Re-Awakening the Power of the Utopian Imagination through Speculative Fiction

http://2012.humanityplus.org Humanity+ @San Francisco 2012
—Re-Awakening the Power of the Utopian Imagination through Speculative Fiction
Futurists and Transhumanists have been derided for association with science fiction, and conservatives have warned of the totalitarian implications of utopian speculation. But speculative fiction is the principal arena in which human beings imagine their own future radically transformed by social and technological change, try to anticipate the pitfalls, and motivate themselves to grasp the opportunities. We need to be self-critical of the sandtraps of the utopian imaginary while building on its energies to motivate ourselves and the public to great works. Engaging with culture creators we can push them beyond one dimensional depictions of novel technologies as horrifying hubris to depict more complex futures with both technological benefits and catastrophic risks.

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