Kevin Kelly exhumes “Unthinkable Futures” from the Summer ’93 Whole Earth Review, the result of a back-and-forth with Brian Eno. The structure (KK, BE, KK, BE) is important, because KK‘s first round was ‘pure’ fantasy, uninformed by Eno’s very different style. Here are the four gender references from Kelly’s first round:
Japan is eclipsed by the Asian tigers. The success of Japan subverts itself: women rebel, the young drop out, the workers play, and the system declines.
Nobody wants to be a doctor. It becomes an over-whelming bureaucratic job with low status. Women and minorities become working doctors; men do medical research.
The human genome project is halted by activists. Placards at demonstrations say: “Our DNA, Our Selves.”
Women retreat en masse from the commercial workforce. They stay with their families, work with nonprofits, or work part-time.
In his second round, Kelly doesn’t mention gender at all.
The gender aspects of the hippies–turned–techno-utopians trajectory has never been dealt with well adequately, AFAIK. It doesn’t take a rocket surgeon to see the ’90s “information revolution” in light of, and as part of, a broader cultural trend of boys taking their toys home to play with themselves.
Not tonight, honey, I’m too WIRED
Kevin Kelly exhumes “Unthinkable Futures” from the Summer ’93 Whole Earth Review, the result of a back-and-forth with Brian Eno. The structure (KK, BE, KK, BE) is important, because KK‘s first round was ‘pure’ fantasy, uninformed by Eno’s very different style. Here are the four gender references from Kelly’s first round:
In his second round, Kelly doesn’t mention gender at all.
The gender aspects of the hippies–turned–techno-utopians trajectory has never been dealt with well adequately, AFAIK. It doesn’t take a rocket surgeon to see the ’90s “information revolution” in light of, and as part of, a broader cultural trend of boys taking their toys home to play with themselves.