

Unthinkable Futures - Rod
http://www.kk.org/ct2/2008/06/unthinkable-futures.php

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mixmax
Some of these, like _Video phones inspire a new sexual revolution whereby
everybody sits at home doing rude things electronically with everyone else.
Productivity slumps; video screens get bigger and bigger._ are already
happening. It's called skype, msn, etc.

Others, like _News is understood to be a creation of our attention and
interests (rather than "the truth") and news shows are redesigned as
"thinktanks," where four interesting minds from different disciplines are
asked the question, "So what do YOU think happened today?_ don't seem so
unthinkable.

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yters
I'd stick the second in the first category.

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ph0rque
ooh I really like this one:

>* DIRECTED TAXES -- Software gains allow a certain portion of taxes to fall
to the discretion of the payer. John Public can assign X amount of his taxes
toward one service, to the exclusion of another. It's a second vote that
politicians watch closely.

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run4yourlives
That would be an interesting experiment to conduct, although I fear the
outcome slightly.

It would truly suck to not have any army should the need for one properly
arise. As well, culture must lose in some form without galleries for art and
dance, for instance.

Wonder how long it would take to set up a web app to test the theory...

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ph0rque
eh negotiation works ~15x better than war
([http://www.economist.com/world/international/displaystory.cf...](http://www.economist.com/world/international/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11670918))

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ryanwaggoner
Does it work when one side has no leverage because they defunded their
military into extinction?

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helveticaman
They still have people and can buy weapons with their superior economy.

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patio11
I think states which pursue this strategy will find that with an aggressive
enemy "just buy a competent military" is not something that you can accomplish
in less than a generation.

How many European nations could "buy weapons" and then pull off a minor
shooting war against a local tinpot dictator whose military budget would be
lost in Toyota's R&D expenditures? (e.g. Save Kosovo... without calling the
US.)

I think the answer to the rhetorical question is "exactly one", although I can
name two others which would actually have the capability of showing up in time
to drop a bomb or two, to no strategic effect. The others are universally
incapable of even getting to the theatre.

And if Russia decided to get frisky and send in the tanks? Most nations in
Europe would fold about as fast as Georgia did -- their sole means of defense
is not being "acceptable, if regrettable, losses" in Washington.

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nazgulnarsil
A highly successful new magazine -- Ordinary People, edited by the
nonagenarian Studs Terkel -- focuses only on people who have never done
anything in particular to deserve attention.

this would be a hilarious subversion of celebrity worship.

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puzzle-out
Subversion? Dude that is celebrities!

~~~
nazgulnarsil
...that's kind of the joke... >_>

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GavinB
In many ways these are more interesting as windows into the minds of the
writers than into the future.

Part of the exercise should be imagining things that are contrary to one's
beliefs and expectations.

