Ask Slashdot: What Essays and Short Stories Should Be In a Course On Futurism? 293
Ellen Spertus writes "I'll be teaching an interdisciplinary college course on how technology is changing the world and how students can influence that change. In addition to teaching the students how to create apps, I'd like for us to read and discuss short stories and essays about how the future (next 40 years) might play out. For example, we'll read excerpts from David Brin's Transparent Society and Ray Kurzweil's The Singularity is Near. I'm also considering excerpts of Cory Doctorow's Homeland and Neal Stephenson's Diamond Age. What other suggestions do Slashdotters have?"
1984 (Score:2)
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1984 isn't so much a story as it is a manual for government agencies.
I'm surprised the NSA hasn't labelled it as "classified information" yet.
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Despite all the cries of the NSA, the Brit agencies have taken 1984 almost to it's completion.
Re:1984 (Score:4)
It's actually a lot closer to Aldous Huxley's Brave New World [huxley.net].
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Some Kafka , I think.
The Handicapper General prophesied Hillary Clinton and the Repubmocrat party. I bet theres more gold to be found in Kafka.
Soylent Green (Score:2, Interesting)
Make Room! Make Room! Harry Harrison. A dystopian near-future where overpopulation leads to a struggle for resources. Overcrowding, energy blackouts, food riots and soylent green. Especially look for any passages where the old man, in the main protagonists shared flat, talks about how the world used to be.
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http://soylentnews.org/ [soylentnews.org]
None of the above (Score:5, Insightful)
Read biographies of people who actually changed the world, and discuss how they did it.
Stop confusing science fiction or science fiction-styled essays with futurism.
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Read biographies of people who actually changed the world, and discuss how they did it.
On that note, I would nominate The Ascent of Man: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A... [wikipedia.org] , by Jacob Bronowski.
However, when I think it, very few folks in the world today have any appreciation for, or understanding of, how the human species got to where it is today.
It's actually very depressing, when I think about it. But the book is fascinating.
Re:None of the above (Score:4, Insightful)
Reading fiction and non-fiction that explores the possibilities or technology, and even the rejection of technology can lead to discussion on the various factors effected the adoption and exploration of technology. For instance Guns, Germs, and Steel puts forward many hypothesis on why some civilizations developed technology, some borrowed it, and some rejected it. It related to the distribution and adoption of technology today and in the future, and how those futurist who think technology is the answer can make it more widely available. On the fiction side, The Difference Engine imagines a world where we had computers in the victorian era. This can lead to a discussion on the differences between an idea, a manufacturing process, and an affordable mass manufacturing process. For instance, was the technology for manufacturing hundreds of identical gears present in the 1800's?
One this I find interesting is that we know have simplified the process of programming computers to the point where an slightly above average kid with an average education can develop an App. This only took 50 years, two generations. This reflects something that we see repeatedly. The spread of technology does not depend on a special person making a technology, rather the development of a process that makes the technology available to greater number of people. For instance, the process to make a precision screw was incredible important to much of what we do today, even if many of the people who have used the screw do not understand what it does.
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Yes. Note that mass production was ongoing then. Note that hundreds of thousands of identical firearms were built in various countries in the mid-1800's, for instance.
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I mostly agree that individuals don't really change history, but that would be a rather somber tone for a class given to bright-eyed college freshmen about how they can change the world...
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Not sure you know what futurism is:
futurism
fjutrz()m/Submit
1.
concern with events and trends of the future, or which anticipate the future.
Stanislaw Lem (Score:3)
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Even better: Return from the Stars [wikipedia.org].
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mAk dem wrte an essay n text-language (Score:5, Interesting)
yor students shud wrte thR essay bout d evoluation of language, UzN a modern txtN lngwij, lol!
Oh, U ask bout reading, not writiN. ZOMG!
Re:mAk dem wrte an essay n text-language (Score:5, Interesting)
Sam Clemens (Mark Twain) did it better:
For example, in Year 1 that useless letter "c" would be dropped to be replased either by "k" or "s", and likewise "x" would no longer be part of the alphabet. The only kase in which "c" would be retained would be the "ch" formation, which will be dealt with later. Year 2 might reform "w" spelling, so that "which" and "one" would take the same konsonant, wile Year 3 might well abolish "y" replasing it with "i" and Iear 4 might fiks the "g/j" anomali wonse and for all. Jenerally, then, the improvement would kontinue iear bai iear with Iear 5 doing awai with useless double konsonants, and Iears 6-12 or so modifaiing vowlz and the rimeining voist and unvoist konsonants. Bai Iear 15 or sou, it wud fainali bi posibl tu meik ius ov thi ridandant letez "c", "y" and "x" -- bai now jast a memori in the maindz ov ould doderez -- tu riplais "ch", "sh", and "th" rispektivli. Fainali, xen, aafte sam 20 iers ov orxogrefkl riform, wi wud hev a lojikl, kohirnt speling in ius xrewawt xe Ingliy-spiking werld.
http://www.design.caltech.edu/erik/Misc/Twain_english.html [caltech.edu]
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wile Year 3 might well abolish "y" replasing it with "i"
Sam Clemens is wrong about the "y".
The vowel form of "y" could be replaced by an "i", but it makes no sense to replace the consonant sound with a vowel sound.
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In which words does y work as a consonant? Just curious.
btw: in german one would y rather substitute with an U-umlaut (the u with two dots on it).
Bladerunnner (Score:2)
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"The Electric Ant" is especially pertinent, as is "The Mold of Yancey", "Autofac", and, of course, "Second Variety".
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I would instead recommend the novel off which that movie is based - Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, but Dick's best work is found in his short stories.
"The Electric Ant" is especially pertinent, as is "The Mold of Yancey", "Autofac", and, of course, "Second Variety".
So is "We can remember it for you Wholesale" (a/k/a "Total Recall").
Substitute multiple mutually-ignorant meddling government agencies for aliens and you're all set for a possible near-future reality.
Unless the aliens get there first. Damn secret overlords.
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Asimov (Score:2, Insightful)
The Foundation series is a great set of material where he deals with the difference between an individual's actions swaying the course of history, and the behaviours and trends of large groups over time (psychohistory).
It links in neatly with the 3 laws, and if it's far too long then try some of his short stories.
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Check out 365 tomorrows (Score:2)
You should dig around the website 365 tomorrows [365tomorrows.com], which publishes daily science fiction short stories, "flash fiction".
It's frequently quite thought provoking and is exactly about exploring how future can change our lives in form of short peeks into it.
3 things (Score:3)
"The Power of Progression [triumf.info]" by Isaac Asimov
"Time For The Stars [heinleinsociety.org]" by Robert A. Heinlein, with particular attention to the "Long Range Foundation"
Banks? (Score:2)
A Few Notes on the Culture [trevor-hopkins.com].
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OK, I totally mis-read the article. Too far in the future.
Disambiguation, you're not talking about Futurism (Score:2, Insightful)
I commented about that anonymousely a minute ago and I think Shalsdot ate my comment, so I'll go ahead and repeat myself:
The thing you are describing isn't Futurism. Futurims isn't about "how technology is changing the world" and specifically not about " how [it] might play out". It's about the glorification of early 20th century technology and the way it affected the people at that time.
What you are talking about is Futurology, NOT Futursim. Try not to confuse these, especially if you are teaching people w
"A Logic Named Joe" (Score:2)
by Murray Leinster, March 1946. If you're going to talk about how our literature predicts the future, it's worth taking a look at how past literature predicted us. "A Logic Named Joe" did a pretty good job of nailing the internet, nomenclature aside, and it did it almost 70 years ago.
Isaac Asimov (Score:2)
" Before The Golden Age " vols. 1-4. A series of science fiction anthologies written before 1939 (the beginning of the "Golden Age" of science fiction). A look at how our great/grandparents saw today (their far future).
Futurism? the early C20th art movement? (Score:5, Insightful)
Well if you're going to teach about Futurism [wikipedia.org] you should definitely include some critical consideration of the effect of industrialisation on European and North American countries, consider how art was affected by the experiences of artists in the First World War, and how it influenced the later art movements such as Art Deco, Surrealism, and Dada.
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Words can mean two things. Welcome to English.
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According to Wikipedia, perhaps, but futurism referring to the scholarly study of the futuristic is a pretty widespread usage. (As you'd expect, given that you're just conjugating "futuristic".)
Why The Future Doesn't Need Us (Score:2)
http://www.wired.com/wired/arc... [wired.com]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W... [wikipedia.org]
Primary sources? (Score:2)
Seems to me that lesson #1 for (my best guess about what your course is about) is the fact that 'the future' isn't a tame model organism that you neatly confine to the future tense and clinically examine. It's more like a chestburster embedded in the present tense, your present tense, the stuff you would think is too banal to possibly do a course abou
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Maneki Neko by Bruce Sterling (Score:2)
Maneki Neko by Bruce Sterling ...which you can read for free right here:
http://www.lightspeedmagazine.... [lightspeedmagazine.com]
Peak oil and climate change (Score:2)
If you really want to talk about how technology is changing the world and how the next 40 years might look like, you'll have to mention peak oil and climate change.
http://physics.ucsd.edu/do-the... [ucsd.edu]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O... [wikipedia.org]
If This Goes On (Score:2)
If This Goes On/Revolt in 2100 by Robert Anson Heinlein. (The backstory to that story is more concerning the question, where the First Prophet was Nehemiah Scudder, a backwoods preacher turned President (elected in 2012), then dictator (no elections were held in 2016 or later)
You can read Heinlein as adventure stories, you can read his stories as idea experiments and you can also read his stories as reflection on humanity.
Even though the world isn't what Heinlein depicted I still have a feeling that the rea
Ballard (Score:2)
JG Ballard's Billennium is an excellent story about the psychological ramifications of population growth.
Yevgeniy Zamyatin's "We" (Score:2)
"Manna" by Marshall Brain (Score:3)
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I second this.
Back To The Future II (Score:2)
The Sun, The Genome and The Internet - F. Dyson (Score:2)
Stranger than fiction (Score:3)
1984, Brave New World and Little Brother could be too close to comfort for the authorities, probably Foundation too. And I'd say that a lot of Philip K. Dick tales where the official vision of reality is put in doubt won't make it neither.
Asimov's The Feeling of Power [wikipedia.org], Charles Stross Accelerando [antipope.org], Vernon Vinge's Rainbow's End [wikipedia.org] and parts of Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy [wikipedia.org] could give different hints on how the future could develop without too much controversy.
Can't recommend Stephenson's Diamond Age because for me is somewhat the past. It was written before wikipedia and internet, before than even poor children in 3rd world countries had an access to all of it. And those children prefer to access youtube videos and play candy crush over accessing wikipedia.
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Not sure if joking, but I assure you colleges are fine with more-politically-seditious authors than Isaac Asimov and Philip K Dick.
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KSR's Mars trilogy sucked. I read the whole damn thing and kept on hoping there was a point to the meandering mess. Never happened.
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"could be too close to comfort for the authorities,"
You need to get out more.
Paul Auster "In The Country of Lost Things" (Score:2)
Not really science fiction but definitely a great novel about a dystopian future.
Thomas Disch "334" (Score:3)
Another great dystopian future novel, with some science fiction.
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Flatland is the gateway to new dimensions... (Score:2)
Flatland, by Edwin Abbot, is a short and amusing book that describes the lives and trials of two-dimensional beings. It's a social satire, but it also gives one the feeling that our personal realities, and indeed, our present day societies may not be (and should not be) the limit of what we can imagine and/or what we can achieve. For me it seems like the perfect stepping off point for an exploration of the future.
Most important: That futurism is nonsense (Score:2)
As soon as everybody has understood that this is not something they are doing because it has any worth except as entertainment, you are alls set. Then use anything that is fun and interesting, but never forget that reading tea-leaves is about as scientific as futurism is.
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Nope, there's absolutely no point in thinking about the future, except of course to assume that it'll be just like the present.
Looking back at the rollout of the future... (Score:2)
James Burke's "Connections" and perhaps "The Day The Universe Changed". How small incidents can create massive changes - Napoleon's near defeat at Marengo starts the path to refrigeration, how a botched souvenir production run and an grousing cleric leads to a revolution in printing and religion. Etc. Also "The Second Self" by Sherry Turkle - to see how an emerging thread in technology can have implications elsewhere. Yes, many sc-ifi books have done this predictively, but again it's valuable to see ho
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Teacher or student? (Score:2)
Aren't you supposed to tell us? You're teaching the course, innit? Or is this some kind of reverse open course, where the pupils are in a class room and the teachers are anyone and his dog on the internet?
The Coming Technological Singularity (Score:2)
I would definitely include: The Coming Technological Singularity: How to Survive in the Post-Human Era by Vernor Vinge
https://www-rohan.sdsu.edu/fac... [sdsu.edu]
Niven short stories (Score:2)
A number of Larry Niven's short stories would be excellent examples of futurism:
The Jigsaw Man really stands out as a commentary on how power would be abused when organ transfers became nearly 100% successful (yet very expensive).
The Last Days of the Permanent Floating Riot Club talks about flash crowds.
Cloak of Anarchy deals with, strangely enough, anarchy.
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" (yet very expensive)."
That's the problem. Stories like that always need to make the tech more expensive when in reality the better we get at something, the cheaper it gets.
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New technology typically goes through a phase where it is really expensive when it is first released, and then it gets less expensive, right? The Jigsaw Man is set in that initial timeframe. Breakthroughs in the medical science gave doctors the ability to transplant every organ except the brain and spinal column, but the cost was still very high and only a few could really afford it.
Niven does explore the next phase, where the cost comes down (or the technology is replaced by something less expensive
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Right, like health care is now... In the U.S.
The Right to Read (Score:2)
The Right to Read by Richard Stallman [gnu.org]
How about the past? (Score:2)
Another example would be the development of modern medicine particularly in the early days when it required numerous cadavers to learn the principles of the me
My Book! My Book! (Score:2)
Make them all buy My Book!
Preventing corruption (Score:2)
Be less optimistic. (Score:2)
The first half of 'Mana.' Or was it Manna? Not sure.
An extract from "Stand on Zanzibar" (Score:2)
One of the best novels about a realistic and mostly dysfunctional future set in 2010. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S... [wikipedia.org]
The Manifesto of Futurism (Score:2)
You should include the Manifesto of Futurism. It's quite moving.
1. We intend to sing the love of danger, the habit of energy and fearlessness.
2. Courage, audacity, and revolt will be essential elements of our poetry.
3. Up to now literature has exalted a pensive immobility, ecstasy, and sleep. We intend to exalt aggresive action, a feverish insomnia, the racer’s stride, the mortal leap, the punch and the slap.
4. We affirm that the world’s magnificence has been enriched by a new beauty: the beauty
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It's interesting how much pent up violence, psychopathy and uber-paternalistic bullshit the early twentieth century engendered.
And yes, there are many famous early twentieth century Americans you can add to that list.
This reads like Mein Kampf...
6. The poet must spend himself with ardor, splendor, and generosity, to swell the enthusiastic fervor of the primordial elements.
What the fuck is that supposed to mean?
I wonder what Freud, another early twentieth century bullshitter, would think of it?
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Which word couldn't you find at Dictionary.com?
Cause it'd pretty obvious.
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Also known as "The Celebration of Cocaine, one Hell of a Drug".
Artificial Limits? (Score:3)
Shouldn't you also be looking at much earlier authors and comparing what they wrote to the state of events 50 odd years later? Would think there is a vast selection from 'golden age' sci-fi including Asimov,Heinlein, Pohl, etc. You can also find many old PopMechanics and similar magazines from the 40s, 50s, 60s with 'future' editions. How does what they wrote compare to what is being predicted by writers today?
Bill Joy nails it (Score:2)
"All Watched Over By Machines Of Loving Grace" (Score:2)
It's a poem rather than a short story or essay. It's by Richard Brautigan who was the poet in residence at Caltech. It was first published in a volume of the same name, not all of which may be suitable for your audience.
All Watched Over By Machines Of Loving Grace (poem) [allpoetry.com]
All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace (collection) [brautigan.net]
IT seems to me (Score:2)
That you should look at stuff from 40 years ago and show them how wrong it was.
Idiocracy (Score:2)
Yeah, I know there's no book. But the target demographic is those who wait for the movie.
Hugh Howey's Wool (Score:2)
Hugh Howey's Silo Series, starting with Wool. Granted, it is a dystopian story, but it shows a strongly human side to the collapse of civilization. A lot of dystopian stories tend to focus on the inhumanity and shock value of distorted societies. Howey's collection of novellas makes it much more personal to the reader. I believe it is the uniquely intimate approach to such a story that caused Howey's stories to catch on.
Where's Gibson? (Score:2)
Pretty much anything written by William Gibson.
The guy is a visionary. He seems to be able to unerringly look 10-15 years ahead and predict the future culture and what tech will be most relevant.
So much of what he writes about seems unlikely at the time, but yet comes true just a few years later.
Most people already know that In his 1984 book "Neuromancer" he basically predicted the future importance and uses of the internet and the existence of portable devices to access it (It was he that coined the term C
reddit.com/r/Futurology/ has covered this (Score:2)
Go to http://www.reddit.com/r/Futuro... [reddit.com]
I tried to post the list here but /. helpfully said "Your comment has too few characters per line (currently 33.9)."
Brunner, Dyson, Pohl (Score:2)
Any number of novels by John Brunner, but Stand on Zanzibar if you have to choose one.
Fred Pohl's short-short "Day Million," about a cyborg spaceman and a transgendered otter-woman meeting, falling in love, exchanging virtual reality sex profiles and never meetin again.
Freeman Dyson's essay "The Greening of the Galaxy."
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Well, the "classic" Brunner example would be "Shockwave Rider", if you like "Stand on Zanzibar" you might like "Sheep Luck(ing?) Up", too.
Perhaps at least mention 'Future Shock' and 'The Third Wave' by Alvin Toffler
Harrison - "Make Room! Make Room!" (Score:2)
Might be a bullet point to discuss how technology (fertilizers, vaccines, medicine) may, or has resulted in, a possible overshoot/overpopulation scenario.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M... [wikipedia.org]!
Response from original poster (Score:3)
First, thank you, everyone, for the feedback. There are some wonderful stories that I recognize and others that I look forward to reading.
Second, because the solicited essays and fiction will only be a small part of the course, I will have to rely on short stories (including novellas) instead of entire novels. That is part of what makes it hard to research. It's much easier to find out about novels, which have more readers and are better publicized than short stories, especially recent ones that have not yet been widely reprinted.
Third, to those of you who think I am being too lazy to do my research myself, gathering information is part of the research process, and I'd be remiss in not making use of the hive mind if it has useful information that I might not. I would much rather be called a negligent teacher than to be one. Academics study one another's reading lists and syllabi all the time. Believe me, plenty of work remains in deciding what material to include, how present it, etc.
Fourth, thank you for letting me know the history of the word "futurism". The sense I used it ("concern with events and trends of the future or which anticipate the future") is the first one in some dictionaries [google.com] and is widely used at kurzweilai.net [kurzweilai.net], The Foresight Institute [google.com], and other sites I have used, but I will certainly let my students know that some people prefer the word "futurology". For those who are interested, here's a Google n-gram view of "futurism", "futurist", and "futurology" [google.com].
Fifth, some commenters suggested using primary sources and biography. Agreed. I was already planning to include Turing's Computing Machinery and Intelligence [loebner.net], Vannevar Bush's As We May Think [theatlantic.com], and the stories of Khan Academy, Iqbal Quadir [ted.com], Sugata Mitra [ted.com], and others.
Sixth, it was also suggested that I look at past predictions of the future. Also agreed. I assembled such a reading list for a previous course. It hadn't occurred to me to include in my question what I didn't need, because I'd already assembled it, but I see now that it would be helpful.
Thank you again for the suggestions and even for the criticisms. Soliciting opinions from Slashdot is always a story in itself.
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Excellent choice, although your memory of the plot and basic themes differs greatly from mine.
It's absolutely eerie to read this story and realize it was written over a century ago.
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Or the short-story version, Fast Times at Fairmont High, which appeared in one of the IEEE journals, won a Hugo in 2002, and has since appeared in The Collected Stories of Vernor Vinge. It touches on many of the same themes as Rainbows End, but it's a quicker read.
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I'm supposed to teach others, but I'm too lazy to do my own research. Can you help me?
Why certainly. What you do is write a paragraph explaining what you need, and then post it to Ask Slashdot.
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This.
In fact, GO HERE. [marshallbrain.com] Now. Manna is telling you that you have 1 minute to open the link and perform a scan of the instructions at hand. Don't think. Just click the link. Manna will do all the thinking for you.