13
Oct
2009
The future is important – I’m going to live there soon.
Most people will have realised that I don’t tend to do things the normal way. This extends to education too – I’ve taken 4 years off in the midst of a 5 year course (and 2 more before it even started). See this old post.
This year I’m back at school to do the last year before I become a ‘real person’ and start paying council tax etc. Oxford Brookes has a terrific system where they’ve figured out that you are probably about sick of design studios by the end of your 4th year, and are ripe for a bit of – shh don’t say it too loudly – learning.
This is my draft proposal for what I’m going to do. It is a bit woolly, as it covers up that I really don’t actually know what it is that I am going to do, and it is only barely related to architecture.
The 21st century is hailed by many as a ‘make or break’ time for humanity, the tipping point between a technological utopia and a crushing blow to our species’ capacity to flourish. While every effort must be made to steer a path towards a bright future, contingencies for both extremes, as well as the vast, but discontinuous, range of circumstances and possibilities between must be considered.
Only in a very perverse utopia, or particularly devastating catastrophe, does architecture cease to be pertinent (the importance of architects is less certain!).The risk of global catastrophe, ranging from super volcanoes and runaway global warming to doomsday machines or bio-terrorism, is non trivial. The contingencies in place to contain or manage these events may (if successful) affect societies as much or more than the event itself. Conversely the potential for technology to enhance our lives beyond recognition is considerable. Indeed, it has already been realised. Genetic modification, cognitive enhancement and life extension are just a few of the possibilities.
With these great threats and opportunities come ethical questions about how, and whether, to manage the risks that the implementation of these opportunities (or whether to implement them at all!). While forecasting has its perils, as recent events in the financial sector have shown, it is foolhardy not to prepare to manage the outcomes of potential cataclysms. The continually diverging tree of all possible events makes the odds of a particular event, even in the relatively near future, vanishingly small. We need better tools. I intend learn how to develop a better understanding of the future, and the methods that can be used to improve predictions. Architecture is one of our most persistent projections into the future, there ought to be some consideration of what that future is going be like.
If getting past the next 90 years is really as fraught as is claimed (disasters, divergent societies, etc.) then we have a lot of work to do to get there, but it would make me feel better if I had a bit of an idea of what we’ll find when we do.
If you have any thoughts on things I ought to be looking at then let me know.
23
Sep
2009
the world in 2050
This is a recording of last night’s Intelligence Squared talk entitled ‘The world in 2050′. The quality is a little echoey, and it is extremely long, but I’m still getting comfortable with the nuances of this Livescribe pen.
The talks are pretty fast paced, and there is a lot of visual work that you’ll miss just from the recording, but it will tide you over until you get to the video – hopefully soon on the 21st Century School website. There is a blog post there already.
24
Jun
2008
the plan for next year
It seemed fitting that while I struggled to print this semester’s work, that I should be thinking about the next one. Now that I’ve finished this semester I can start writing it all down…
Matt Gaskin has a little something planned, which will be in place ready for my return. It’s essentially an extension of the existing and already very successful major study special route. As far as I can tell from afar, it’s notionally a student led studio, with a remit to do whatever we like. The initial discussions are happening via a facebook group.
My fascination with the far future is continuing, and now that I have a little time, I’m going to try and catch up on my reading. In the meantime, here’s a few of the websites that I’ve found recently that are related.
onsingularity.com – User-submitted news and discussion portal for the Singularity community, basically an aggregation of articles.
jetpress.org – the journal of the…
ieet.org – institute for ethics and emerging technologies
There are plenty more, and I really ought to do a proper ‘literature reviw at some point, but the general gist of things is:
The future is coming, in my opinion, far faster than we think it is (sounds like an impossibility, but as a question of perceptions, it’s very possible)
I have no idea what this all has to do with architecture, it may well render architecture totally irrelevant if we all end up hooked into an experience machine, but it’s probably best that we are aware of what’s going on, and hopefully something will come of it.
I need to read a lot more and then try and pin down a question.
23
Apr
2008
human 2.0
I’ve been looking for this for ages, and one of my students told me that it was on google video in it’s entirety.
it isn’t particularly deep, but it’s an interesting intro to the subject!
13
Apr
2008
implant technology to enhance human abilities
Kevin Warwick is Professor of Cybernetics at the University of Reading, this is him talking about him implanting chips into his own body, very interesting stuff.