Monday, February 22, 2010

A Reading List for Futurists

Okay, I'll admit it: I'm more interested in the past than the future, at least intellectually. It's why I majored in history in college, and history and biography represents the bulk of the books I read. But the future does have its uses, I suppose, since we'll all be there one day, or at least I hope we will. And good magazines such as Good like to help us think about what that future might look like. And so they published this reading list for futurists. If this subject interests you, please feel free to add your own books to that list.
UPDATE: this subject reminded me of this extended conversation Art and Bluster had about science fiction a couple years ago.

15 Comments:

At 12:08 PM, Anonymous Mike Q said...

When you think of it, we can only write about the past or the future. As for the present, the closest we can come are tweets ... and postings like this.

 
At 3:33 PM, Blogger John Ettorre said...

Man, you're deep. Too deep for me.

 
At 6:44 PM, Anonymous Mike Q said...

When I went to college the philosophy requirement was 12 hours, I think. But, believe me, I was not your best philosphy student, not even average.

 
At 7:18 PM, Blogger John Ettorre said...

Funny you mention that, Mike. The requirement was also 12 hours (or four classes) in philosophy when I went there. And true to the Jesuit notion of the importance of the liberal arts in forming an intellectually well-rounded person, I would point to some philosophers I read in those classes(especially Kierkegard and Nietzche) for helping point me to my life's work. Wrestling with all those ideas, and learning to read such difficult but ultimately enlightening material proved to be a segueway into writing, at least for me.

Years later, alas, I would be editing the university's publication when the faculty watered down the core curriculum (which has happened everywhere, truth be told, even in the Ivies) and got to register my small protest by writing an honest account of it in the university alumni pub.

 
At 7:36 PM, Anonymous Mr. Bluster said...

Kurzweil's "The Singularity is Near" has been called "intelligent design for the IQ 140 people."

Lot of truth to that, but his scenario of rapidly advancing computer intelligence seems plausible to me, if not as inevitable as he believes.

 
At 8:09 PM, Blogger John Ettorre said...

How appropriate that you'd add to this topic, Bluster. When I posted this item this morning, it made me recall a small item about science fiction that I posted last year, which prompted a days-long back and forth between you and Art about the subject.

 
At 12:52 AM, Anonymous Mr. Bluster said...

I bet Art has something to add to this one, too.

 
At 1:02 AM, Anonymous Mr. Bluster said...

I'm afraid I see a darker version of Kurzweil's future. I can't imagine why post-Singularity intelligences would want to keep us around in any form that we would find appealing.

Think of those guys stored in liquid nitrogen at Alcor, waiting for future cures. Why would future beings feel any obligation to reanimate them, unless there was something for them to gain? (Art, this reminds me of Larry Niven's novel, A World Out of Time.)

They might want to bring back a bunch of Ted Williams clones and start a new baseball league to take their minds off weightier matters such as expanding their intelligence into the universe.

 
At 1:43 AM, Anonymous Mr. Bluster said...

I see that in the previous thread you linked to, I barfed up that same bit about the Singularity being the Rapture for Mensans. I feel sure future intelligences will want to do some optimization on my virtualized brain, in the unlikely event they have any use for it.

 
At 4:19 AM, Anonymous Mr. Bluster said...

You might enjoy this Writers' advice for writers from Boing Boing.

 
At 4:32 AM, Blogger John Ettorre said...

Art's on one of his long western sojourns at the moment, so we probably won't hear from him just now. But I look forward to his return. And I like the idea of optimizing your virtual brain. We've asked the research department here to look into that. And thanks for the link to that advice for writers, from the Guardian. That's great stuff that I had somehow missed.

 
At 12:19 PM, Blogger Art Durkee said...

Paolo Soleri's books on arcologies, the architectural idea he invented.

Gerard K. O'Neill, "The HIgh Frontier," which was the book in which he proposed the idea of space colonies at the Lagrange orbital points.

Most "hard" SF is a kind of futurism, in that it speculates on "what would happen if?" usually involving a technological innovation.

Larry Niven's stories of Gil the ARM are all about the consequences of human organ transplant technology, and Niven coined the word "organlegging" which is now seen in popular usage here and there.

Walter Jon Williams' novel "Aristoi" is particularly interesting about nanotech in future millenia, but as interesting for its use of psychological subpersonality theory (Paolo Ferrucci, Roberto Assagioli).

One of the best anime movie and TV series is "Ghost in the Shell," and "Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex," which asks some very deep philosophical questions about identity, selfhood, and what would happen in a near future populated by cyborgs and AI. The basic question is: How can you tell you're human, how can you tell if you're still you, if the world is full of AI cyberbrains, you can edit and store your memories into off-brain modules, and so forth? Definitely one of the best series I've ever seen, as it asks lots of deep questions. And when was the last time you saw an action-adventure series that took an entire off from the action to talk about identity, J.D. Salinger, philosophy, and Nietzsche? Pretty rare.

 
At 2:37 PM, Blogger John Ettorre said...

Great to have you back, Art. Hasn't been the same without you. How was your trip?

 
At 7:19 PM, Blogger Art Durkee said...

Not done yet. Still on the road for another week. But I checked in, and behold, I was summoned. :)

 
At 10:56 PM, Blogger John Ettorre said...

A command performance. How cool. Enjoy the rest of your trip, Art.

 

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