Back in 1981, futurist F.M. Esfandiary, who later changed his name to FM-2030 (look him up on Wikipedia), published his vision of life that in mysterious, far-future year 2010. This essay, titled “Up-Wing Priorities,” appeared in the now-defunct magazine “Future Life.”
Published by Tomorrow Magazine in June 1981
This piece is problematic– it goes without saying– in FM’s having committed himself to predicting the specific year 2010. However the article is emblematic of FM’s whole career: he was too far ahead of his time. In his case we can excuse it, because anyone writing & teaching as early as the year 1966 on nascent transhumanism deserves a pass.
And the piece is yet another comprehensive, necessarily fuzzy-minded (it was written when computers were still punch-card operated), survey of the possibilities. Take out the references to 2010 and it is good enough for futurist work.
“Too far ahead of his time” implies some kind of teleology about “the future.” What if his vision never comes to pass because human societies change more like a drunkard’s walk than like, say, a guided missile?
You are correct, Mark, but I’m used to speaking and writing in Midwestern-speak, a Reader’s Digest manner of communicating. Merely for starters, think of the number of predestinationist Calvinists in America as a whole.
You are an advanced atheist– some of us have not reached that stage yet; as a chameleon does for safety, I feel I have to blend in with my substrate rather than say ‘Humbug’.
Saying ‘Humbug’ is honest, yet it doesn’t get you anywhere on Dec. 25th.
“ ‘Too far ahead of his time’ implies some kind of teleology about ‘the future. What if his vision never comes to pass because human societies change more like a drunkard’s walk than like, say, a guided missile?”
Naturally, what you wrote above goes without saying,
only young greenhorns would fail to know such;
which might contain a positive in that today youth aren’t quite as pollyannish as in the past.. though youth today may be less educated because– for starters– of the number of models of reality being pushed on them: all the complexities, the subcultures, etc. (teacher’s unions are a scapegoat).
Mark, the following is an example of what I wrote right above concerning youth being less starry-eyed:
those in the sixties, early seventies who thought they would change the world by legalizing marijuana and the rest of it. Today’s youth wouldn’t be taken in by that sort of thing.
As in getting ahead of oneself- say purchasing a ticket to the Moon in 2012, before a lunar tourist corporation is in business.
FM even said once he himself was “premature”.