Speculative Research

Speculative Research

Author: Alex Wilkie

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2017-02-17

Total Pages: 241

ISBN-13: 1134890702

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Is another future possible? So called ‘late modernity’ is marked by the escalating rise in and proliferation of uncertainties and unforeseen events brought about by the interplay between and patterning of social–natural, techno–scientific and political-economic developments. The future has indeed become problematic. The question of how heterogeneous actors engage futures, what intellectual and practical strategies they put into play and what the implications of such strategies are, have become key concerns of recent social and cultural research addressing a diverse range of fields of practice and experience. Exploring questions of speculation, possibilities and futures in contemporary societies, Speculative Research responds to the pressing need to not only critically account for the role of calculative logics and rationalities in managing societal futures, but to develop alternative approaches and sensibilities that take futures seriously as possibilities and that demand new habits and practices of attention, invention, and experimentation.


Some Possible Solutions

Some Possible Solutions

Author: Helen Phillips

Publisher: Macmillan

Published: 2016-05-31

Total Pages: 225

ISBN-13: 1627793798

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A collection of short stories that "offers an idiosyncratic series of 'what-ifs' about our fragile human condition ... What if your perfect hermaphrodite match existed on another planet? What if you could suddenly see through everybody's skin to their organs? What if you knew the exact date of your death? What if your city was filled with doppelgangers of you? Forced to navigate these bizarre scenarios, Phillips' characters search for solutions to the problem of how to survive in an irrational, infinitely strange world"--


Computing Possible Futures

Computing Possible Futures

Author: William B. Rouse

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2019-09-12

Total Pages: 192

ISBN-13: 0192585444

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Mathematical modelling and simulation is an increasingly powerful area of mathematics and computer science, which in recent years has been fuelled by the unprecedented access to larger than ever stores of data. These techniques have an increasing number of applications in the professional and political spheres, and people try to predict the results of certain courses of action as accurately as possible. Computing Possible Futures explores the use of models on everyday phenomena such as waiting in lines and driving a car, before expanding the model's complexity to look at how large-scale computational models can help imagine big scale " scenarios like the effect self-driving cars on the US economy. The successes and failures of complex real world problems are examined, and it is shown how few, if any, failures are due to model errors or computational difficulties. It is also shown how real life decision makers have addressed important problems and used their model-based understanding of possible futures to inform these decisions. Written in an entertaining and accessible way, Computing Possible Futures will help those concerned about the futurity of their decisions to understand what fundamentally needs to be done, why it needs to be done, and how to do it.


Manifesting Possible Futures

Manifesting Possible Futures

Author: John C. Woodcock

Publisher: iUniverse

Published: 2013-01-03

Total Pages: 217

ISBN-13: 1475967659

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If the present alienation of mind from nature, i.e., the Cartesian reality principle, is to be overcome, there surely must be a climate of extreme depression amounting in many quarters to despair One way or another there is an opportunity here for a good writer who should fill out in terms of concrete events and experiences the issues If a society is really faced with startling changes and fairly imminent ones (and there is a good deal of evidence that ours is) it cannot be amiss for a few people here and there to be peering ahead, however inadequately, by way of preparation for them. Owen Barfield: The Coming Trauma of Materialism


All Possible Futures

All Possible Futures

Author: Jon Sueda

Publisher:

Published: 2014-01

Total Pages: 110

ISBN-13: 9781907414350

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Curated by Jon Sueda and featuring 37 projects by Bay Area and international artists, All Possible Futures is the first of three SOMArts Commons Curatorial Residency exhibitions in 2014. The group exhibition explores the potential of graphic design and celebrates a questioning of boundaries regarding concepts, processes, technologies, and form. Contemporary speculative pieces take the form of both physical objects and restaged installations.


Four Futures

Four Futures

Author: Peter Frase

Publisher: Verso Books

Published: 2016-11-01

Total Pages: 134

ISBN-13: 1781688141

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An exploration of the utopias and dystopias that could develop from present society Peter Frase argues that increasing automation and a growing scarcity of resources, thanks to climate change, will bring it all tumbling down. In Four Futures, Frase imagines how this post-capitalist world might look, deploying the tools of both social science and speculative fiction to explore what communism, rentism and extermininsm might actually entail. Could the current rise of the real-life robocops usher in a world that resembles Ender's Game? And sure, communism will bring an end to material scarcities and inequalities of wealth—but there's no guarantee that social hierarchies, governed by an economy of "likes," wouldn't rise to take their place. A whirlwind tour through science fiction, social theory and the new technologies are already shaping our lives, Four Futures is a balance sheet of the socialisms we may reach if a resurgent Left is successful, and the barbarisms we may be consigned to if those movements fail.


Possible Futures of European Education

Possible Futures of European Education

Author: S. Jensen

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 1973-07-31

Total Pages: 296

ISBN-13: 9789024712939

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In "Plan Europe 2000," launched by the European Cultural Foundation, the first project is devoted to education. This project sets out to isolate the principal features, and to sketch the "image" of the educational system in the year 2000. It is not a matter of "forecasting," for that would imply that the modes of educating people in the next thirty years are predeter mined and subject to the operation of factors that must be respected like the laws of an inevitable evolution. We should be trying to unveil what is to come. Nor is the enterprise a project based on the options considered to be most desirable, which would imply that man has an entirely free will and is capable of dominating anything that might oppose that will. We should then be trying to "dictate" what we want to exist in the year 2000. It would be the act of a demiurge. The project is in fact a long-term prospective effort, which must take into consideration· - major constraints and unyielding tendencies, scarcely susceptible of significant change; - data and factors that can be more or less freely manipulated but not ignored or eradicated; - priorities dictated by the limitations of time and means; - the authors' freedom of action, subject to the above limitations, and in any event to the following one: they must not conflict with European aspirations, even the latent ones; they must not outrage mental atti tudes that can only be modified by persuasion.


Suisun Marsh

Suisun Marsh

Author: Peter B. Moyle

Publisher: Univ of California Press

Published: 2014-03-26

Total Pages: 252

ISBN-13: 0520276086

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One of California's most remarkable wetlands, Suisun Marsh is the largest tidal marsh on the West Coast and a major feature of the San Francisco Estuary. This productive and unique habitat supports endemic species, is a nursery for native fishes, and is a vital link for migratory waterfowl. The 6,000-year-old marsh has been affected by human activity, and humans will continue to have significant impacts on the marsh as the sea level rises and cultural values shift in the century ahead. This study includes in-depth information about the ecological and human history of Suisun Marsh, its abiotic and biotic characteristics, agents of ecological change, and alternative futures facing this ecosystem.


Asymmetric Crisis in Europe and Possible Futures

Asymmetric Crisis in Europe and Possible Futures

Author: Johannes Jäger

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2015-04-10

Total Pages: 276

ISBN-13: 1317652975

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The crisis in Europe is often discussed as a crisis of European integration or a crisis of national economies within Europe. Both the ‘methodological Europeanism’ and ‘methodological nationalism’ miss out the important links between economic and political processes at different spatial scales within Europe, and therefore, asymmetries and phenomena of uneven development. In addition, a discussion of possible scenarios which systematically addresses the implications of anti-crisis policies is missing. This volume seeks to close this gap by systematically integrating the analysis of economic policy or ‘technical’ solutions to the crisis within a broader framework of political economy. It argues that combining critical political economy approaches and post-Keynesian perspectives allows for a systematic understanding of the economic and political dimensions of the crisis. Although both approaches have the capacity to deal with asymmetries and uneven development, the heterogeneity in Europe has been an often largely neglected dimension of analysis. However, this recent crisis has shown that this is an essential dimension which has to be addressed in order to better understand the dynamics of European development and integration. Hence, this book aims to deal with asymmetries in Europe and to bridge the gap between the two perspectives. This work will initiate an integrative debate that is crucial for a deeper understanding of the current crisis and is an important resource for all students and scholars of IPE, European political economy and European politics.


Profiles Of The Future

Profiles Of The Future

Author: Arthur C. Clarke

Publisher: Hachette UK

Published: 2013-03-29

Total Pages: 190

ISBN-13: 0575121823

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An inquiry into the limits of the possible. Our problems on Jupiter, Mercury, Venus - conquering Time - transport in the future - overcoming gravity - communications across space - benevolent electronic brains. The range of this enthralling book is immense: from the re-making of the human mind to the vast reaches of the universe. Newly revised, even the remarkable events of the last decade have affected few of the exciting speculations by Arthur C. Clarke - a scientist whose expert and wide knowledge is matched only by his brilliant imagination.