*Quite a lot of stuff here that may have evaded previous forms of radar.
http://speculatingfutures.club/
Speculating Futures looks at past speculative narratives, like those of Ursula K. Le Guin, and past attempts at creating technological utopia, like Chile's Cybersyn. These readings examine the shortcomings that prevented these visions from being fully realized and how they may have been limited or exclusionary. These texts also tie these visions to the contemporary issues/present dystopias that need to be addressed in subsequent utopian imaginaries. To paraphrase Gibson, "Utopia and dystopia are here, they're just unevenly distributed." Feeling like there's a future is vital for moving through the present, so we'll also envision our own utopian futures to work towards.
This syllabus was first launched in December 2016 for The New Inquiry's Science/Fiction issue. It will probably never be complete; it's always open to suggestions. If you're familiar with GitHub, please don't hesitate to submit a pull request; if not, feel free to send suggestions to me on Twitter (@frnsys).
NB: Beyond session 1, these sessions aren't in a particular order. There's so much overlap and interaction between these topics that you can jump around as much as you want; the "session" structure is more of a loose guide. Reading "out of order" could lead to interesting connections~
Session 1
What do we have to look forward to?"The future is here, it's just unevenly distributed" - William Gibson
When the Messiah Came to America, She Was a Woman. Chris Jennings.
Why Futurism Has a Cultural Blindspot. Tom Vanderbilt.
The Unexotic Underclass. C.Z. Nnaemeka.
Make technological utopia easier with this one weird trick. Paul Raven.
Social Science Fiction. Peter Frase.
A Non-Euclidean View of California as a Cold Place to Be. Ursula K. Le Guin.
Postcards from the Futch. Joanne McNeil.
Optimists’ Creed: Brave New Cyberlearning, Evolving Utopias (Circa 2041). Winslow Burleson, Armanda Lewis.
Free love or genocide? The trouble with Utopias. Tobias Jones.
Every Single Word Spoken by a Person of Color in "Her". Edited by Dylan Marron.
The Future Mundane. Nick Foster.
The Propaganda of the Colony. Eighteen & Ras, from Metropolarity's Style of Attack Report….
