This is just a partial list of some academic projects that I’ve had in mind and may or may not pursue.

• An exploration of the socio-cultural changes that occurred around 1990s, specifically the way that the world prior to 1990 is incomprehensible to those who live now, especially ppl my age (historical cliff, historical apathy)
• The rhetoric of the past, future, and alternate realities–living in fictions. ie, Reverse-historical Narratives, the recording of the past, appeal of alternate realities
• A historical study on the “futurism” that has existed at various points in time, with a focus on the rhetoric of the future
• A study of the rhetoric of emerging technologies today
• The difference between reception and philosophies of emerging technologies between the west and Japan.
• The role of metaphors, narratives, and framing in emerging technology discourse (the one I put in my personal statements for grad school)
• An ethnographic study of the way that advance technologies are incorporated into developing countries in new and interesting ways, including how they are viewed. (Of course this might not be within my level of expertise and ability.)
• I’d like to work with some psychologists studying the way that children are socialized into technology, especially the kind of kids that are skype-ing from the time they are babies (like my nephew). Of course, this one is also out of my jurisdiction. Maybe I could just help out with it.
• A technological account of the existential dilemma (my technological existentialism)
• My account of experiential existentialism (a far off project of mine that doesn’t necessarily relate to technology specifically).

I think thats it for now. Those are huge projects in themselves. This could take my whole life.

To subsume myself in the rhetoric I am speaking about: my intellectual gears have been pumping away here at the end of the semester, this swirl of thoughts exploding and fragmenting into an array of ideas that are at once disorienting and invigorating. My classes this semester have fit together brilliantly, and here at the end they have been particularly potent. I have had several instances that have really stimulated my thoughts, most notably a series of conversations with various people, especially one I just had with Laura Walls, and the analysis of the online conversations about nanotechnology that I’m doing with Gehrke. These have made me realize that there is a significant niche for me right there in this, as Laura put it, “new genre” of literature. The analysis of this genre will not only be fruitful in understanding a new and important socio-cultural and political phenomenon but will also lead me to be able to dissect out of this some really interesting philosophical and socio-cultural commentary in the long term.

The core of this new “genre” is what I will call, for now, “reverse historical narratives/studies” The terms came to me while talking to Dr. Walls today and she really liked it and I see it as incredibly fitting. What this involves is a sense of certainty of the future; writers and speakers of this genre speak of future events using the same method as people who write historical accounts. In a sense, there is a set future and a set past and the current course is just a matter of moving between the two. This doesn’t mean that these people necessarily agree on what this futuristic outcome is but they speak as if they are sure. That is, they speak of the future like historians speak of a contestable past event, rallying the same sort of evidence and using the same sort of language. A lot of times this involves taking the past and projecting it to the future, but it is not always the case.

Caught up in this is a melding of science into a narrative form. Science and fiction, essentially, are blurred together to form an inseparable mass.  The most common mode of speech is a form of speculation, that is essentially a strong thought experiment where the implicit assumptions are not recognized. Except here the speakers don’t recognize it as a speculation but claim it as the practice of science. That is, they dress it up in scientific language, use scientific terms, construct real looking models, give their items scientific sounding names, etc.  A good example can be found here, an article by Robert Freitas. (continue reading…)

Ok, so here it is. I am interested and fascinated by technology. The more I study it the more I am becoming obsessed with the long-term implications, many of which are already manifesting themselves today. Yes, that means that we are already within the grasp of this roaring wave of change to the whole way we live and look at life. It is inevitable because it is already, to a limited extent, here. Being in America we get a nice taste of this, where wealth means that I can be a college student with all kinds of stuff without really much help. Do you not think the rest of the world will go this way?Do you not think we’ll go further than this?

No matter what happens from here human society will have to radically adjust, whether because we reach what I deem a state of permanent and ultimate change (what do I mean by this? I mean a world where change is the norm, where we expect our conceptions of reality to be challenged and accept it readily, where things like our very bodies are subject to constant and unending variety and potential change) or whether we destroy ourselves ( which is probably the only other option)–well either way the change is here and it will continue to come.

I am interested in questions like this: what do we do if we no longer have to work? What do we do if we can live forever?

Yeah, those are the two big ones. Existentialism requires somewhat of a rethink in light of that. Suffering, agnst? Where is suffering save we produce it in such a state? Anyways, I get off topic. Those are questions for another day.

My thought sitting here just now was this: these capitalists, who I really do despise, will get me what I want: a world where capitalism won’t reign any more. We may even cease to think much in those terms. Socialist, capitalist, anarchist, whatever. They may cease to apply. I don’t know. I can only speculate. But I do know this: capitalism must slowly devour itself. Part of the problem with unending consumerism is that, at some point, a lot of people will realize that they have enough. People will start to be willing to live with less for the sake of doing what they want, because they have everything they really need. And this “need” includes a vast amount of wealth. For instance, I feel no need to pursue a real “money making career” because I am comfortable saying that, in this world, I can do what I want and find ways to make money. I won’t have much but I’ll get by, I will survive, and I will be fine.  In a way, I owe capitalism for this, getting us this far. And I owe it to capitalism to carry us onward to the future where more and more people will be able to make the choice I have. It is my prediction that every generation will yield more people like me in the coming century until there are enough people out there just doing what they want with little regard for money that we may see a serious collapse of the whole idea of capitalism. There just won’t be enough die-hard consumers to allow for the same sort of big business. At least that is my speculation.

But don’t listen to me, you business people, scientists, engineers, doctors, lawyers–movers of this great economy of capitalism. You must persevere in your will chase for the green paper, chasing the dollars around until the world is ready for this. You will now spread into the undeveloped markets–look how quickly China and India have risen–who will be next? And with each country we will develop their infrastructure quicker, education levels will rise, populations will become more thoughtful–but also potentially more uncertain of what they should be doing. But we have enough in us yet to develop new markets for technologies. The flow of capitalism will spread industry to the cheapest labor, where the market will become saturated with foreign investment that must inevitably yield to a more intelligent populace–again look at Asia! Koreans could beat any American in the sciences!  So it spins, this cycle, and each time it spins faster. Each time, tyranny is slowly leeched, education levels increase, wealth spreads, comfort increases–and in the end! In the end we get a new world!

What will this world look like? Who knows? But it is the world I am thinking about. It is the world I speculate about, that I prepare for, which I already glimpse. And even if we don’t achieve it, as I said before, we already have shadows of it today, so my efforts of thinking about philosophical issues from the perspective of things like “What would it be like to live in a world without work” are not in vain. Besides its incredibly fun to think about. I am a science nonfiction philosopher. Oh the contradiction!