Category: Futures
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a tool, not a rule: thoughts on technique and worldbuilding
I’m off the the Netherlands next week, to give a couple of talks and run a workshop based on (among other things) the Magrathea Protocol essay. One of these events is public, so if you’re in or near Utrecht on Thursday 21st September (3pm to 5pm), why not come along and ask me awkward questions?…
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California Uber Alles Forever
Gillian Rose has some interesting thoughts on the promo art for the California Forever boondoggle utopian settlement project announced not long ago. Why use this visual style? Well, one thought is that there is one other recent proposal for a very large-scale urban redevelopment project which also promises to bring a green utopia to a…
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cultural-fracking-as-a-service (or: an abjuration of “artificial intelligence”)
I’m currently in the nuts-and-bolts phase of booting up my consultancy practice: doing stuff like establishing the business as a legal entity, starting bank accounts, buying domain names and (re)making websites. It’s the sort of stuff that makes a heretofore conceptual goal very concrete, very quickly: my business is actually a thing-in-the-world now. As a…
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The Magrathea Protocol, part D: on the merits of openness over closedness
D—on the merits of openness over closedness It is my hope that you may now see why I abandoned my attempts to explain away the differences between various forms of futuring, and opted instead for this little wander through the narratological landscape. But to make it plain, my point is that yes, all these methods…
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The Magrathea Protocol, parts B5 and C: back to the futures
B5—from page to screen (and beyond) OK, that was a bit heavy—but the worst is done, and I promise I’ve done the best I could to compromise between making it simple and making it relevant. Now, to reiterate: Bal’s model was developed for prose fiction, and I’ve used prose fiction to illustrate its elements. Things…