GIGO: words unreadable aloud
Mishrogo Weedapeval
 

 

  Tuesday 2 December 2003
Armchair Futurists

A discussion on http://plastic.com (how could I pass up linking to a mention of Shockwave Rider?) and a posting on the Many-2-Many weblog reminded me that I wrote (a little) about Web-moderated Futurist Communities just over a year ago. The Many-2-Many link mentions PAM (the DoD's "Policy Analysis Market" that drew a firestorm of protest a few months ago), though I don't really see it as being that different from some of the other "idea market"s.

But perhaps it's time to update my list, not that I've been paying that much attention. The recent bloom of social networking software is kinda related, but here's the sort of futurist sites I'm talking about:
The Foresight Exchange
http://www.ideosphere.com/fx/
I found this because I saw that Neal Gafter had mentioned it on his home page. An implementation of Robin Hanson's "Idea Futures" concept. Note that mention of "extropy". Are the "extropians" involved? A "future" research topic...
Should Exist
http://www.shouldexist.org/
Somewhat like a concentrated, localized version of the mythical "lazyweb"
The Half-Bakery
http://www.halfbakery.com/
Probably the most good-natured and funny of all of these sites. Certainly the best name.
The Edge online 'zine
http://www.edge.org/
Probably doesn't belong in this list, but it does get some in-depth interview with some visionaries.
Smart Mobs
http://www.smartmobs.com/
A site about Howard Rheingold's book. Ventures into a few other, related futurist-type topics sometimes.
The Bay Area Futurist Salon
http://www.socialtext.net/futuresalon/
Kinda looks like they have just started: it only mentions a November 2003 meeting. Maybe they're so future-oriented that they don't mention past meetings :-) ?
The weblog for The Bay Area Futurists
http://finnern.com/future/
I think I'll take a look at this one ... um ... in the future.
Blue Oxen
http://www.blueoxen.org/
A think tank ... But since I mentioned a blue ox in a different context, I had to add this.

Ok, better stop now. It's getting silly.

PS, yeah, I'd say the extropians are validly related. Maybe even the Viridians. Definitely not the Lemurians, the Jardinites, or the Lambda-Illuminati.
6:55:57 PM   comment/     



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