Epigram: "As I've said many times, the future is already here. It's just
not very evenly distributed." - William Gibson
What is the future? It's just trends from the past continuing. Some of
these trends are mathematical, like exponential growth or sinusoidal
pulsing. Some of the trends are more abstract, cosmic, personal,
not described by any known mathematics but rather, the trash and
logic that would itself describe mathematics (if only they weren't so
autistic)... the dirty coffee cup, the stroll by the lake, a visit from an
old girlfriend.
The future is a giant demolition derby of all trends. For example,
technological progress (the exponential speedup of computation,
the growth of human knowledge) crashes head on into global
warming and disintegrates overhead like some sort of rocket
explosion out of "Gravity's Rainbow" (which we don't have time
to read right now due to the exigencies of modern living).
Chapter 2. "Monks 1966"
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWR4r78CWEQ&feature=related)
The easy corollary of William Gibson's statement is that the future
has always been here, will always be here, will never be uniform.
I'm inclined to look at the mechanism of a pocketwatch, and especially
at that little spring... what's going on with that thing? To understand
the future is to understand the unwinding of that spring.
In order to do this, we need to get past the tautological "Five years
in the future we will all be five years older" -- William Burroughs
staring at his wingtips wasted on opiates (or any other creature
hypnotized by life circumstances). For no other reason
than because I feel like it, I suggest that within five years,
we will have SIGNIFICANTLY cut through the "autistic"
barrier that enwraps prolonged moments of this nature...
I don't mean that "time travel" per se will be possible, but that
we will not get "stuck" in the present anywhere near as much.
This has to do with the increased interpenetration of mathematical
and amathematical thinking -- computer programming, for example,
will be doable at a speed much closer to the "speed of thought".
At the same time, so-called "information overload" will be
less of a problem. Life will be rife with prosthethics for
thinking better.
Chapter 3. "Dr Who" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LF2x5IKxmAQ&feature=related)
There is a reason that the best things that contemporary
popular culture can provide are remixes of old ideas.
People have been around for a long time already and they
have pretty much thought of everything. Or at least so
it would seem. (I'd argue that we are at this point on
the verge of actually new thoughts, sort of like physics
in the late 1800s...) I would suggest that sometime
around five years from now we will have gotten all the
millennial crap out of our systems, we will be less
obsessed with "the old". So in addition to all the old
stuff continuing to play out and make steady technological
progress, I think we will see some completely "new" stuff that
will capture popular imagination (just in time for the centenary
of Einstein 1914, but completely unrelated).
Chapter 4. "The World is a War Film"
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fe4luvg1Ltg&feature=related)
We imagine that conflict and chaos threaten our
future (see Chapter 1). I think it is more likely that
they only threaten our ability to predict the future
or to control or direct its development. I suggest
that rather than letting our hearts and minds be
tortured by fear and uncertainty, and at the same
time avoiding the opposite extreme of retreat and
apathy, we should embrace values of reasonably
safe experimentation and ("non-reactive") creativity.
I think in response to the current global economic crisis
(but even more in response to all the noise about it),
we will see new subcultures arising that make possible
a greater embrace of these values. (Different from
any sort of "counter-culture" or "cultural critique" that
we've seen in the past.)
Chapter 5. (Untitled.)
If *my* past five years are any indication (i.e. the
time I've been out of school), the trends we're
seeing now have to do with the rise of personal
power (as opposed to the power of traditional
institutions and other enduring modes of relating).
The traditional stuff will all continue to exist and
be remixed and even gain in popularity (like "Miserlou"
appearing in "Pulp Fiction"). But I think the
countervailing trend -- towards "unpopular"
innovations -- will become more prevalent. Perhaps
this sounds like some kind of "alternativey utopia"...
maybe... but I think it will be brought about not
by a 80's and 90's style consumerism, but by a
new sort of "producerism".
At least, that's my hope!
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