Back to the Futurist
What do the names Buckminster Fuller, Arthur C. Clark, Ray Kurzweil, Iain M. Banks, Graham Hancock and James Cameron all have in common? They’ve been futurists.
URBN FUTR is running a series on leading futurists from around the world. We will be speaking to the break-through generation of futurists, amongst whose ranks are the likes of Mitchell Joachim, Melissa Sterry, Liam Young, Natalia Allen, Noah Raford and Rachel Armstrong. All have agreed to exclusive interviews.
Our aim is to inspire the next generation of futurists to step forward and begin contributing their ideas, as we build the leading hub for futurism on the web.
Defining Futurology
Futurology is the study of postulating possible, probable, and preferable futures and the worldviews and myths that underlie them. There is a debate as to whether this discipline is an art or science. In general, it can be considered as a branch under the more general scope of the field of history. Futures studies (colloquially called “futures” by many of the field’s practitioners) seeks to understand what is likely to continue, what is likely to change, and what is novel. Part of the discipline thus seeks a systematic and pattern-based understanding of past and present, and to determine the likelihood of future events and trends. Unlike science where a narrower, more specified system is studied, futures studies concerns a much bigger and more complex world system. The methodology and knowledge are much less proven as compared to natural science or even social science like sociology, economics, and political science. – Wiki Definition
A Movement to Get Excited About
Futurology excites even our most pessimistic of optimistic forward-thinkers. You know its a growing movement when even Kanye West is an amateur futurist.
A pertinent nugget once came through the lips of Frank Da Silva:
we, humanity, need to collectively upgrade our minds and consciousness to stop the exploitation of both people and nature.
This belief lies at the crux of a movement called Earth 2.0. It is the beautiful and concise notion that we need to upgrade to a new operating system with which to manage our relationship with the world. Check out the Earth 2 Hub™ and watch the 15-minute short Earth 2.0: Initialization below. We believe it is the perfect initialization into the world WE would like to create.
Now… Back to the Futurists.
7 comments
Chris T-T says:
Jan 12, 2012
Pollution and greed are bad. Well done, nobody mentioned that before. And everyone I know “thinks they can do exactly what they please”. Er, what?
This isn’t futurology, it’s about as radical as that M Night Shamalyangadingdong film ‘The Happening’ where the wind in the trees kills everyone.
Please close the fuck on the way off.
Alex says:
Jan 12, 2012
Thanks for that constructive insight, Chris. There’s a bunch of interviews to come for you to wave a stick at.
BTW – I really like your music!
Walter Number says:
Jan 12, 2012
Lovely and insight response from “Chris T-T”, judging by his site, doesn’t really have any basis to determine what futurology is!!
Pollution is an issue that must be reiterated until the change in consumption and living patterns is solid enough to make a difference. The same goes for greed. So they are valid and extremely pertinent points to make in futurology reporting.
Comparing M. Night Shyamalan to this is laughable and only proves that the above response is waste of web space.
Ersan Seer says:
Jan 17, 2012
Fantastic. This site is an excellent resource. Maybe one day I’ll make that list.
Alexander Phillips says:
Jan 25, 2012
Tell us about yourself and why you’ll be a futurist, Ersan… Always room for more writers on Urban Times!
Ersan Seer says:
Feb 15, 2012
I’m already a futurist! I have been ever since I first picked up Ender’s Game 17 years ago.
People don’t think about the future much. Why?
Do they consider deliberate imagination to be frivolous? Maybe they’ve been conditioned away from it (daydreaming has such a negative connotation) by bad experiences in school. Maybe they simply don’t care about anything other than the present — a possible effect of this age of instant gratification.
Why knows why people don’t care about the future, but it’s truly tragic. The future is thrilling! It’s scary and magical! The future is written by anyone who stands up and writes it! How can that much power NOT be exciting?
At the core of my claim to be a futurist is a cause; to open peoples’ eyes towards the future. And, thankfully, I have found that it’s quite easy to do so. People are ready and eager to have deep conversations about the future.
They just need futurists like us, Alexander, to guide and encourage them to awaken the wonderment. This is why I’m a futurist. I’m answering a calling.
You know, when I first commented here, I didn’t intend to write for Urban Times. But now that you bring it up, I see that I would love to do so. It would be a welcome relief.
What I mean is… my current blog is trudging along because I’m still learning concept art, and I refuse to write new articles without the accompanying art to really bring home the vision.
…So while the artist in me trains, the writer in me yearns to write (concept art be damned).
I would love to write here. Let me know if that works for you, or if I need to provide anything else to help you make the decision.
Vincent says:
Aug 3, 2012
How about the first step; collectively going towards an individual consciousness? It seems like most people don’t even want to try to get their ass away from the television in order to make themselves useful?
Maybe that’s why brain research must be so well funded, and there is a shift away from citalism towards an information based motivation system (aka economy).