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Rick Poynor: The Unspeakable Pleasure of Ruins: Observers Room: Design Observer

"there are many reasons to be fascinated by ruins. For me, this attraction is first of all about being in the place. (Photos of ruins function in the same way that all kinds of photos function: they fire the imagination and provoke a desire to see for yourself.) The idea that best explains my love of ruins is the quest for re-enchantment. The abandoned ruin is a special zone charged with an intensity and a potential for revelation that most ordinary, complete and comfortable places lack. The more corporate daily experience becomes, the more some sites of ruination can offer an interlude of release into a refuge that is not accessible to crowds (it may well be unsafe), not overseen by officialdom, and not commercialized. Some regard these fractured spaces as being loaded with radical and even utopian potential."

optimism utopia refuge ofrordness romainemeffre yvesmarchand unknownfieldsdivision geoffdyer rosemacaulay walterbenjamin georgsimmel gustavedoré christopherwoodward ruinporn urbanprairie detroit 2012 rickpoynor urbanism cities architecture photography ruins from delicious
10 weeks ago by robertogreco

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The Principle of Hope - The MIT Press

"The Principle of Hope is one of the great works of the human spirit. It is a critical history of the utopian vision and a profound exploration of the possible reality of utopia. Even as the world has rejected the doctrine on which Bloch sought to base his utopia, his work still challenges us to think more insightfully about our own visions of a better world."

optimism wishfulimages not-yet-conscious philosophyofprocess philosophy progressive progressivism socialjustice ernstbloch hope utopia via:litherland toread books
february 2012 by robertogreco

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Rebecca Solnit on Hope on Vimeo

"Despair is a black leather jacket in which everyone looks good, while hope is a frilly pink dress few dare to wear. Rebecca Solnit thinks this virtue needs to be redefined.

Here she takes to our pulpit to deliver a sermon that looks at the remarkable social changes of the past half century, the stories the mainstream media neglects and the big surprises that keep on landing.

She explores why disaster makes us behave better and why it's braver to hope than to hide behind despair's confidence and cynicism's safety.

History is not an army. It's more like a crab scuttling sideways. And we need to be brave enough to hope change is possible in order to have a chance of making it happen."

mainstreammedia davidgraeber venezuela indigeneity indigenousrights indigenous us mexico ecuador anti-globalization latinamerica bolivia evamorales lula cynicism uncertainty struggle paulofreire barackobama georgewbush humanrights insurgency hosnimubarak egypt yemen china saudiarabia bahrain change protest tunisia optimism future environment contrarians peterkro peterkropotkin worldbank imf globaljustice history freemarkets freetrade media globalization publicdiscourse neoliberalism easttimor syria control power children brasil argentina postcapitalism passion learning education giftgiving gifteconomy gifts politics policy generosity kindness sustainability life labor work schooloflife social society capitalism economics hope 2011 anti-authoritarians antiauthority anarchy anarchism rebeccasolnit from delicious
february 2012 by robertogreco

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A Conversation With Anarchist David Graeber - YouTube

"Anarchists believe in direct action…Anarchism is about acting as if you are already free…Anarchism is democracy without the government…Anarchism is direct democracy…Anarchism is a commitment to the idea that it would be possible to have a society based on principles of self-organization, voluntary association, and mutual idea."

2006 davidgraeber authority hierarchy academia globalization politics subversion marxism teaching cv charlierose interviews via:chrisberthelsen subordination philosophy freedom activism coercion democracy optimism humanism protest voluntaryassociation mutualaid self-organization deschooling unschooling power worldbank imf process consensus history war 20thcentury policy economics capitalism concensus
december 2011 by robertogreco

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For Some Reason UC Davis Did Not Make Me Give Up On Humanity | xoJane

"A Gallup poll conducted after the shootings showed that 58% of respondents blamed the students for the massacre. Nixon’s prepared statement said that the protesters’ behavior “invite[d] tragedy” — in other words, they were asking for it. You can bet your ass that if there had been Internet comments sections in 1970, they would have been full of misspelled missives about how those hippies only got what they deserved. Since there weren’t, those people sent hate mail to the victims’ mothers instead.

Improbably, we’ve grown a little since then… We’ve evolved in other ways too…

…if we keep zooming back through time, we see this again and again: a group of people who reject the status quo, who frighten and anger the majority by refusing to accept ingrained injustices, but who in retrospect are understood to be the first wave of a better, gentler world, a society made incrementally more kind by their influence."

evolution optimism 2011 ucdavis occupywallstreet ows UCD society justice socialjustice statusquo emergence changemakers change changemaking humanity time us racism warmongering war protest kentstate from delicious
november 2011 by robertogreco

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What if the Secret to Success Is Failure? - NYTimes.com

"…concerns about a character program…comprised only those kind of nice-guy values. “The danger w/ character is if you just revert to these general terms—respect, honesty, tolerance—it seems really vague. If I stand in front of kids & just say, ‘It’s really important for you to respect each other,’…they glaze over. But if you say, ‘Well, actually you need to exhibit self-control,’ or you explain the value of social intelligence—this will help you collaborate more effectively —…it seems…more tangible.”…

“Sure, a trait can backfire. Too much grit…you start to lose ability to have empathy for other people. If you’re so gritty that you don’t understand why everyone’s complaining about how hard things are, because nothing’s hard for you, because you’re Mr. Grit, you’re going to have a hard time being kind. Even love—being too loving might make you the kind of person who can get played…character is something you have to be careful about…strengths can become character weaknesses.”

education character tcsnmy lcproject teaching learning grading books success failure kipp schools workethic kindness empathy dominicrandolph davidlevin michaelfeinberg martinseligman christopherpeterson 2011 psychology longterm grit gritscale angeladuckworth iq wholecandidatescore grades self-control socialintelligence gratitude curiosity optimism zest gpa cpa character-pointaverage middle-classvalues self-regulation interpersonal love humor beauty bravery citizenship fairness integrity wisdom from delicious
september 2011 by robertogreco

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Bought some US stocks

"What I am saying is that I believe in me, and I believe in you and I believe in elbow grease, objectivity and history. Did you see the recession coming? Did it announce itself and tell you the date it would arrive? No, it did not. Nor will recovery. So quit whining. Pessimism is for losers." 
 
[Don't really agree with much other than this line.] 
 
[via: http://daringfireball.net/linked/2011/08/07/delaney via http://www.danielmarkham.com/posts/bought-some-us-stocks ]

pessimism optimism belief objectivity history ingenuity workethic hardwork recession finance money jobs 2011 from delicious
august 2011 by robertogreco

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A Sit-Down With Joichi Ito, The Drop-Out VC Leading MIT's Media Lab | Co. Design [Worth reading the whole thing.]

"It’s not about being a generalist. I like to go deep in a lot of things…deep enough to contribute. If I like scuba, I become an instructor…music, I become a disc jockey…movies, I want to work on a movie set. I don’t become a world class academic in that field, but I get good enough to understand the nuances. & then, because I have experience in so many fields, it gives me a pattern that other people don’t have. For me, being unique and having friends who are unique is a really important thing… 
 
When I was in Hollywood, I realized that if I wanted to be a Hollywood producer, I’d have to spend 120% of my time talking to only Hollywood people. It’s the same in every industry or with traditional academics. But the Media Lab is a place where you can sit around & talk about everything deeply & that’s the whole point…here I’ve been stitching this thing together & being called this crazy scatterbrained ADD guy when in fact, what I’ve been trying to do already exists at the Media Lab…"

joiito mitmedialab generalists dilettante depth dropouts unschooling deschooling tcsnmy lcproject education learning interdisciplinary multidisciplinary crossdisciplinary 2011 careers optimism leadership administration enthusiasm from delicious
august 2011 by robertogreco

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» Almost everything is getting better - Long Views: The Long Now Blog

"Last week The Millennium Project released its 02011 State Of The Future report, looking at trends for the past twenty years and projecting ahead for the next decade. (Not the 10,000 year future, but still of interest.) You can read an executive summary of the report here.

While the report finds many things to worry about – global warming, terrorism, corruption – overall the trends are surprisingly hopeful, as shown in their chart called “Where we are winning”:"

[Appreciate the optimism, but these are select measures and probably global too. I wonder what US figures would look like. In the US, there are several that are getting much worse. UPDATE: Here's a start: http://www.adbusters.org/magazine/71/generation-fcked.html ]

optimism economics future politics policy world 2011 longnow millenniumproject stateofthefuture
august 2011 by robertogreco

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Makin' Ads: 5 Rules from Wieden + Kennedy

"Act Stupid. "Our philosophy is to come in ignorant every day. The idea of retaining ignorance is sort of counterintuitive, but it subverts a lot of [problems] that come from absolute mastery. If you think you know the answer better than somebody else does, you become closed to being fresh." 
 
Shut up. "The first thing we do when we meet with clients is listen. We try to figure out what their problems are. Then we come back with questions, not solutions. We write these out and put them on the wall. And then we circle the ones that we think are interesting. More often than not, the questions hold the answer." 
 
Always say yes… 
 
Chase Talent. "Find people who make you better. It's best to be the least talented person in the room. It's reciprocal. It challenges you to keep up." 
 
Be Fearless. "Do anything, say anything. 'You're not useful to me until you've made three momentous mistakes.'…if you try not to make mistakes, you miss out on the value of learning from them."

advertising rules wk wieden+kennedy innovation learning danwieden davidkennedy ignorance curiosity listening openminded classideas jellyhelm optimism failure risktaking mistakes from delicious
august 2011 by robertogreco

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Tomgram: Rebecca Solnit, Hope for the Hell of It | TomDispatch

"Unpredictability is grounds for hope, though please don’t mistake hope for optimism. Optimism & pessimism are siblings in their certainty. They believe they know what will happen next, with one slight difference: optimists expect everything to turn out nicely without any effort being expended toward that goal. Pessimists assume that we’re doomed & there’s nothing to do about it except try to infect everyone else with despair while there’s still time.

Hope, on the other hand, is based on uncertainty, on the much more realistic premise that we don’t know what will happen next. The next thing up might be as terrible as a giant tsunami smashing 100 miles of coastal communities or as marvelous as a new species of butterfly being discovered…When it comes to the worst we face, nature itself has resilience, surprises, and unpredictabilities. But the real territory for hope isn’t nature; it’s the possibilities we possess for acting, changing, mattering…"

rebeccasolnit hope optimism pessimism uncertainty pendulumswings coalitionofimmokaleeworkers labor 2011 resistance firstnations globalization latinamerica decolonization anti-globalization change from delicious
august 2011 by robertogreco

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Beyond Prediction - Charlie's Diary

"The fact is that if I've learned one thing in two years of studying how we think about the future, it's that the one thing that's sorely lacking in the public imagination is positive ideas about where we should be going. We seem to do everything about our future except try to design it. It's a funny thing: nobody ever questions your credentials if you predict doom and destruction. But provide a rosy picture of the future, and people demand that you justify yourself. Increasingly, though, I believe that while warning people of dire possibilities is responsible, providing them with something to aspire to is even more important. The foresight programme has given me a lot of tools to do that in a justifiable way, so I might as well use them."

forecasting innovation future doomandgloom predictions design optimism hope planning 2011 from delicious
july 2011 by robertogreco

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The Spirit of the Spacesuit - NYTimes.com ["The success of this “soft” approach — ad hoc, individualistic, pragmatic — should be a lesson to us."]

"Props and costumes mattered in this theater of war. That NASA’s equipment should be painted white, and feature no military shields or corporate brands but only “USA,” “NASA” and the flag, was a deliberate decision by President Dwight D. Eisenhower. Yet American rockets were nevertheless cobbled together from instruments of war, their craftsmen drawn from the same network of systems engineers that was devised to manage the arms race and its doomsday scenarios. Our first astronauts went to space hunched into an improvised capsule atop ICBM’s, squatting in place of warheads. The brilliance with which the resulting achievements shone was — like a diamond’s — the result of terrible pressure. We should be glad that this era is past. 
 
But if the dazzling image of midcentury spaceflight obscures its dark origins, close scrutiny of the Apollo spacesuit reveals a different and more robust approach to innovation — one that should inspire us at this uncertain moment in space exploration."

space spacerace history war 2011 ingenuity nicholasdemonchaux via:javierarbona spaceexploration spacesuits spaceflight coldwar adhoc innovation nasa us bureaucracy militaryindustrialcomplex possibility optimism from delicious
july 2011 by robertogreco

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Frank Chimero’s Blog - The Storm and The Line

"…“changer les idées”… to do something different to clear one’s head.…to take a break, to have a rest, but most importantly…an interruption of routine…“to change one’s ideas.” Sometimes…inflicted on us…other times we may choose to do it for ourselves. If the world can be reinvented, we should reassess our presumptions and ideas, especially when we find ourselves in situations that shake us to the core…

…everything we do, everything we make, is not about the beginning or the end of things. We may draw a line, but we are in the thick of life. We make for these middle parts. Every time we sit down to write, draw, design, paint, dance, we do so because we believe there will be a tomorrow. Every movement and each creation says, “The world is not done yet.” To make is to be optimistic. We get to make tomorrow for ourselves and one another, and we are lucky, because we are allowed to be engaged with the world and one another in this way…"

design culture writing language life nicholsonbaker creativity creating making doing glvo optimism change meaning meaningmaking happiness sadness emotions frankchimero routine disruption disruptive disruptors action
june 2011 by robertogreco

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Frank Chimero’s Blog - The Storm and The Line

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The Coping Cop-out of Machines of Loving Grace | clusterflock

"At first the final ending lines of episode 3 were a let-down, a cop-out that left me hanging (for perhaps the same reason that Deron couldn’t get past the premise): 
 
"… But Hamilton’s ideas remain powerfully influential in our society. Above all, the idea that human beings are helpless chunks of hardware controlled by software programs written in their genetic code. The question is, have we embraced that idea because it is a comfort in a world where everything we do, either good or bad, seems to have terrible unforeseen consequences? We know that it was our actions that helped cause the horror still unfolding in the Congo. Yet we have not idea what to do about it. So instead we have embraced a fatalistic philosophy of us as helpless computing machines to both excuse and explain our political failure to change the world." 
 
But now, waking up the next morning, I can’t stop thinking about it & I’m wondering if it bothered me because it’s true & I just don’t want to accept it?"

allwathedoverbymachinesoflovinggrace 2011 clusterflock pessimism optimism altruism from delicious
june 2011 by robertogreco

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Some Dark Thoughts on Happiness -- New York Magazine

"I almost became a professional philosopher," Martin Seligman says. "I had a fellowship to Oxford. I turned it down."… 
 
"My education was Wittgensteinian," he continues. I’d heard this about Seligman too—how fascinated he was by Ludwig Wittgenstein, a famous depressive who nevertheless told his landlady as he was dying, Tell them it’s been wonderful. Seligman’s interested in many famous depressives—Lincoln, Oppenheimer. He identifies himself as a depressive, too. "But in retrospect," he continues, "I think Wittgenstein suborned three generations of philosophy, including mine, by telling us that what we wanted to do was puzzles and that somehow by solving puzzles, problems would get solved. I spent 40 years struggling out of that mode." 
 
Seligman spent almost as long struggling out of the mode of traditional psychology… It is Seligman’s contention that psychology’s emphasis on pathology has marginalized the study of well-being."

happiness psychology philosophy culture well-being martinseligman wittgenstein positivepsychology politics 2006 chrispeterson selfhelp danielgilbert shanelopez babyboomers malcolmgladwell georgewbush pathology talben-sahar lottery wealth despair depression maximizers satisficers optimism pessimism from delicious
march 2011 by robertogreco

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San Francisco – Pictory

"Looking south down Hyde Street from a balcony in Russian Hill, I thought of all the people drawn to this beautiful city from afar for its promise. Not everyone finds the reality as perfect as their vision. Just like in any city, there’s no shortage of melancholy, unrealized dreams, lost fortunes, and lives ending too soon. But in San Francisco there’s also a persistent optimism that stands out even in the midst of hard times. New things are always being created here."

sanfrancisco optimism making creativity creating doing cities vitality dreams vision melancholy from delicious
february 2011 by robertogreco

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Utopia - Charlie's Diary

“…we badly need more utopian speculation. The consensus future we read about in the media and that we’re driving towards is a roiling, turbulent fogbank beset by half-glimpsed demons: climate change, resource depletion, peak oil, mass extinction, collapse of the oceanic food chain, overpopulation, terrorism, foreigners who want to come here and steal our <strike>women</strike> jobs. It’s not a nice place to be; if the past is another country, the consensus view of the future currently looks like a favela with raw sewage running in the streets. Conservativism — standing on the brake pedal — is a natural reaction to this vision; but it’s a maladaptive one, because it makes it harder to respond effectively to new and unprecedented problems. We can’t stop, we can only go forward; so it is up to us to choose a direction.” [via: ªªhttp://magicalnihilism.com/2010/12/05/work-as-if-you-lived-in-the-early-days-of-a-better-nation/ ]ºº

future utopia scifi politics design sciencefiction conservatism optimism speculativedesign speculation futures peakoil collapse climatechange overpopulation terrorism economics doomandgloom pessimism progress from delicious
january 2011 by robertogreco

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Everything the Network Touches [everything-the-network-touches.pdf]

Presentation gem from Tom Coates, dConstruct 2010, some beautiful slides that apparently contained equally beautiful animation/video. [See notes from Matthew Culnane: http://www.matthewculnane.co.uk/post/1066001084/visiting-dconstruct-2010 ]

tomcoates cities communities connectivity network slides internet opensource osm openstreetmap ubicomp internetofthings inquality spimes dariusthegreat networks networkedcities personalinformatics history persia infrastructure twitter lanyrd geoloacation socialweb socialnetworks datavisualization visualization semanticweb commoditization techcommoditization muji services privacy optimism inequality filetype:pdf media:document from delicious
september 2010 by robertogreco

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k-punk: Optimistic Melancholia

"This notion of "optimistic melancholia" has a resonance just now, precisely because it's so alien to today's affective regime, to the relentless positivity that Ivor Southwood identifies as central to the sell-yourself culture. Even as it attempts to photoshop out all negativity, this mandatory positivity is only the other side to capitalist realism's hedonic depression. If nothing else, optimistic melancholia reminds us of a culture with a wider emotional bandwidth."

optimism melancholy optimisticmelancholia k-punk via:blackbeltjones negativity capitalism realism hedonics depression emotions culture 2010 nostalgia memory from delicious
august 2010 by robertogreco

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DSGN AGNC: Good News

"The theme of TEDGlobal 2010 was "And now the good news..." It was a nonstop week of intense ideas exchange -- listening to great talks and meeting dynamic people, especially the other TED Fellows and Senior Fellows. But for me the good news was that "the Future" has arrived.

tedglobal ted future design selfdetermination humanity nature productdesign ubicomp society optimism 2010 ethanzuckerman
august 2010 by robertogreco

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Clay Shirky: 'Paywall will underperform – the numbers don't add up' | Technology | The Guardian

"The one point of agreement between internet utopians and sceptics has been their techno-deterministic assumption that the web has fundamentally changed human behaviour. Both sides, Shirky says, are wrong. "Techies were making the syllogism, if you put new technology into an existing situation, and new behaviour happens, then that technology caused the behaviour. But I'm saying if the new technology creates a new behaviour, it's because it was allowing motivations that were previously locked out. These tools we now have allow for new behaviours – but they don't cause them." Had Facebook been around when he was in his 20s, he cheerfully admits, he too would have spent his youth emailing photos of himself to everyone he knew."

clayshirky via:migurski cognitivesurplus technodeterminism collaboration socialnetworking behavior business future 2010 newspapers internet journalism paywall media culture creativity community socialmedia news technology optimism web
july 2010 by robertogreco

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How to deal with poverty in schools « Re-educate

"Perhaps that’s one way to define wealth: the ability to choose from many options. In this way, our schools are suffering from a poverty that is much more profound than just a lack of money. Our schools—teachers & students—are suffering from a staggering lack of options...a profound absence of the possibility of anything interesting happening."

pscs pugetsoundcommunityschool tcsnmy small transformation lcproject cv schools education poverty options wealth change gamechanging deschooling optimism stevemiranda choices teaching scale
june 2010 by robertogreco

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Viktor Frankl: Why to believe in others | Video on TED.com

"In this rare clip from 1972, legendary psychiatrist and Holocaust-survivor Viktor Frankl delivers a powerful message about the human search for meaning -- and the most important gift we can give others."

psychology idealism life meaning philosophy ted education tcsnmy expectation beliefinothers optimism viktorfrankl humanity human existence 1972
may 2010 by robertogreco

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YouTube - RSA Animate - Smile or Die

"Acclaimed journalist, author and political activist Barbara Ehrenreich explores the darker side of positive thinking."

rsa irony barbaraehrenreich economics positivethinking positivepsychology delusion emptiness housingcrisis willfulinorance attitude morality thesecret absurdity amorality optimism gloom negativity pessimism makingthingswork realism actuality truth science vigilance
may 2010 by robertogreco

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Do I Dare Disturb the Universe? - What you need to know when you’re done with teacher school

Some great advice: "Be interested.. for the students’ sake, show them that you’re interested in more than just your content area. You’ve got a passion (presumably) so don’t be afraid to let it come out in who you are in the classroom. In one of my all-time favorite blog posts ever, Russell Davies says, “The way to be interesting is to be interested.”... Be a learner... The best way for teachers to learn is not necessarily through one-size-fits-all PD sessions. Read a lot. Create an account on Google Reader or Netvibes and subscribe not only to education blogs, but blogs about what you’re passionate about (remember the first tip I gave you?). And also, keep it in balance and subscribe to blogs that you don’t necessarily agree with. Preaching to choir is always fun, but it can be a dangerous habit. ...Avoid like the plague negative people and their efforts to recruit you... Have fun... Just because you can do something with technology doesn’t mean you should do it with technology."

professionaldevelopment teaching interested interesting learning modeling schools schooling optimism tcsnmy
march 2010 by robertogreco

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Weblogg-ed » The New National Ed Tech Plan…Pinch Me

"I’m trying not to get overly optimistic here, but suffice to say, if the rhetoric is any indication of the direction, we may have actually turned a corner.

schools schooling willrichardson edtech gamechanging reform change optimism tcsnmy education rttt policy technology cloud broadband learning lcproject unschooling deschooling networkedlearning collaboration personallearning
march 2010 by robertogreco

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L.A. Consequential - Opinionator Blog - NYTimes.com

"Since [1992], homicide is down nearly 80% through this year, & overall violent crime has taken a similar plunge. In 2008, last year for full FBI stats, even Omaha, NE, had slightly higher murder rate than LA...the trend continues: murder in LA is now down 50% from relatively placid levels 2 years ago...Of course, some dangerous ambient conditions remain. Chief Beck says there are still 40,000 gang members here — enough to fill a stadium— but that number is down by half from its peak. And, on the public relations front, the L.A.P.D. itself stumbled this week when it had to apologize for an insensitive display of evidence at a Las Vegas homicide exhibit, a show that included bloody clothing — since removed — worn by Sen. Robert F. Kennedy on the night he was assassinated. Nationwide, the story of crime falling to half-century lows is an ongoing miracle...The causes are many, and mostly speculative..."

losangeles crime cities us trends statistics prisons mapping neoliberalism optimism culture libertarian politics police
march 2010 by robertogreco

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Do Your Best Job Ever!? | Do Your Best Job Ever!? | Institute For The Future

"For employers looking at workplace wellness, I think the lesson is relatively straightforward: Some help with mental well-being and happiness can be useful, but the more coercive those efforts feel, the greater the backlash--and the less successful--workplace happiness programs would likely be. But what the balance between coercion and help, and between useful and unrealistic optimism looks like--in the workplace and beyond--remains a very open, but very important question for the coming decade."

work well-being administration management happiness leadership optimism coercion
february 2010 by robertogreco

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National Journal Magazine - U.S. Versus Europe: No Winner

"Which has the superior economic model, the United States or Europe? The question keeps coming up and never gets resolved. It is having another go-round at the moment, with the adversaries lining up as usual. Conservatives say that Europe's social-democratic model is bound for the landfill of history. Progressives defend the model, even if they usually stop short of recommending it outright.

us europe economics individualism society socialism democracy taxes policy politics progressives government scandinavia denmark france sweden netherlands paulkrugman productivity work well-being employment efficiency effort growth assimilation immigration class optimism innovation competitiveness labor
january 2010 by robertogreco

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The WELL: Bruce Sterling: State of the World 2010

"you've treated your future as an "unpredictable lurching thing" & now you're all morose about that...your generation CREATED that situation! Ever heard of "disruptive innovation," "disintermediation," "offshoring," "small pieces loosely joined," "de-monetization," "plug & play," "the network as a platform"?...Guys w/ stacks of gold bars & working oil wells don't have stability! Much less guys like you...want some security? Demand government housing subsidies & guaranteed minimum income! They bailed out every broke mogul...might as well bail out civil population...You're Canadian always in Cali married to Briton always in Japan...you're not gonna "end up" anywhere. Forget about that...you have made your mobile bed...lie in it."..."coherent picture of your future."...imagine you're 3yo. You want to give your Dad, back in 1974, a coherent picture of 2010...something very actionable, lucid & practical...tell me what you oughta tell him about 2010, back in 1974. Use words of 1 syllable"

brucesterling corydoctorow 2010 futurology futurism future politics business media environment predictions china brasil nomads neo-nomads technology society culture commentary google world life intelligence fear pessimism optimism jonlebkowsky jamaiscascio
january 2010 by robertogreco

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Futurist Richard Watson's predictions for 2010 - Speakers Corner

"Constant partial stupidity ... Digital isolation ... Hunger for shared experiences ... Flight to the physical ... Expecting less ... Conspicuous non-consumption ... Unsupervised adults ... Localism ... Re-sourcing ... Fear fatigue" + "Ten things on the way out: Dining rooms, Letter writing on paper, Paper statements and bills, Optimism about the future, Individual responsibility, Intimacy, Humility, Concentration, Retirement, Privacy

future libraries predictions 2010 richardwatson fear human multitasking conspicuousconsumption consumption frugality outsourcing localism isolation social twitter sharedexperience physical books distraction attention non-consumption postconsumerism re-sourcing paper optimism responsibility safety health comfort greed loneliness via:TheLibrarianEdge
january 2010 by robertogreco

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Detroit: Urban Laboratory and the New American Frontier | Newgeography.com

"troubles of Detroit are well-publicized...economy in free fall, people streaming for the exits, worst racial polarization & city-suburb divide in America, its government is feckless & corrupt, & its civic boosters, even ones that are extremely knowledgeable, refuse to acknowledge the depth of the problems, instead ginning up stats & anecdotes to prove all is not so bad. But as with Youngstown, one thing this massive failure has made possible is ability to come up with radical ideas for the city, & potentially to even implement some of them. Places like Flint & Youngstown might be attracting new ideas & moving forward, but it is big cities that inspire the big, audacious dreams. & that is Detroit. Its size, scale, & powerful brand image are attracting not just the region’s but the world’s attention. It may just be that some of the most important urban innovations in 21st century America end up coming not from Portland or New York, but places like Youngstown &, yes, Detroit."

detroit cities economics food urban urbanism farming future optimism urbanprairie gamechanging housing michigan urbanplanning geography agriculture innovation architecture change futurism environment sustainability urbanagriculture planning research parks reconstruction glvo
december 2009 by robertogreco

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Worldchanging: Bright Green: President Obama's Nobel Prize Speech and the Politics of Optimism

"President Obama's Nobel Prize acceptance speech is a truly remarkable piece of writing. He manages, in an incredibly conflicted moment, to neither dodge the conflicts nor let those conflicts define the possibilities of our time. It is a speech that is honest, humble and at the same time profoundly high-minded. The last few lines, in particular, reveal a sentiment that's critical for the era of instability we know we're headed into [quote here] This is a set of ideas very much the moral core of the politics of optimism that I've written about before. There are going to be very difficult days ahead for those of us who have compassion for the suffering and a love for the planet, who believe in freedom and progress, who would like to see our generation meet its challenges fully. We need not to lose sight of "the world that ought to be."

alexsteffen barackobama worldchanging nobelprizes peace war future optimism 2009
december 2009 by robertogreco

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Meet Bruce Mau. He wants to redesign the world

"Early in his career, Mau began to consider the idea that everything a business does matters; that every action communicates a message to the world and also has consequences on some level...saw...compartmentalised thinking as standard practice in business, & felt that it allowed industry to wreak havoc on the world...Study. Use the necessity of production as an excuse to study. Mau has always believed that a design studio should be a place of study & that designing should be an exercise in lifelong learning. Mau recommends making your own design studio, wherever it may be, into an environment that encourages learning. Surround yourself with ideas; stock the place with books. Just don't spend too much time arranging the bookshelf...new iterations of Massive Change idea...network of schools, or "centres for massive change"...franchise concept of massive change to universities or companies, enabling them to set up their own design/innovation labs using Mau's methodologies"

brucemau bmd iwb lifelonglearning tcsnmy lcproject learning bookfuturism design gamechanging manifestos innovation optimism future schooldesign growth massivechange change society glvo diy tinkering making do doing
december 2009 by robertogreco

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A Manifesto for the Planet § SEEDMAGAZINE.COM

"On most enviro issues, a lot is going to be played out in developing world...where major needs & crises are...where there is ability to radically rethink things. We’ve seen this w/ cellphones. Wait ‘til those folks get a hold of synthetic biology...fundamental difference btwn Greens who automatically distrust technology & Turquoises who look at [it] as a potential tool...Greens are typically worriers...Turquoises...interested in opportunity...worry first vs worry later dichotomy...online annotated version...sections of every chapter that are footnoted will be immersed in research material with lots of live links & photos, diagrams, charts...keep updating the book...If most of the things that I point at in the book are pursued full on, we’d have a pretty good chance, but I’m not sure that it’s going to play out. It’s not bad people. There’s just a lot of momentum that we’ve built up going in directions that are now understood to be harmful and are getting more so as time goes by."

stewartbrand environment wholeearthcatalog change technology problemsolving climate history future books gamechanging optimism green turquoise
september 2009 by robertogreco

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Systemic Flaws In the Reported World View - Chris Anderson

"In fact, most meta-level reporting of trends show a world that is getting better. We live longer, in cleaner environments, are healthier, and have access to goods and experiences that kings of old could never have dreamed of. If that doesn't make us happier, we really have no one to blame except ourselves. Oh, and the media lackeys who continue to feed us the litany of woes that we subconsciously crave."

chrisanderson optimism politics history analysis future culture news stateoftheworld violence philosophy ideas progress edge media world pessimism
may 2009 by robertogreco

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Rossignol » Thrilling Wonder Stories

"The rocketship wonder of earlier decades is gone, and our children write dystopias by default: a fascinating, terrifying realisation. He seemed rather earthy and upbeat, and talked of how problems mean invention, and creativity, but I couldn’t help think about a generation of kids for whom there is no bright imagined future: only Bladerunner, eco-death, the Drowned World, apocalypse. MacLeod talked about the problems for idealistic sci-fi now, and I wonder if there was something about the hip nihilism of modern fantasy, combined with relentless terror-cancer newsmedia shit, that really will stop future generations bothering to climb out of their doomed shrug." ... "The whole thing was stamped, perhaps imperceptibly to everyone else, with a motto I come back to - paraphrasing Richard Rorty - which is: “anything can be redescribed”. Sometimes, a new description is all you need."

design archigram architecture fiction simulation speculation jgballard pessimism sciencefiction scifi optimism narrative representation writing futurism future tcsnmy dystopia utopia jimrossignol wonder children
may 2009 by robertogreco

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The Civil Heretic - Freeman Dyson - Profile - NYTimes.com

"All 6 Dysons describe eventful childhoods w/ people like Feynman coming by...father...always preaching virtues of boredom: “Being bored is the only time you are creative”...Around the Institute for Advanced Study, that intellectual Arcadia where the blackboards have signs on them that say Do Not Erase, Dyson is quietly admired for candidly expressing his doubts about string theory’s aspiration to represent all forces and matter in one coherent system. “I think Freeman wishes the string theorists well,” Avishai Margalit, the philosopher, says. “I don’t think he wishes them luck. He’s interested in diversity, and that’s his worldview. To me he is a towering figure although he is tiny — almost a saintly model of how to get old. The main thing he retains is playfulness. Einstein had it. Playfulness & curiosity. He also stands for this unique trait, which is wisdom. Brightness here is common. He is wise. He integrated, not in a theory, but in his life, all his dreams of things.”"

freemandyson skepticism science play curiosity diversity tcsnmy physics futurism future climate globalwarming time weather boredom creativity sandiego geneticengineering tinkering learning habitsofmind howwework richardfeynman generalists attention nuclearweapons algore optimism intellect genius interdisciplinary problemsolving ingenuity multidisciplinary crossdisciplinary orthodoxy heretics belief debate
march 2009 by robertogreco

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Idle Words - Cowpox, Smallpox

"We are facing an economic crisis that is within our capacity to solve, and an ecological crisis that we lack the political means to prevent. It's only by failing at the former that we might have a chance at surviving the latter."

change crisis 2009 recession climate economics forecasting nonlinear maciejceglowski optimism environment sustainability finance globalwarming environmentalism climatechange democracy behavior money government politics
march 2009 by robertogreco

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Joe Jackson and Jamais Cascio Vs The Collapsitarians « Magical Nihilism

"As Jamais Cascio says, quoting Evelin Lindner:

pessimism optimism jamaiscascio crisis change challenge mattjones risk future 2009 hope
march 2009 by robertogreco

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Laurent Haug’s blog » Crisis or transition?

"crisis or transition? The numbers that make news...are pretty bad, but...the whole picture? Yes, the banks are under attack & deservedly so. Their model is based on world that does not exist anymore. Like music industry before, banks have been refusing innovation, sitting on their assets without noticing that society was changing faster than ever. Customers have changed..., employees have changed, needs have evolved... There is a price for arrogance (it cuts you from your clients), lack of agility (you can’t follow change), heritage (having an history can be bad for you. ... I understand we all have a partial view of the world...I am no exception...these are weak signals, not backed by scientific numbers, which might not weight much in the face of reimbursing 1000s of billions of screw ups. But I am asking a question: is this really the sub primes, or are we facing a peak of inadequacy between large companies & the world they live in? Is this a crisis, or a transition to a new world?"

laurenthaug change crisis transition 2009 banking finance world gamechanging opportunity optimism pessimism switzerland swiss taxes
february 2009 by robertogreco

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SEED - The Universe in '09
trends 2009 infographics visualization science seed universe culture future ideas technology design creativity optimism
february 2009 by robertogreco

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How are you coping with collapse-anxiety? - Boing Boing

"Like everyone, I'm starting to freak out a little about the state of the economy. Many of my good friends are out of work -- and some of them have been out of work for a longer period than I would have thought possible. It seems like every day, I pass another closed store or cafe on my way to the office. And of course, the suggestion file here at Boing Boing is full of stories of the collapsing property bubble in Dubai, the implosion of the South Chinese manufacturing cities, and a million indicators, large and small, of a crisis that is global, deep and worsening.

2009 economics collapse crisis dystopia banking finance corydoctorow discussion boingboing fear anxiety society optimism pessimism
february 2009 by robertogreco

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THE AGE OF MASS INTELLIGENCE | More Intelligent Life

"Millions more people are going to museums, literary festivals and operas; millions more watch demanding television programmes or download serious-minded podcasts. Not all these activities count as mind-stretching, of course. Some are downright fluffy. But, says Donna Renney, the chief executive of the Cheltenham Festivals, audiences increasingly want “the buzz you get from working that little bit harder”. This is a dramatic yet often unrecognised development. “When people talk and write about culture,” says Ira Glass, the creator of the riveting public-radio show “This American Life”, “it’s apocalyptic. We tell ourselves that everything is in bad shape. But the opposite is true. There’s an abundance of really interesting things going on all around us.”"

via:kottke education society culture intelligence literacy consumption optimism information media pessimism sociology trends lookatthebrightside books music opera classical
december 2008 by robertogreco

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Worldchanging: Peak Population and Generation X

"Add all of this information together, and a generational imperative emerges. Generation X can be seen as the beginning of peak population; many of us (born between roughly 1960 and 1980) may live to see population peak in the middle of this century; and much of the most important work to be done to see us through to the other side of that watershed will need to be done in the next twenty years, when Generation X'ers are in their professional prime. We did not cause the crisis we face -- unless you count us guilty at birth -- but if the crisis is solved, it'll have to be in large part through the leadership of people born in my generation. Our historic call is to save the planet during peak population."

generationx genx generations babyboomers society sustainability worldchanging alexsteffen economics culture future global futurism ethics ecology population peakpopulation climate responsibility environment social optimism age
december 2008 by robertogreco

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Salon.com Life | An open apology to boomers everywhere [via: http://liftlab.com/think/laurent/2008/11/07/politics-is-cool-again/]

"And look, we really did stand for something, underneath all the eye-rolling. We're feminists, we care about the environment, we want to improve race relations, we volunteer. We're just low-key about it. We never wanted to do it the way you did it: So unselfconscious, so optimistic, guilelessly throwing yourself behind Team Liberal. We didn't get that. We aren't joiners. We don't like carrying signs. We tend to disagree, if only on principle.

genx generationx generations politics barackobama 2008 elections boomers babyboomers change us hope optimism
november 2008 by robertogreco

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Joho the Blog » We. One.

"To live up to the ideal we just embraced, we have to do intentionally what Obama does by nature. He listens to those with whom he disagrees, but he responds only to the goodness expressed in even the most fear-driven of statements. Ignore the small, the petty, the self-involved, the defensive, and respond to the moments of goodness in all of us. This is a practical program. I’ve seen it adopted on purpose and I’ve seen it work. Avoiding getting dragged into negative shoutfests is basic troll management. Learning to hear and respond to what is good and shared in an expression we find detestable is harder. The best teachers do this routinely. We can all learn to do it. We can. Yes, we can. It is a big part of how Obama brings out the better nature in us. It is a big reason the unrelenting and unreasoned negative campaign aimed at him failed."

via:preoccupations listening barackobama 2008 hope optimism teaching politics understanding debate
november 2008 by robertogreco

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Barack Obama's Victory Speech - Election Results 2008 - The New York Times

"Interactive video and transcript of Brack Obama's address to supporters in Chicago on election night."

barackobama speech interactive video history politics elections 2008 victory us gamechanging government progress optimism
november 2008 by robertogreco

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Op-Extra Columnist - The Party of Yesterday - Op-Ed - NYTimes.com

"Ronald Reagan was lashed by liberals for running a “Morning in America” campaign, but he knew this country, at heart, was always tomorrow-looking — and he fared very well in educated cities as well as small towns. “Whatever else history may say about me when I’m gone,” said Reagan, “I hope it will record that I appealed to your best hopes, not your worst fears.” Barack Obama, who brings that music to the stage, leads by 30 points on the “hope and optimism” question in polls.

gop ronaldreagan politics johnmccain optimism hope fear negattivity campaigning sarahpalin 2008 elections us
october 2008 by robertogreco

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Pasta&Vinegar » Design Engaged 2008

"Cerveny’...“Flocking through utopias”...showed how event such as Design Engaged can be seen as “team sport, self-organized school, collaboratively browsed” which allows to explore the space, like a cultural exchange. This “social club” would then have following characteristics: 1. discontinuity: it turns things are falling apart, critical moment… at the same time, other people (quants) works on developing model (viz, metaphor) for the future. 2. optimism: there is no shiva in the west; when things fall apart in the west, this is bad however if things don’t fall apart, that’s death; if a system is not changing, it’s over complexity, emergence happens in growth/decay cycles so we have to embrace decay 3. possibility surfers, playing with models/possibilities, step out into the meta, look where value is going 4. use ultimate social object: utopia: how to build community around utopias, grand projects 5. what we do is a game of system models with prototypes from alternative universes"

bencerveny unconferences designengaged utopia optimism gamechanging systems design future education schools lcproject unschooling deschooling change socialobjects selforganization collaboration social space possibility failure discontinuity messiness exchange
october 2008 by robertogreco

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k-punk: Be positive... or else

"There's an interesting parallel between this necessity of positive thinking on the markets and Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (recently attacked by Darian Leader in The Guardian). Cognitive Behavioural therapists draw on data which suggests that most people survive everyday life by having an inflated idea of their own abilities. "Realism" would therefore be dysfunctional (and would be likely to lead to depression), just as "positive thinking" increases people's confidence and capacities. Leader attacks Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for being a market-driven, quick-fix solution to psychological problems which require longer term (psychoanalytic) treatment, but it is the idea that positive thinking is mandatory which most closely links neoliberalism and CBT."

via:blackbeltjones latecapitalism markets psychology economics psychoanalysis depression realism inflatedopinions bubbles optimism crisis pessimism cv
october 2008 by robertogreco

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John Thackara gives us all new reasons to live | Beyond the Beyond from Wired.com

"Part of me hopes the crash is real because a meltdown would deflate an economy which will otherwise eat the biosphere alive. But a crash would also cause enormous hardship, including to one's own nearest and dearest. Besides, rooting for collapse puts you on the same side as the loony-tune end-days crowd - and that's not a club I want to join. It's all very complicated. A healthier response, I'm sure, is to get out of the house and look for positive things to do."

future futurism peakoil technology johnthackara optimism crisis economics sustainability brucesterling
october 2008 by robertogreco

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too - LRRK2

"I carry the G2019S mutation and when my mother checked her account, she saw she carries it too. The exact implications of this are not entirely clear. Early studies tend to have small samples with various selection biases. Nonetheless it is clear that I have a markedly higher chance of developing Parkinson's in my lifetime than the average person. In fact, it is somewhere between 20-80% depending on the study and how you measure. At the same time, research into LRRK2 looks intriguing. This leaves me in a rather unique position. I know early in my life something I am substantially predisposed to. I now have the opportunity to adjust my life to reduce those odds (e.g. there is evidence that exercise may be protective against Parkinson's). I also have the opportunity to perform and support research into this disease long before it may affect me. And, regardless of my own health it can help my family members as well as others."

sergeybrin genetics optimism health future
september 2008 by robertogreco

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Hypertext - The wide world of the web | Chicago Tribune | Blog

"We have the capacity to surveil and control adolescents ion a way we’ve never done before. We chase them indoors and then we tell them that all the virtual places they might gather, we need to surveil them because of the ever-present threat of pedophiles and because of the ever-present need to market to them. We've really hemmed in adolescence in a way we never have before."

corydoctorow littlebrother surveillance privacy children adolescence youth freedom childhood society parenting interviews books opensource security boingboing sciencefiction design obsolescence apple technology creativecommons blogging writing copyright piracy law generations optimism rss rfid making hacking diy internet
august 2008 by robertogreco

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Sweet Juniper! - Deconstruction

"I know things aren't great right now, but with the media's perseveration on all this doom and gloom, I can't help but wonder if we aren't talking ourselves into an actual depression instead of just letting the United States slide slowly towards Europe where it belongs on the less relevant part of the world stage...And yet despite the barrage of bad news, I can't help but feel buoyed by what's going on in our neighborhood...everywhere I look around me all I see is this myopic vision of hope."

detroit urban urbanrenewal cities collapse optimism ecotopia us economics greatdepression ruin scavaging deconstruction metalforaging
august 2008 by robertogreco

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Surprise from the streets: Art! | Freep.com | Detroit Free Press [via: http://www.core77.com/blog/object_culture/detroit_the_new_wild_west_for_creatives_8436.asp]

Not sure why this one wasn't marked last year..."Art is one of the last things outsiders associate with Detroit. But drive the streets and you quickly realize the city possesses an energetic, grassroots creative class that not only spreads color, whimsy and provocation across the landscape, but also serves as an engine of redevelopment."

detroit art design urban urbanism cities gentrification optimism future green collapse urbandecay archaeology planning architecture ecotopia postindustrial urbanreclamation
august 2008 by robertogreco

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Metropolis POV » A Walk in the Park(s) [via: http://blog.wired.com/sterling/2008/08/detroit-the-ame.html]

"Two of the most exciting developments I saw in Detroit also embrace the city’s grit, but in much more intriguing ways. The Dequindre Cut is a one-mile remnant of a commuter rail line that ran from the suburbs into downtown until the early 1980s...Up the road is the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (MOCAD). Located in an old automobile dealership, MOCAD sports a few requisite art gallery trappings—funky doors, sans serif signage, an organic cafe—but architect Andrew Zago eschewed any major renovations of the cavernous space."

detroit urban urbanism cities gentrification optimism future green collapse urbandecay archaeology planning architecture design ecotopia postindustrial urbanreclamation
august 2008 by robertogreco

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Detroit, the American Torino | Beyond the Beyond from Wired.com

"Creatives living like mice in the unsustainable ruins of 20th century industrialism. But maybe mice is the wrong metaphor. There's so much *green* here that it's starting to look like giant strangler-figs rising and cracking the sidewalks. The natives of Detroit and Torino have already been through the grinding hell of decline that's awaiting your city, which is why I consider them natives of the future. Living in the rubble of Henry Ford the way Italians live in the rubble of the Roman Empire."

detroit torino turin cities gentrification optimism green collapse urbandecay urban urbanism archaeology planning architecture design future ecotopia postindustrial urbanreclamation brucesterling
august 2008 by robertogreco

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robertogreco {tumblr} - Urban decay, urban ruins, urban exploration, urban prairies, and urban ecotopias

@Javier - a little more on the Detroit ecotopia

comments detroit urbanism gentrification cities future optimism green sustainability urban collapse urbanprairie
june 2008 by robertogreco

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Everywhere Magazine: Article: Why We Bought a Vacation Home in Detroit - "A vacation home? In Detroit? Are we nuts? No, we're just getting in on the ground floor of the planet’s next great urban ecotopia."

"Rabbits, opossums, raccoons & occasional deer ramble through this urban landscape as though they owned it. We’ve gone canoeing along Detroit’s storied Rouge River canal...climbed abandoned 37-story building to get up-close view of peregrine falcon ne

detroit urbanism gentrification cities future optimism green sustainability urban urbanprairie collapse rebirth exploration nature landscape ecotopia urbanreclamation
june 2008 by robertogreco

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Google News - "I created my fake Google News page in 2007, mostly for my own amusement. "

"...I was depressed about the state of the world and all the dismal headlines, and I wanted to be able to imagine a much better world. I made the fake site my home page, as a mini-experiment in the power of positive thinking."

google optimism pessimism news journalism newspapers googlenews change politics
june 2008 by robertogreco

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GreenCine Daily: Robert Rauschenberg, 1925 - 2008.

"The saddest thing to contemplate on his death - after a life well lived - is not his passing, but to note how little of his optimism, and his ability to synthesize the new into revolutionary thought, appears to remain in the generation that experienced h

robertrauschenberg art optimism
june 2008 by robertogreco

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Tikkun olam - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"Hebrew phrase that means "repairing the world" or "perfecting the world." In Judaism, the concept of tikkun olam originated in the early rabbinic period. The concept was given new meanings in the kabbalah of the medieval period and further connotations i

repair hebrew words judaism terminology via:adamgreenfield language optimism acitivism justice
june 2008 by robertogreco

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Will Hutton: Forget the naysayers - America remains an inspiration to us all | Comment is free | The Observer

"The more I visit the US the more I think the pundits predicting the US's imminent economic and political decline hugely overstate their case. Rather, the next 50 years will be as dominated by the US as the last 50. The US will widen its technological and

economics innovation optimism us crisis finance future global technology industry
may 2008 by robertogreco

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Ephemeralization - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"coined by R. Buckminster Fuller...ability of people to use technological advances to continuously do more w/ less. Fuller’s vision = ephemeralization will result in ever increasing standards of living for ever growing population despite finite resource

ephemeralization technology science resources buckminsterfuller future society efficiency productivity wealth economics optimism
may 2008 by robertogreco

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The Rise of the Rest [Fareed Zakaria] Newsweek.com [comments: http://www.newsweek.com/id/135380/output/comments]

"For America to continue to lead the world, we will have to first join it...Americans—particularly the American government—have not really understood the rise of the rest....Just as the world is opening up, we are closing down."

politics economics us world globalization future history democracy fear optimism international gamechanging policy foreignpolicy china russia india development via:preoccupations
may 2008 by robertogreco

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Larry Page on how to change the world - Apr. 30, 2008

"what's driven economic growth, it's been major advances in things that mattered...our society is not organized around doing that...If you look at people who have high impact, they have pretty general knowledge....don't have really narrowly focused educat

google innovation future energy business generalists creativity entrepreneurship environment risk leadership culture technology science education specialization problemsolving world optimism
may 2008 by robertogreco

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Open the Future: Super-Empowered Hopeful Individuals

"core of "super-empowered hopeful individual" (SEHI) argument is that technologies may also enable individuals or small groups to carry out socially beneficial actions at scale that would have required resources of large NGO or business in decades past"

activism futurism optimism nanotechnology technology
march 2008 by robertogreco

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3quarksdaily: Letter from an Obama supporter

"next 4 years, I want my tv to broadcast not fear, but vision of President who trusts I am part of country & world that is profoundly flawed but fundamentally good. That it's ok to believe in fellow human beings & our potential to make things better – n

optimism politics us elections 2008 barackobama
february 2008 by robertogreco

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TED | TEDBlog: Telling the story of a passionate life: Ben Dunlap on TED.com

"tells the story of Sandor Teszler, Hungarian man he met at Wofford College...dramatic life story, which arcs from the Holocaust to American Deep South of 50s, shares deep, moving lessons about justice -- and the power of lifelong learning."

justice stories storytelling ted bendunlap learning wisdom life optimism
february 2008 by robertogreco

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Cover story: 'America still works' by Michael Lind | Prospect Magazine February 2008 issue 143

"Barring catastrophes, US in 2050...more racially integrated; remain culturally/linguistically homogeneous...easily afford social security & decent healthcare....challenges-not the ones usually identified....class lines are hardening"

us economics pessimism race politics culture society religion racism diversity history future health healthcare immigration latinos demographics census statistics language spanish secularism trends socialsecurity class doomsayers optimism linguistics productivity
january 2008 by robertogreco

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Kevin Kelly - The Two Percent Perspective

"I am optimistic because I think that while disease, illness, stupidity, wickedness, problems, and evil fill 49% of the world, health, wisdom, light and goodness fill 51% -- and that tiny 2% difference compounded over time is what makes civilization and c

optimism kevinkelly civilization culture perspective world future change problemsolving humanity
january 2008 by robertogreco

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The secret of happiness | It's in Iceland | Economist.com

"There is certainly little risk of eradicating the blues. As Eric Hoffer, an American social philosopher, once observed: “The search for happiness is one of the chief sources of unhappiness.”

happiness iceland optimism us psychology melancholy depression selfhelp culture society values
january 2008 by robertogreco

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Ahtisaari: Blogging over Las Vegas: Seven Challenges to our Shared Mobile Future

"7 challenges to our shared mobile future.: 1. Reach 2. Sometimess Off vs. Always On 3. Hackability 4. Social Primitives 5. Openess 6. Simplicity 7. Justice. A public conception of justice for freely forming networks. That could be our shared goal." and this quote from Pakistani master singer Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan: "Throw out the clocks, My lover comes home, Let there be revelry. My lover comes home, Let there be revelry."

ambientintimacy markoahtisaari phones mobile ideas futurism future design ubicomp nokia mobility technology gamechanging society usability wireless collaboration simplicity socialnetworks software strategy complexity charlesmingus flexibility hackability hacking openness open connectivity standards ubiquitous personalization networks freedom justice inequality optimism slow cv socialsoftware
january 2008 by robertogreco

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The Walrus >> Bruce Mau, Design & Optimism >> Imagining the Future >> Ideas

"However, if they come to understand that things are improving — that we are working together to make things better — they will invest in their communities and their businesses, in their children and their family, in their culture and education."

brucemau design change society world sustainability future worldchanging gamechanging optimism activism via:migurski
january 2008 by robertogreco

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William Gibson: The Rolling Stone 40th Anniversary Interview : Rolling Stone

"...our grandchildren will find quaintest about us is that we distinguish digital from real, virtual from real. In future, that will become literally impossible...distinction between cyberspace and that which isn't is going to be unimaginable."

williamgibson futurism cyberspace culture ubicomp pessimism optimism scifi sciencefiction science fiction technology interviews cybernetics digitalnatives future nanotechnology nuclear environment ubiquitous society biology cyberpunk books gamechanging
november 2007 by robertogreco

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Reason Magazine - Wikipedia and Beyond: Jimmy Wales' sprawling vision

"Wales, whose wife Christine teaches their 5-year-old daughter Kira at home, says he is disappointed by the "factory nature" of American education: "There's something significantly broken about the whole concept of school."

jimmywales homeschool unschooling education schools learning wikipedia freesom optimism democracy reference users content wiki liberalism smallpieceslooselyjoined society philosophy politics popculture reason collaborative economics journalism search web wikis
may 2007 by robertogreco

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