What If?: Twenty-Two Scenarios in Search of Images

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Synopsis
An imagination of possibilities, of miscalculations, of futures off-kilter &“Probability is a chimera, its head is true, its tail a suggestion. Futurologists attempt to compel the head to eat the tail (ouroboros). Here, though, we will try to wag the tail.&” —Vilém Flusser Two years after his Vampyroteuthis Infernalis, the philosopher Vilém Flusser engaged in another thought experiment: a collection of twenty-two &“scenarios for the future&” to be produced as computer-generated media, or technical images, that would break the imaginative logjam in conceiving the social, political, and economic future of the universe. What If? is not just an &“impossible journey&” to which Flusser invites us in the first scenario; it functions also as a distorting mirror held up to humanity. Flusser&’s disarming scenarios of an Anthropocene fraught with nightmares offer new visions that range from the scientific to the fantastic to the playful and whimsical. Each essay reflects our present sense of understanding the world, considering the exploitation of nature and the dangers of global warming, overpopulation, and blind reliance on the promises of scientific knowledge and invention. What If? offers insight into the radical futures of a slipstream Anthropocene that have much to do with speculative fiction, with Flusser&’s concept of design as &“crafty&” or slippery, and with art and the immense creative potential of failure versus reasonable, &“good&” computing or calculability. As such, the book is both a warning and a nudge to imagine what we may yet become and be.
Copyright:
2022

Book Details

Book Quality:
Publisher Quality
ISBN-13:
9781452967615
Related ISBNs:
9781517913663
Publisher:
University of Minnesota Press
Date of Addition:
Copyrighted By:
the Regents of the University of Minnesota. Translation and Introduction copyright
Adult content:
No
Language:
English
Has Image Descriptions:
No
Categories:
Entertainment, Nonfiction, Art and Architecture, Social Studies, Language Arts, Philosophy
Submitted By:
Bookshare Staff
Usage Restrictions:
This is a copyrighted book.
Translator:
Anke Finger
Translator:
Kenneth Kronenberg

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