almost promise: Life of the Sacraments———————- creationconceptiongestationincarnationlactationcircumcisionname selectionidentificationinnoculationfamily relationparambulationincreased sensationvocalizationideationeducationsocializationconscience formationtranssubstantiationmasticationunificationcarefree recreationbirthday invitationchildhood cessationhormone invasionpubic creationmenstruationteen rebellionsexualizationmasturbationnocturnal emissionurge repressiontransgressionsin abationsoul confessionreconciliationmaturationconfirmationhigh school graduationcollege … Continue reading
Yes, another Futures poem. This one I wrote last summer after I saw a sign announcing that a colleague was speaking at the local UU church the upcoming sunday on “The Future of God.” Considering that she was agnostic, I … Continue reading
What the heck, it’s a full-on poetry dump! I wrote this as kind of a Futures poem: Surfing——– This is not a time to be nonchalant about your lives! Things are happening that are both horrible and wonderful beyond our … Continue reading
While we’re on poetry, here’s my attempt at beat-style: cracking black sack of jaded dreammakes monstrous bowls of clotted creamand sugar for souring the golden ruleand feeding facts into fiction. The foolknows no notion of momentary nomenclatureand erupts in erudition … Continue reading
We were discussing how we can convey intimacy through the mundane in poetry on this poetry list I’m on. Then I wrote this down: Pick Up Lines I pick up your earrings –points of weight on my palm –that you … Continue reading
A UHCL Futures list friend pointed me to this — From Shell Corporation, an extraordinarily lucid explanation of scenario planning and an updated set of global energy scenarios through 2050 (in .pdf format) It’s good to see a megacorp using … Continue reading
More coverage of Ian Pearson’s top 25 “predictions” that has set skeptics’ tongues clucking across the web. Too bad, like the BBC story, the Telegraph waits until the last few paragraphs to qualify the uncertainty of the rather fantastic statements … Continue reading
Procedure for Futurist Bashing 1) Journalist interviews futurist or covers his/her work.2) Journalist writes story focusing on the most interesting (read: sensational) elements.3) Journalist, not understanding that futurists think up many alternatives, calls the elements “predictions.”4) Journalist waits.5) When the … Continue reading
Someone at the UHCL Studies of the Future masters program needs to send this guy a brochure.
From futurefeedforward: Nanoscale boy bands. What’ll they think of next? Really. I think that the writers at futurefeedforward must think up the preposterous future scenario idea first and then backcast their way to it using current trends and emerging technologies. … Continue reading
CBC News: English amnesiac may be porn star. (via Obscure Store) Man, that makes for a bad day. First, it’s not bad enough that you’ve got amnesia, but then you have to wake up to the fact that you’ve been … Continue reading
Existential Risks: Analyzing Human Extinction Scenarios and Related Hazards by Nick Bostrom. I bet this guy is a lot of fun at parties. He seems to be what I call an Accidental Futurist — someone who uses futures tools and … Continue reading
Here’s a great article from Scientific American about the long term global future: “The great dilemma of environmental reasoning stems from this conflict between short-term and long-term values. To select values for the near future of one’s own tribe or … Continue reading
This is a well-reasoned and cogent conservative anaylsis of social change in relation to the American family. Such a thing is rare, in my experience. I am basically conservative myself, but reject most of the rhetoric of the right as … Continue reading