future kr8 driving river of my dreams drags me on these days i get no rest i smell the future -Peter Mulvey- 991102 ... Colleen She had never known before how much the country had meant to her. The chirping of the crickets in the long grass had been the sweetest music. She felt as if her heart were hiding there, somewhere, with the quail and the plover... Under the long shaggy ridges, she felt the future stirring. 991112 ... s what are you going to make of it? what about the guy sitting next to you? 991126 ... Wally One word: Y2K! Wait, that's not a word. (He mumbles at me from backstage.) Oh, it is? Since when did Webster add it to the dictionary? (I take a sip of cold water clearing my throat and nasal congestion.) 991223 ... nullspace my obsession i fear that i may never be at peace. always chasing after what i don't have 000113 ... old hick The tragedy of both the future and the past is that they cause most of our worries yet neither exists. 000122 ... fairydust richard and i sat in the back of the class and whispered everyone's future lives. what kind of people they would be, their jobs, exc. we both agreed that when we're old we will live next door to each other, everyday, he'll come over to have coffe while i have my joint, and we'll wait for the aliens in my backyard. sometimes i say " Richard, you are so mean." and he says " No I'm not. I just tell you things that you don't want to hear." And he's right. 000331 ... tourist We need to hold this tech civilization together long enough to get a foothold in free space. learn to farm in the asteroid belt put a permenant settlement on Luna and Mars. To give rise to the next teetering step child of homo-erectus/homo-sapiens. witness the dawn of homo-celestus. star children moving beyond the planetary circle. I believe that real contact from extraterrestrials will most likly occur once we are finally living off planet, not before. Once we're space wise and self sufficient they will come and share the seacret of folding timespace and allow us access to the sentient brotherhood of gallactic reason. but first we have to learn to work together to this end. you don't meet the neighbors by staying inside sqabbling over who has the remote control,or who ate my Cheetos 001020 ... silentbob i can predict the future: You're going to go get me some cheetos, cuz you ate all of em in my last bag 001021 ... pants banana mail me a bowl of cereal. 001021 ... tourist Does that mean that I gotta get more beer too? shit! 001021 ... Sol We all worry: when is it in, when can i get it tomorrow 010304 ... maurice the future is whatever you make it to be, because your the only one that accountable for you . and if you keep that in mind, make life work for you always, then there's no stoppin' you!!! 010323 ... Toxic_Kisses Remember the futures of the past? When people drove around in spaceships And had a cup of instant smile The future was supposed to be squeaky clean And never have any problems The Jetsons like the Brady Bunch in spacesuits But used space aged birth control 011013 ... Sonya the sullen feline I pray that you and I will have a future, united forever. And as you always put it, the stars would be watching earnestly as we explored the caverns of each other's hearts and the garnens of our minds. I fear this future is but a dream and pray that one day you and I will be there. 011013 ... chiller i get very very anxious and start acting like a distrofic / distrofik 011122 ... j_blue i once managed to live beyond my suicidal phase by looking to the future i'm here and now i know that i dont have one 020130 ... ClairE The future is like a building and I'm walking furious fast paced down the sidewalk to get there. It already exists. I just have to get there. 020131 ... j_blue when you get there, it wont be what you thought it was 020206 ... little wonder Today I went to look at my mom's new house. It was the most depressing thing I've done in a long, long time. Why does this have to happen... 020206 ... Rhin Lord Alfred Tennyson once wrote, 'For I dipt into the future, far as human eye could see, Saw the vision of the world and all the wonder that would be.' I say, 'For I have dreamt of the future, far as my soul would allow, Saw a vision of a man and all the sorrow he would bring.' ...A dark barren hallway stretches out before me. The walls cold and damp to the touch...so cold that they feel hot. Try as I might, I can't seem to find the end. I have grown weary of walking and stop for a moment. With my hand still delicately pressed to the mortar, I instinctively sense that someone is behind me. Each single strand of hair pulls away from my skin as his words reach out from the air around me. "Rhin, if nothing else, please consider me as an option, as opposed to a lifetime alone." I whirl around to face him, but say nothing. His soothing gentle voice somehow breaks through my walls. The crumbling stone falls to my feet and I look down to see all of my anguish in a puddle of debris. Out of thin air he seemed to have come, like a screaming wind that sneaks upon the last light of day. Noticing his tousled hair laying delicately upon his forehead and a journey-worn pack strung across his back, I say, "What would make you think that you could ever be a more comforting alternative to loneliness?" With shaking hands posed in front of me, I try to push him away. Yet steadfast he remains, never faltering in his step. "Go back from where you came" I beg repeatedly. "You bring with you nothing I will touch." I see the knives and lies over-flowing from your pack. Your tears and blood-stained words drip down to lie at your very feet. You believe that I will save you, thus saving me from myself. "If you must believe in something, then believe that I am no fool. I laugh at your aching heart...mocking your very pain." My attention is quickly diverted as the faint chirp of a music box reaches my ears. You say, "It's Love Story. Do you remember?" I deny remembering, but know that I could never forget. You say, "May this melody sing to your heart forever and a day." For a moment, the look in your eyes halt my retreat. I can see what was once there and what I use to love. With trembling hands, I reach out to you, remembering what you were. Then the silence is broken as a knife slips from your pack and hits the floor in an echoing reminder of truth. Your eyes close as your body winces from the sound. My breath catches in my throat and my hands quickly pull away. I lower my head upon catching the aching look in your eyes. I try to convince myself that everyone deserves a second chance. I attempt to find in your eyes the man you use to be. I can see that there is nothing there. My search is in vain as I discover that the man I once knew no longer exists. With my heart full of tears and my soul in a defiant stance, I turn and walk away, almost daring you to follow me. Up ahead I see a small glimmer of light. I begin to run toward it. I faintly hear someone calling me. I stop and search the hall in confusion, yet it is as silent as a Pharaoh's tomb. Shaking my head in bewilderment, I continue on. "Rhin, come back to me", I hear again and again. I stop again and look behind me, knowing that I will never return to him. "Never! Do you hear me?!", I scream. Then... My hand flies up to shield my face, protecting it from the blinding glare. It is the glare of the late afternoon sun sneaking through my window, spilling into my waking eyes. I sit up in bed with a start finding you leaning over me. Your tousled hair slips down to lay against your forehead as you cock your head to listen to me say, "Oh baby, I had the most horrible dream! I dreamt that you had hurt and betrayed me and in doing so had lost you to me forever." "Oh darling" you say, "It was just a dream. nothing but a dream." You begin to shower me with kisses. The kind of consoling kisses that are meant to reassure. "Darling" you say, "You lie here for a bit. Just relax and ease your mind. I will call you when dinner is ready. Oh, before I go, please accept the gift that I have left for you on the night stand. Open it at your leisure." I glance over at the gift and smile. As you leave the room, I lay back on my pillow and close my eyes for a moment. Suddenly I hear a loud ping from the direction of the kitchen. Startled, I call out, "Baby, what was that?" "I just dropped a knife Darling. Nothing to worry over", you say. I lay back once again, memories of the dream washing over me. I begin to rub my arms, trying to warm the chill in my bones. Then I sit up and retrieve the gift from the night stand. I trace the curves of the gift within, then delicately tear off the pretty paper. I sigh as I uncover a beautiful antique music box. I slowly open the lid and for a few moments I listen to its age-warped melody. Expressions of shock and fear alternately play upon my face. I sit up in bed with a start and throw the music box across the room. The haunting sounds of Love Story still echoing about the room... 020411 ... shadesofgrey i cant see my future. i feel like because i cant picture myself getting old and having a life after about 6 years from now that im going to die. i know it sounds kinda silly but its true. i feel that im not going to be around much longer. some people hear that and think, "what, is she going to kill herself or something?" but im not. i just have a crazy hunch. thats all. is that so unbelieveable anyways? 020718 ... phil frantic 020719 ... Ant - The future is now. There is what was, and what will be, but all that matters is NOW! 021114 ... yeah And back again it came, unto me, like, like, sweat off my back, like, like, jack, gots to pack my sack, thats what little boys are made of. Into the fire of redemption, my silence holds no curios for others to contemplate. Car, car, car, are you a crow, or a har de har har. I flipped and came back again to this place that some call now, some call the past, and I call the future that never was inside a matrix that never is. Portents are the milestones for all of us, leavening, the rising of a vision that all have seen on the same day at the same hour, in the same time frame. So here you are, and here they are, and without so whatever it should be your left unconcious to this. To all of this shit. Wake, awaken, open up those metaphorical eyes and windows and' let the visions and fresh air in dudette. 030131 ... Sam Vaknin Many futurologists - professional (Toffler) and less so (Naisbitt) - tried their hand at predicting the future. They proved quite successful at predicting major trends but not as lucky in delineating their details. This is because, inevitably, every futurologist has to resort to crude tools such as extrapolation. The modern day versions of biblical prophets are much better informed - and this, precisely, seems to be the problem. The cluttered information obstructs the outlines of the philosophically and conceptually most important elements. The futurologist has to divine which - of a host - of changes which occur in his times and place ushers in a new era. Since the speed at which human societies change has radically accelerated - the futurologist's work has become more compounded and less certain. It is better to stick to truisms, however banal. True and tried is the key to successful (and, therefore, useful) predictions. What can we rely upon which is immutable and invariant, not dependent on cultural context, technological level, or geopolitical developments? Human nature, naturally. The introduction of human nature into the equation which should yield the prediction may further complicate it. Human nature is, arguably, the most complex thing in the universe. It is characteristically unpredictable and behaviourally stochastic. It is not the kind of paradigm conducive to clear-cut, unequivocal, unambiguous forecasts. This is why it is advisable to isolate two or three axes around which human nature - or its more explicit manifestations - revolves. These organizational principles must possess comprehensive explanatory powers, on the one hand - and exhibit some kind of synergy, on the other hand. I propose such a trio: Individuality, Collectivism and Time. Individuation is the Separation principle, the human yearning for uniqueness and idiosyncrasy, for distinction and self sufficiency, for independence and self expression. Collectivism is the human propensity to agglomerate, to stick together, to assemble, the herd instincts and the group behaviours. Time is the principle which connects both. It is the bridge linking individual and society. It is an epiphenomenon of society. In other words, it arises only when people assemble and can compare themselves to others. This is not Time in the physical sense, which is discernible through the relative positions and physical states of physical systems. Every human - alone as he may be - is bound to notice it. No, we are discussing the more complex, ritualistic, Social Time. This, admittedly, is a vaguer concept. It corresponds to human individual and collective memory (biography and history) and to intergenerational interactions. An individual is devoid and bereft of any Social Time notion and feeling if he has no basis for comparison with others and no access to the collective memory or, at least, to the memories of others. In this sense, humans are surprisingly like subatomic particles. The latter also show no Time property. They are Time symmetric in the sense that the equations describing their behaviour and evolution are indifferent to Time. The introduction of negative (backward flowing) Time will not alter the still accurate results. It is only when masses of particles are gathered that Time is discernible and important in the description of reality. In other words, Time "erupts" or "emerges" as the complexity of physical systems increases (see "Time asymmetry Re-Visited by the same author, 1983, available through UMI. Abstract in: http://samvak.tripod.com/time.html). Human history (past) its present and, in all likelihood, its future are characterized by an incessant struggle between these principles. One generation witnesses the successful onslaught of individualism and declares, with hubris, the end of history. Another witnesses the "Revolt of the Masses" and produces doomsayers such as Jose Ortega y Gasset. The 20th century was and is no exception. True, due to technological innovation, it is the most visible century, more exposed to scrutiny and reactions of shock or elation. Still - as Barbara Tuchman pointedly entitled her masterwork, we are merely a Distant Mirror of other centuries. Or, in the words of Proverbs: "Whatever was, it shall be again". This century witnessed major breakthroughs in both technological progress (a word which should be denuded of its value content) and the dissemination of existing and newly invented technologies. This tended to encourage the individualistic camp in this permanent battle. But people tend to confuse cause and effect. Man has not turned individualistic because of technology. The latter assisted, in past centuries, in forging alliances and collectives. Agricultural technology encouraged collaboration, not individuation, differentiation or fragmentation. We give direction and meaning to our technologies, not the reverse. The human race opted for increasing isolation and invented TELE-communication. It fostered the illusion of on-going communication without preserving important elements such as direct human contact, replete with smells, noises, body language and facial expressions. It reduced communication to the exchange of verbal or written information, the bare skeleton of any exchange. The advent of each new technology was preceded by the development of a social tendency or trend. Computers packed more and more number crunching power because people wanted to make other people redundant. The inventors of the computer explicitly stated that they wanted it to replace humans and are still toying with the idea of artificial intelligence, substituting for humans. The case of robotics is even clearer. These innovations revolutionized the workplace. They were coupled with "lean and mean" management theories and management fads. Re-engineering, downsizing, just in time inventory and production management, outsourcing - all emphasized a trimming of the work force. Whereas once, enterprises were proud of the amount of employment which they generated - today it is cause for shame. This psychological shift is no less than misanthropic. It manifests itself in other labour market innovations: telecommuting and flexiwork, for instance - but also distant learning and all other distant interactions. As with all other social sea changes, the language pertaining to the emotional correlates and the motivation behind these shifts - is highly euphemistic. Where communication is all but minimized - it is called telecommunications. Where it is abolished (human to machine communication) it is amazingly labelled "interactivity"! We are terrified of what is happening : isolation, loneliness, alienation, self absorption, self sufficiency, the disintegration of the social fabric - so we give it nice names, negating the horrific content. Computers are "user-friendly", when we talk to our computer we are "interacting" and very lonely typing opposite computer screens is called "chatting". We need our fellow humans less and less. We do not see them anymore, they become gradually transparent. Bodiless voices, incorporeal typed messages. Humans are thus dehumanized, reduced to bi-dimensional representations, to functions. This is an extremely dangerous development. Already people tend to confuse reality with its representation through media images. Actors are thought to be the characters that they play in a TV series, wars are fought with video game - like elegance and sleekness. Even social functions which used to require expertise - and, therefore, the direct interaction of humans - can today be performed by a single person, equipped with the right hardware and software. The internet is the epitome and apex of this last observation. What is the Internet I discussed at great length in my essay - Internet A Medium or a Message. Still, here I would like to discuss an astounding revolution that goes largely unnoticed: the personal publishing. Today, anyone, using very basic equipment can publish and unleash his work upon tens of millions of potential readers. Only 500 years ago this would have been unimaginable even as a fantasy. Only 50 years ago this would have been attributed to a particularly active imagination. Only 10 years ago, it cost upward of 50,000 USD to construct a website. The consequences of this revolution are unfathomable. It surpasses the print revolution in its importance. Ultimately, personal publishing - and not information or commerce - will be the main use of the internet, in my view. Still, in the context of this article, I wish to emphasize the solipsism and the solitude entailed by this invention. The most labour intensive, human interaction: manuscript, editing and publishing - will be stripped of all human involvement, barring that of the author with himself. Granted, the author will more easily correspond with his audience but this, again, will be the lonely kind of contact (no contradiction in terms). Transportation made humanity more mobile, fractured and fragmented all the social units (including the nuclear family) and created malignant forms of social structures. The nuclear family became the extended nuclear family with a few parent and non-blood-related children. Multiple careers, multiple sexual and emotional partners, multiple families, multiple allegiances and loyalties - seemed, at first, to be a step in the right direction of plurality. But humans need certainty and, where missing, a backlash develops. This backlash is really the human to find stability, predictability, emotional dependability and commitment where there is none. This is done by faking the real thing, by mutating, by imitating and by resenting anything which threatens the viability of the illusion. Patriotism mutates to nationalism, racism or ethnicity. Religion is transformed to ideology or sects. Sex is mistaken for love, love becomes addictive or obsessive dependence. Other addictions (workaholism, alcoholism, drug abuse and a host of other, hitherto unheard of, obsessive compulsive disorders) provide the addict with meaning and order in his life. The picture is not rosier on the collectivist side of the fence. Each of the aforementioned phenomena has a collectivist aspect or parallel. This duality permeates the experience of being human. Humans are torn between these two conflicting instincts and by way of socialization, imitation and assimilation, they act. Herd-like, en masse. Weber analysed the phenomenon of leadership - the individual which defines the parameters for the behaviour of the herd, the "software", so to speak. He exercises his authority through charismatic and bureaucratic mechanisms. Thus, the Internet has a collectivist aspect (see my website). It is really the beginning of the realization (or the nightmare, depending on the point of view) of the collective brain. It maintains the memory of the race, conveys its thought impulses, directs its cognitive processes (using its hardware and software constraints as guide posts). Telecommunication and transportation did eliminate the old, well rooted concepts of space-time (as opposed to what many social thinkers say). There was no philosophical or conceptual adaptation to be made. The difference between using a car and using a quick horse was like the difference between walking on foot and riding that horse. The human mind was already flexible enough to accommodate this. But what telecommunications and transportation did do was to minimize the world to the scope of a "global village" as predicted by Marshal McLuhan and others. A village is a cohesive social unit and the emphasis should be on the word "social". Again the duality is there : the technologies that separate - unite. This Orwellian NewSpeak is all pervasive and permeates the very fabric of both current technologies and social fashions. It is in the root of the confusion which constantly leads us to culture-wars. In this century culture wars were waged by religion-like ideologies (Communism, Nazism, Nationalism and - no comparison intended - Environmentalism, Capitalism, Feminism and Multi-Culturalism). These mass ideologies (the quantitative factor enhanced their religious tint) could not have existed in an age with no telecommunication and speedy transport. Yet, the same advantages were available (in principle, over time, after a fight) to their opponents, who belonged, usually, to the individualistic camp. A dissident in Russia uses the same tools to disintegrate the collective as the apparatchik uses to integrate it. Ideologies clashed in the technological battlefields and were toppled by the very technology which made them possible. This dialectic is interesting because this is the first time in human history that none of the sides could claim a monopoly over technology. The economic reasons cited for the collapse of Communism, for instance, are secondary: what people were really protesting was lack of access to technology and to its benefits. Consumption and Consumerism are by products of the religion of Science. Far from the madding poles of the human dichotomy an eternal, unifying principle was long neglected. Humans will always fight over which approach should prevail : individuality or collectivism. Humans will never notice how ambiguous and equivocal their arguments and technology are. They will forever fail to behold the seeds of the destruction of their camp sawn by their very own technology, actions and statements. In short: humans will never admit to being androgynous or bisexual. They will insist upon a clear sexual identity, this strong the process of differentiation is. But the principle that unites humans, no matter which camp they might belong to, when, or where is the principle of Time. Humans crave Time and consume Time the way carnivores consume meat and even more voraciously. This obsession with Time is a result of the cognitive acknowledgement of death. Humans seems to be the only sentient animal which knows that it one day shall end. This is a harrowing thought. It is impossible to cope with it but through awesome mechanisms of denial and repression. In this permanent subconscious warfare, memory is a major weapon and the preservation of memory constitutes a handy illusion of victory over death. Admittedly, memory has real adaptive and survival value. He who remembers dangers will, undoubtedly live longer, for instance. In human societies, memory used to be preserved by the old. Until very recently, books were a rare and very expensive commodity virtually unavailable to the masses. Thus humans depended upon their elders to remember and to pass on the store of life saving and life preserving data. This dependence made social cohesiveness, interdependence and closeness inevitable. The young lived with the old (who also owned the property) and had to continue to do so in order to survive. Extended families, settlements led by the elders of the community and communities were but a few collectivist social results. With the dissemination of information and knowledge, the potential of the young to judge their elders actions and decisions has finally materialized. The elders lost their advantage (memory). Being older, they were naturally less endowed than the young. The elders were ill-equipped to cope with the kaleidoscopic quality of today's world and its ever changing terms. More nimble, as knowledgeable, more vigorous and with a longer time ahead of them in which they could engage in trial and error learning - the young prevailed. So did individualism and the technology which was directed by it. This is the real and only revolution of this century: the reversal of our Time orientation. While hitherto we were taught to respect the old and the past - we are now conditioned to admire the young, get rid of the old and look forward to a future perfect. 031014 ... kamui onward! Progress! is nothing but a steady slide down to oblivion, a spiral of death that has no light. lovely global perfection, only a shadow of lovely global decay. for all. 031016 ... ferret the _____ is more than what you make it 031016 ... maggie its whatever you want it to be, especially if you become a little freaky and start seeing it even if its not there... 031030 ... Strideo the_future_hurts ... 031030 ... Zeke onrushing in a stream held passive beyond edges of past and present in the process of becomming now as it turns real seen from around the corner and another is past always onrushing 031119 ... U_guys_Rock the " DEAR_FUTURE_PEOPLE " KICK_ASS !! 031122 ... gfd doncha 031122 ... blah U_guys_Rock !!!!!!!!!! 031122 ... _ DEAR_FUTURE_PEOPLE U_guys_rock 031122 ... _ or is it Dear_people_of_the_future ? 031122 ... _ damnit! i forgot where where the letters to the ppl of the future were!? 031122 ... imaskitzo the only dependable thing about the future is uncertainty 040323 ... x twisted x future: the scariest thing ever. 040705 ... delial let's say suddenly you know what's going to happen in certain times in the future before it happens. If you knew that during a certain weekend you would 1) be in canada to make a choice that would change the course of your life forever in a VERY GOOD WAY, a way that basically shows your calling in life and sets your life on a beautiful course to success or whatever, but also 2) someone you knew died that weekend at home, so if you went off to discover 1 you'd miss out on being around or preventing 2, would you avoid 1? I mean, say you discover the cure for cancer on saturday, but while out doing that, you also are missing out on the chance to save your husband/wife from getting on a plane that crashes, resulting in the person's death. Would you, knowing both events, choose to save your love instead of find the cure? (This is assuming it's something purely relying on factors culminating in that one day -- Something that couldn't happen any other time) I mean really, when it comes down to it, I guess it's just better not to know what's going to happen in your life ahead of time, too much so. And while sometimes I may look off into the distance and think to myself "I wish I knew how this would turn out," in reality, maybe if I did know, I wouldn't do what needs to be done. Maybe if I knew, I would miss out on things that need to transpire. Things that need to happen in order for something else to happen later on. And now I'm rambling on, but er, anyway. I forgot where I was going with that. something to think about. 040801 ... Fudge good point. 040801 ... hsg utopia 040920 ... tr something you plan and something you never really get to... 041218 ... missionary Successful people are always mindful of the future. 041219 ... billyblack Is coming for you. 050205 ... snail dual-dial etiquette telephone 2-side dial telephone f2f established by cellphone meet or phone till IBs track trouble-shooting solved ! ! 050923 ... emilyr i want to stop talking about it & i want to talk about nothing else. 070328 ... brand I believe I will see you somewhere safe Looking to the camera, messing around and pulling faces... 070503 ... yup yup :-D 070503 ... In_Bloom There is a house where at the end of the day two people settle down across a sofa and rub each other's feet under the soft hum of forced a/c or smoldering fireplace. 100303 ... gfd gfd 101010 what's it to you? who go blather from