future
Exploring the future of science today, while looking back on the achievements from yesterday. Science fiction is science future.
Utopia Part 2
Continued from Part 1. It’s easy to smirk at my friend’s final comment, especially if you consider yourself a futurist. But it represents a common phenomenon, even amongst very clever people. And after all, why on earth should we spend any time thinking about what we want the world to look like in a hundred years? It would seem to make sense to focus on our current problems, and only worry about the next five to ten years or so.
By Conor McCammon5 years ago in Futurism
Carnivorous Vegans
Today, vegans are a small but dedicated group who, despite market pressure, make morally driven consumption decisions. That is, they allow a moral principle to guide their purchases and consumption over personal utility. Of course, some vegans just hate the taste of meat or are vegans for health reasons. But the vegans that I’m talking about specifically are Moral Vegans. Be it about rights, welfare, or the environment, Moral Vegans are stubbornly principled in the face of social conventions and economic influences. They often pay more for vegan alternatives, and are relatively marginalised in the marketplace (although a fairly robust niche for vegan alternatives has definitely emerged in the last few years). They remain stoic: they're in the right, and everyone else is making a terrible consumptive mistake.
By Conor McCammon5 years ago in Futurism
Utopia Part 1
I have a friend who is very smart (this is an important detail). We both love talking about politics and so we have a long back-catalogue of passionate conversations. But a few years ago during one of these conversations I was struck by something which stuck with me.
By Conor McCammon5 years ago in Futurism
While the rest of the world...
here we was fucken great. There's jist us here now. I think it was Daz who finished ‘em off - I thought might ‘ave been Trent but he's a lazy bugger and can hardly be arsed to git off lounge unless they’s food involved. An he’s mostly off his face smoking any shit he can find. So it must ‘ave been Daz. He’s the one who most gives a crap about keeping the land vermin free. Weren’t me - I jus been here in the after times - lucky to git taken in. Must ave bin tweny days give or take, wandering in the desert - ya’ couldn’t live in towns unless you had a wollap of cash only fat cats is there and thems that wait on ‘em.
By A.J. Roberts5 years ago in Futurism
Deadland
I spat the acrid taste of Deadland dust and sour sweat from my mouth. Pausing, I wound my torn muslin scarf over my nose and mouth. Deadland dust was finer than silt, finding its way into crevices you didn’t know you had...until you did. It was the burn that let you know that you and the dust no longer had secrets from each other. And if you didn’t hurry, you would soon have no secrets at all.
By Amanda Dudek5 years ago in Futurism
The Heirloom
Every family has an heirloom- not the traditional type that is passed down from eldest to eldest or mother to daughter- but to the most worthy of the next generation. It was supposed to make for a more career-oriented, successful society. And it did.... but unfortunately, successful careers don’t make for conscientious living or content people. The heated competition burned everything in its path. Those deemed unworthy were left scorched by the wayside, most depressed and in despair- and steralized. The successful were not left unscathed, though- the ever elusive goal of ‘successful enough’ frozen into their minds.
By Naomi Slavish5 years ago in Futurism
For Safety
Smoke curling through the pale orange sky over the distant hill indicated to Helena that morning was on the horizon. The fires provided warmth for the remnants of that small village whose people hunted for rats or squirrels, cooking them over crude stone pits and metal grates. In the distance, Helena had become a scavenger as well, digging through the heaps of destruction that occurred when one world state clashed with the other years ago. The war yielded no winners, only broken people, pawns struggling to survive.
By Barb Dukeman5 years ago in Futurism
All is calm
This record is for you. The software will transcribe my short voice clips. If you’re reading it, you’re a scofflaw like me. Scofflaws have to stick together. We’ve all been taught how things work and how lucky we are. In the Before Time there were conflicts of all kinds: between people, between groups, and between countries. Then came the Peacemakers. They took over everything, made a new order, a social compact, though it’s never been clear to me who agreed to it. No more war, and they’re working their way down to the individual level by testing. At age ten I was flagged as having too high an Emotional Quotient. Emotions are discouraged, so at age sixteen I was prevented from reproducing and discouraged from fraternizing, a kind of eugenics to weed out people like me who feel too much. When I go out, I have to wear a chain with an F so that normal folks know to avoid me. No point in corrupting their unemotional lives, I guess. They check on me once a month at a kind of program. We get homework in making apologies and extra courses in logic. Actually, turns out I’m no good at apologies, but I’m fairly good at logic, and that’s useful. I have to look co-operative or they’ll flag me as a scofflaw and I don’t want that. I’ve been an idiot, but I’m not stupid.
By Paul A. Merkley5 years ago in Futurism
