The mass-amateurisation of futurology commences, with this BBC site that uses the DNA engine to create a collaborative speculation on things-to-come, with the somewhat-perverse goal of turning it all into a book.
It’s going to be interesting to see how it develops, and how the mix of ‘celebrity writers’, ages, newbies and H2G2 regulars works out: already there is a certain extropian/hitchhiker’s guide flavour to the contributions that might raise the barriers to others?
Also, it will be fascinating to see how the influence of a ‘deadline’ and editorial process for the physical publishing of the book create feedback for the community’s efforts.
Some selections of what’s there so far:
Another thought about collaborative authorship projects such as this: does a reliance on text that most of the existing tools/platforms/environments mean a bias toward those who are literate in the first language of the website in question; with a corresponding bias towards the age, education and nation-of-origin of those able to participate?
Perhaps Josh and the other Futurefarmers’ new project “Co|Mix” points a complementary path forward.
Petafloptimism 