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Unthinkable Futures
- mixmax 18y agoSome 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.
- yters 18y agoI'd stick the second in the first category.
- ph0rque 18y agoooh 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.
- run4yourlives 18y agoThat 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...
- ph0rque 18y agoeh negotiation works ~15x better than war (http://www.economist.com/world/international/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11670918 http://www.economist.com/world/international/displaystory.cf...)
- ryanwaggoner 18y agoDoes it work when one side has no leverage because they defunded their military into extinction?
- deleted 18y ago[deleted]
- eru 18y agoYou can always hire mercenaries.
- likpok 18y agoI seem to recall that the reason mercenaries (at least in the US) are viable is because they hire ex-military. So most/all of the expensive training is done. Furthermore, mercenaries are not so good at things like air forces and carrier groups and artillery (v. large capital investments that lack adaptability to smaller situations).
- eru 18y agoTell your senator to vote against subsidizing mercenaries with tax payers money!
- helveticaman 18y agoThey still have people and can buy weapons with their superior economy.
- patio11 18y agoI 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.
- nazgulnarsil 18y agoA 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.
- puzzle-out 18y agoSubversion? Dude that is celebrities!
- nazgulnarsil 18y ago...that's kind of the joke... >_>
- andyking 18y agoWould it not also be the world's first mag edited from beyond the grave?
- GavinB 18y agoIn 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.