this post was submitted on 20 Aug 2025
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"I've been to the future, we won."

This quote on a t-shirt was brought up in this podcast episode and it made me tear up in the bus. A pretty powerful reaction. The quest in this episode is Rob Hobkins who has written a book called How to Fall in Love with the Future. which is essentially a book that invites us to travel to future worlds we would actually want to live in.

The podcast episode is sort of lib and idealist, but imo it reaches something very important. It for example goes over possible future soundscapes and places like carless cities but the important part is the whole idea of why we should spend time imagining better futures. It made me think about how Marx points out that humans make things first in their mind and how this also applies to the futures we build. We imagine them first.

And if we can only build things that we can imagine and can only imagine doom and despair, then only those get cultivated.

I feel like this might sort of explain the China bloomer/doomer mentalities we now see or the hard crackdown on the solidarity that tried to spring up at the start of covid (it did show some people a possible better world). The machines of conservativity like LLMs also only serve to destroy our ability to dream better futures imo.

So I thought it would be lovely to hear others stories of the futures they imagine. I'll add my own once I've really thought about it. I'd suggest listening to the podcast episode as a primer if your cupboard of better futures is all empty.

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[–] WhatDoYouMeanPodcast@hexbear.net 8 points 9 months ago (1 children)

You ever been to a concert or out on the town recently? It always seems like the thing-to-do is to spend money on merch and drink alcohol. Maybe there's music and a dance floor. But we're not all doing the dance. It's just an empty space that's implied to be for dancing. If they even have that, it might just be a bar or arranged seating to see someone perform (or see the TV because you're so far away).

Well, when it's not just a race to the bottom to squeeze money out of you, there can be activities! There can be things to do with your hands. You can hire someone who thinks of fun activities to do and how to make them happen instead of designing it so that your wallet has the least amount of friction to purchase things. Petting zoos and giant pin art boards. Wrestling rings and giant basketball hoops for beach balls. Sand pits and foam pits. Unified cafeterias and art exhibits where the old rent-a-shop style used to be. You still need competition for art and food? Fuck it! It's a competition circuit where hopeful dishes are served at smaller events - so you would go to smaller events because you'd get exotic food and avant garde art there. Your work doesn't drain your soul and time so you have the energy to go to events - no, you're encouraged! We took Marx to heart so your win condition in society isn't going to the theater as little as possible to get ahead to preserve capital, you get some sort of encouragement+incentive+ELO to be involved with the community.

Gemstone crab, wintertodt, and tempeross society! Low barrier to entry to help! The government app gives bonus rewards for doing activities that need help. Not a lot of people making food? You get double reward points for going to the cafeteria. Your education helps you participate in society by qualifying you for high reward point tasks or specializes you into a career when you're ready. Reward points get you cosmetics, QoLs, and votes on how to design things. F2P/Casual is a viable way to contribute to society.

[–] StillNoLeftLeft@hexbear.net 5 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I adore the thought of dancing as a thing that we humans just do. And building spaces for us all to do it in. Thank you for the vision. 100-com

[–] WhatDoYouMeanPodcast@hexbear.net 2 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I can pontificate on that all day if you'll humor me. Dancing is certainly inherent to us. I think the same of singing (music making in general) and drawing. There was this "my 6 year old said..." in regards to hearing about art school where they go "people forget how to draw?" and it stuck with me forever. So I always have to distinguish between "learning art" and how you are trying to improve a certain, specific avenue of expression like becoming better at figure drawing. It helps clarify the purpose like figuring drawing because you want to draw charicatures at a festival.

I also think of science in this way as well. It's not always formalized with gathering materials, interpretations, conclusions, etc. I think so long as you are willing to try something in the face of not-knowing-ness, you are doing some version of science. When you're depressed and go "I don't know what I enjoy and you try something you have a hypothesis "there is something I can enjoy" and you test it by trying darts, coloring books, and the wordle archive. Then you reflect to see if any of them brought you joy and conclude that you're actually a worlde main. You might do it well with journaling and photos or you might just swish it around in your mind while you're doing something else, but it's the scientific method all the same.

Also, I think we've been wrestling since time immemorial. You have a bunch of small bones in your hands that break really easy when you throw them at people. You can't really play fight by punching very easily. But you can lug each other around and try to pin them to the ground with a bunch of strength and both walk away.

So those are a couple things that simply come with the territory of being human.

[–] StillNoLeftLeft@hexbear.net 2 points 9 months ago

Yes! I think Marx touches on all of the above in a way that is very much on point. About the whole "what drives us".