The WELL: inkwell.vue.238: Derek Woodgate & Wayne Pethrick, Future Frequencies

#74: Jamais Cascio, WorldChanger (cascio) Fri 11 Mar 05 11:26

Fri, 11 Mar 2005 11:26:00 PST

Derek, Wayne -- and everyone reading and asking questions -- thank you!

As for what I think 2015 might look like... I think I covered that best in a character narrative I wrote for GBN last year. Here it is:

Name: Ken Sakai Age: 22 Occupation and Location: Environmental design consultant, San Diego, California

The ten-year-old Honda hybrid runs well enough, but Ken is beginning to think he may need to finally break down and buy a new car, one of those hydrogen ones (a "HindenCar," his mom said, before she bought one last year) since everyone says it's the wave of the future and the future is now and all those other clich**s that creep up on you until you realize they're true and anyway he saw a gas station that only sold hydrogen yesterday (hydrogen is a gas, right? So he can keep calling them "gas stations," right?) and even though he's only 22 he's amazed at how fast things change, sometimes.

He has his hiptop stuck on the dashboard with one of those sticky pads that doesn't leave a residue so that he can see the messages that pop up and scroll by and the random snaps of images and video his phone pulls from the web as idle entertainment and just, you know, to let him keep an eye on things, even though he's never really been into that whole "sousveillance" thing (he wonders how long that term's been around, since "surveillance" means "oversight," or "watch from above," and "sousveillance" means "watch from below," so that whole everybody-watches-everybody's back thing wasn't a big deal when he was a kid so it probably hasn't been around for too long).

Ken is late again for a meeting with the design team and he's more than a little annoyed that they want to do these things in-person, even though he could just as easily view the mockups over video and has to have his hiptop to see their changes to his schematics anyway so why don't they just do it over the web like civilized people, except they're all older and probably like the whole "personal touch" thing that seems like more of an excuse to waste time talking and eating bagels and don't they realize that he's a busy busy guy with a ton of work to do for a dozen other clients and damnit was that the exit?

He runs in, five minutes past ten, glad that his hiptop had already ID'd him to the cameras at the gate so that they just waved him through and he didn't have to stop to explain himself since he always hates talking to people carrying guns and he suppresses a shudder, changing the subject in his head, hoping that the meeting hasn't started yet but they always seem to run a bit late, and he turns the corner to the glassed-in room and sees everyone standing around the coffee and bagel cart and he relaxes, just a bit, and says hi to the group.

They all sit down to start the meeting and Ken notices, immediately, who is actually there and who is simply warming a seat, including the guy next to him who seems to be taking careful notes of the conversation but is actually playing some game, Darwin's Kingdom, looks like, he could never really get into it because it wasn't violent enough but it's probably perfect for meetings like this and Ken wonders if he'd start playing games in meetings if he only worked at one place and always saw the same people every day, even though Jina, across the table with the Apple HedZup wearable who seems to really like his designs, is great to talk to and he could actually imagine working in the same place as her for awhile.

It's Ken's turn to talk, to tell them about his own improvements to the design, changing the material base to reduce monomer outgassing and also reduce production costs, and he hopes the coffee kicks in soon because he really needs to start thinking faster. [Read entire topic]

#73: It's a new sun to me (nukem777) Fri 11 Mar 05 09:54

Fri, 11 Mar 2005 09:54:00 PST

Also, before I launch into my fun-filled jam-packed weekend in NYC, have you guys given any thoughts to how your processes might be used in the emerging social interactive platforms for online communities now being developed? [Read entire topic]

#72: It's a new sun to me (nukem777) Fri 11 Mar 05 09:52

Fri, 11 Mar 2005 09:52:00 PST

This has been ultimate fun and thought provoking at the most cosmic levels. You guys are just simply the bomb. My son, the budding rock star, would say this conversation has been "in the pocket". Beams and all the best. I sure hope this continues on. I would still like to talk a bit about Francis Fukuyama's Our Posthuman Future, a bit about Kurtzweiler's Spiritual Machines, the WFS and all things synchronistic.

Specifically, Derek, you alluded to the merge affected from the technological use of computers, software and the processes you have developed at FutureLabs. What new things are you learning from that and what possibilities are on the horizon as it relates to the ways you go about FutureFabbing? [Read entire topic]

#71: Derek Woodgate (derek-woodgate) Fri 11 Mar 05 08:31

Fri, 11 Mar 2005 08:31:00 PST

Thanks Jon. I am happy for it to continue. [Read entire topic]

#70: Jon Lebkowsky (jonl) Fri 11 Mar 05 05:07

Fri, 11 Mar 2005 05:07:00 PST

It's true that today is the last official day, but you always have the option to continue as long as you'd like. Meanwhile we want to thank you guys for a truly illuminating discussion of professional futurism! [Read entire topic]

#69: Derek Woodgate (derek-woodgate) Fri 11 Mar 05 05:02

Fri, 11 Mar 2005 05:02:00 PST

I believe today is the last official day for this conversation, although I am happy to see it continue. I'd like to know from those who have read the book what they think and their thoughts on this discussion. I have really enjoyed the questions and more are welcome. When I began to write Future Frequencies, I found the task of explaining about how I think quite demanding and complex. It is sometimes difficult to articulate, but hopefully we have answered your questions helpfully. Should you wish to pursue a further conversation with me on any subject for which you think I may have the capacity, please do not hesitate to contact me at dwoodgate@futures-lab.com. Otherwise, let's make this day fun. [Read entire topic]

#68: It's a new sun to me (nukem777) Fri 11 Mar 05 03:10

Fri, 11 Mar 2005 03:10:00 PST

(jax), sorry about that, I think it should be all caps like the airport. [Read entire topic]

#67: It's a new sun to me (nukem777) Fri 11 Mar 05 03:04

Fri, 11 Mar 2005 03:04:00 PST

Well, it's about time (Jax). How about your serious thoughts, I would be interested to read them.

It's 2015, I am 68, actively retired (we are still calling it work), my golf handicap is now -4 and I am playing real tennis on the world Court Tennis circuit and hobnobbing and clubbing at all the '19th holes' around the beautiful, viridian-designed, sustainably energized blue marble. I have several virtual DVD's on the Virgin Digital Network and a comedy show beamed from the Satellite dish on my baseball cap as I hike around the world. I am digitally connected, cashless, ecstatically happy and no longer use or look at computer screens. My voice is my command key. And my voice and various personalities are all protected under a Creative Commons license. I am my own iconograph, my logo is me in all my human totality and potentiality and I enjoy interactive collaboration with all like-minded souls around the universe. Life is good, my grandchildren are financially secure, my nuclear family is functional and involved in globally progressive endeavors, my extended family is the world and I am a happy camper.

I am the Director of Misanthropes Were Us and currently on the Boards of IconoBusters and Myths R Us. Simultaneous Synchronicity is a way of life and I am at 'plus 4' most of the time. Occassionally I do something productive, but mostly I just enjoy being. [Read entire topic]

#66: Derek Woodgate (derek-woodgate) Thu 10 Mar 05 18:11

Thu, 10 Mar 2005 18:11:00 PST

So as not to hog the space (actually I already have), I'll get Wayne to answer Ted's question on fabbing. I would like to respond however, to his questions about the influence of McKenna and the Shulgins and Plus 4 -bliss.

In Future Frequencies, I draw upon my in-person and virtual conversations with Sasha and in particular his approach to experimentation and its role in the future studies process. I never met Terence, although I was a long-time groupie. I first came across him in the mid-70s through his book "The invisible landscape : mind, hallucinogens, and the I Ching." It was the first time I had really taken much notice in the chemistry and mechanisms behind the influence of hallucinogens on the phenomenology of consciousness. Up till then I knew what it felt like, but I didn't really care why. I was fascinated by his arguments on the space-time continuum. Later as I ploughed through amongst others, "Food of the Gods" and "The Archaic Revival" the space aspect became more meaningful to me in particular his piece about "the human imagination being the dimension beyond space and time, or it preceding all dimensions' together with his thoughts on the collapse of the distinction between inner and outer space. It made me want to pursue the outer limits of my imagination, to open up my consciousness and thinking universe. As Terence said: "The future of the human race lies in the exploration and making explicit of the contents of the human imagination." It underpins our "Think the Unthinkable" stance, which is a critical aspect of our approach.

I came back to McKenna in the latter part of the 90's, before his death, through the work of my good friend, filmmaker Ken Adams, whose films "Alien Dreamtime" and Strange Attractor both featured Terence McKenna (see the piece in the book, titled An excursion into the Overmind.) Imagination, energy and fantasy are what makes our work "tuned in" as Timothy Leary would say. He added "Tuned in means going far, going far means returning to the harmony." To achieve his "thousand-petalled lotus of light" (the Crown Chakra).

Sasha Shulgin has inspired me in a very different way. I had known of his work for a while before "Pihkal" and "Tihkal" and we communicated virtually and then first met at the first Psychoactivity Conference in Amsterdam in 1998 (there have now been three) - which marked my first introduction to ayahuasca. (check out the book of the same name, edited by Ralph Metzner, if you haven't already). In addition to the experimentation aspect and my general interest in psychedelic biochemistry, Shulgin has had the most impact on my thinking, in terms of exploration, experiences, connection and vision. He inspires the somewhat softer, more intimate, natural, spiritual side of me, one that too few people see. As an extrovert pleasure-seeker, I tend to demonstrate the wilder side, but I need the balance to really to harmonize my thinking, to transcend the chaos. (sounds like bullshit, but it is how I feel about it - maybe not a pretty side, but I love baying at the horizon naked, a feeling of being effortlessly at home in my body and easily and fully present, which leaves a distinctive afterglow.)

It is difficult to decide whether i ever experienced true bliss in the Shulgin sense, which he calls omnipotent and timeless states. If it is Samadhi - a direct union with ultimate reality, allowing the dissolving of the ego and the achievement of the state of bliss or divine transformation, I'm not there yet. As it states in Tihkal, if somehow (I think drugs were mentioned) a plus four state was produced in all humans, it would signal the ultimate evolution and perhaps the end of the human experiment. Who needs singularity! Obviously one man's bliss is another man's poison! [Read entire topic]

#65: Derek Woodgate (derek-woodgate) Thu 10 Mar 05 15:13

Thu, 10 Mar 2005 15:13:00 PST

Not if I play my "wiildcards" right! [Read entire topic]