From: Ben Goertzel (ben@goertzel.org)
Date: Wed Jun 06 2001 - 06:40:33 MDT
> So my take on this is that if you want to start recruiting the masses, you
> need to invent a new Future Culture that is sexy, compelling, relevant to
> people today, and most importantly, attainable. By attainable, I
> mean that
> the average joe feels as though they can become an accepted member of The
> Culture. If you make it obviously obtainable to the extent that
> the average
> person feels as though they could "live it", you will have people who will
> expend the effort to change their lives to try and meet this constructed
> ideal. This is really all just primer for the real work; you
> have to change
> their frame of mind first.
I think this is a very interesting analysis. What Wired has done is to give
the impression that what you need to do to join the new cool culture is to
*buy lots of cool gadgets*.
I much prefer the theme of Max's talk at the recent manTransforms conference
in NY, which was, to put it crassly and approximately, about the confluence
between future technology and self-improvement
In other words -- just speculating freely -- perhaps the underlying theme of
magazine should be
** Using understanding to make your life better **
This covers topics of current relevance, such as advances in psychology,
medicine and useful technology, and also futuristic topics, with a focus on
how they will improve the quality of existence.
ben
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