Explore the future through modeling, reading, and discussion
in an open-ended seminar!
| February 8 | Introduction and the Recent Past |
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Handouts:
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| February 14 | Techniques in Futurology |
Readings:
Assignments:
- Download and install Vensim for Windows or Mac.
- Play with the World3 Model. Use the SynthSim function, the summary page (at the end), and the sliders. Look for conditions that provide for a better Human Welfare Index by 2100.
- Write a portrait of college life in 2028. (Half a page.)
Handouts:
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| February 21 | Historigraphic Theory: Class Struggles, Cycles, and Paradigm Shifts |
Reading:
Assignments:
- Make a cyclic system in Vensim (choose your own system to model; the examples included with the software might be helpful).
- Write a portrait of college life in 2028. (Half a page.)
Handouts:
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| February 28 | Catastrophic Change, Power Laws, and Fractals |
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Reading:
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| March 6 | Disasters and Collapses: Nuclear War, Global Warming, Peak Oil, Bioterrorism |
Reading:
- Excerpt from A Short History of the Future by Colin Mason: Chapter 2 (Running Out of Fuel: The Coming Energy Crisis) and 4 (Climate: How Long to Tipping Point); optionally also Chapter 1 (The Drivers) and 7 (The Fourth Horseman)
Assignments:
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| March 13 | The Singularity |
Reading:
Assignments:
- Write one page on an extreme scenario-- either a disaster (collapse) or a utopian revolution.
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| March 20 | World Changing, Revelations, and Revolutions |
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Reading:
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| April 3 | Future Politics |
Reading:
- Excerpts from Mapping the Global Future: The Executive Summary, Chapters 1 (The Contradictions of Globalization) and 2 (Rising Powers: The Changing Geopolitical Landscape).
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| April 10 | Society in Motion |
Reading:
- Excerpts from Future Shock by Alvin Toffler: Chapters 4 (Things: The Throw-Away Society), 5 (Places: The New Nomads), and 6 (People: The Modular Man)
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| April 17 | Science and Technology |
Reading:
- Excerpts from The Next Fifty Years, ed. by John Brockman: The Future of the Nature of the Universe by Lee Smolin, The Mathematics of 2050 by Ian Stewart, The Future of Happiness by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, and The Future of Matter by Peter Atkins
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| April 24 | Economics and Demographics |
Reading:
- Excerpt from Futurecast: How Superpowers, Populations, and Globalization will Change the Way You Live and Work by Robert J. Shapiro: Chapter 2 (The Demographic Earthquare) and either pages 147 - 266 or pages 266 - 284 of Chapter 7 (The Coming Crisis in Health Care, Energy, and the Global Environment)
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| May 1 | Describing the Future |
Reading:
- Excerpt from Snow Crasy by Neal Stephenson; Chapters 1 to 6 (pages 1 to 54)
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| May 8 | Memetics |
Reading:
- Memes vs. Genes: Notes from the Culture Wars by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi from Speculations, ed. by John Brockman
- Excerpt from The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference by Malcolm Gladwell: Introduction and One (The Three Rules of Epidemics)
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| May 15 | Final Presentations |
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