This is an excellent piece by @xriskology, incorporating an interview with Monika Bielskyte on the exclusionary dangers of utopianism – whether the traditional, religious kind, or the transhumanist, longtermist fantasies of Silicon Valley billionaires:

https://www.salon.com/2023/07/29/visions-how-the-quest-for-utopia-could-lead-to/

Where do currently marginalised people fit into these utopian dreams?

We don’t 🙄

#utopia #utopianism #longtermism #transhumanism #billionaires
#dystopia #marginalisation #disability #racialisation #eugenics

Kinky story idea du jour: a kinky utopian novel about someone who falls asleep for 100 years. After crony capitalism and declining birth rates have crashed the financial and demographic order, chosen families, multi-household polycules, and secret line families emerge as the most stable social structure, remaking the world into an urban-agrarian sex positive paradise. Our hero learns all about this world by having increasingly freaky sex with its various denizens. #storyidea #utopianism

Interesting discussion between Liza Featherstone and Kristen R. Ghodsee about dystopian Sci-Fi and American education:

From Alduous Huxley’s Brave New World to George Orwell’s 1984 to Lois Lowry’s The Giver, dystopian stories dominate school reading lists. ... As Ghodsee argues ... “The message of these books is loud and clear: you may be unhappy with the way things are but forget about trying to change them.”

https://jacobin.com/2023/06/kristen-ghodsee-everyday-utopia-review-socialism-patriarchy-family/

#SciFi #utopianism #dystopia

50% off my book on 'Alternative Societies: for a Pluralist Socialism' until 30th June. 'A masterful job. I see it being an indispensable text for students of political science, sociology, environmental studies, and more. It guides a path through a vast literature, and is written with such generosity and patience' says Ariel Salleh #socialism #alternatives #politics #sociology
#capitalism #utopianism #pluralism #democracy https://bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/alternative-societies

#AI #GenerativeAI #LLMs #Socialism #Utopianism #Marxism: "So: I’ve now combined my interest in artificial intelligence with my interest in utopian literature and produced a book I think you’ll agree is quite remarkable. It’s called Echoland: A Comprehensive Guide to a Nonexistent Place, and it is a vision of what a world transformed by “AI” might look like. It’s a kind of updated version of Looking Backward for the 21st century, envisioning a fully automated socialist society where leisure is taken seriously, healthcare is free to all, gender categories have disappeared, and technology is put toward socially valuable rather than destructive uses. It’s a place where deprivation, militarism, and inequality have disappeared. I present a vision of a world where human beings manage to solve their basic problems and invent things that will help them thrive (and take care of the planet). But it’s not a “techno-solutionist” work. Echoland is clear that without being coupled to egalitarian values, new technology can be destructive, and that it is we, not our technology, that must solve our problems.

There’s also a bit of a twist to Echoland, because it’s not just a description of the World of Tomorrow. It also visualizes it in pictures. I’ve used AI image generators to produce imaginary objects from the future society, including train tickets, stuffed animals, and movie posters. I’ve designed clothes and cafes, album covers and textbooks. You’ll find everything in it from Soviet Afrofuturism to “Marx vs. Batman.” The book contains nearly 1,000 AI-generated images, and I’ve tried to demonstrate the remarkable range of capacities that these generators have. I think the results, which it’s often hard to believe were generated by a machine, will surprise you (and may even alarm you a bit)."

https://www.currentaffairs.org/2023/04/i-have-written-a-strange-book-about-the-future-of-artificial-intelligence

From June last year: Imagining a more Utopian future

#utopianism
https://www.lazaruscorporation.co.uk/blogs/artists-notebook/posts/imagining-a-more-utopian-future

I've just cleaned out my RSS Feed Reader to remove dead domains and abandoned (no posts for 2+ years) blogs.

So I'm on the look-out for new blogs to follow. Must have an RSS Feed - please add suggestions in replies (yes, it certainly can be your blog)!

Subject areas: #Art, #AcidCommunism, #Anarchism, #Utopianism, #hauntology (theory rather than just music genre), #psychogeography, #CapitalistRealism

Having had a delicious vegan lunch and connected with a few Autistic friends, I’m now watching a prerecorded talk by Nick Walker: ‘Beyond neuro-essentialism: neuro-transqueering neurodiversity’

#itakom #futurism #utopianism #neurocosmopolitanism

You can now pre-order my book Red Enlightenment: On Socialism, Science and Spirituality from the Repeater Books website

https://repeaterbooks.com/product/red-enlightenment/

#socialism #socialist #spiritual #spirituality #systemsthinking #cybernetics #philosophy #marx #marxism #communism #communist #liberationtheology #theology #ecology #utopianism #buddhism

Last day today to get my new book Alternative Societies 50% off with code POAC50 at https://bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/alternative-societies "A masterful job. It guides a path through a vast literature, and is written with such generosity and patience" Ariel Salleh #politics #sociology #socialism #alternatives #capitalism #utopianism #pluralism #democracy After today I can stop tooting about it!

Last day today to get my new book Alternative Societies half-price with code POAC50 at https://bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/alternative-societies
"A masterful job. It guides a path through a vast literature, and is written with such generosity and patience" Ariel Salleh
#politics #sociology #socialism #alternatives #capitalism #utopianism #pluralism #democracy
Then I can stop tooting about it!

#solarpunk #taz #tecnho-primitivism #utopianism

I've been enjoying the "Adventures in Nutopia" podcast by David Bramwell

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/adventures-in-nutopia/id1649333497

#podcast #Utopianism #myth #ecology

Finished the book "Half-Earth Socialism" by Troy Vettese and Drew Pendergrass this morning.

Brief review on Bookworm: https://bookwyrm.social/user/JaminBogi/review/854120/s/a-taste-of-one-possible-future#anchor-854120

#Socialism #Utopianism #ClimateChange #Rewilding

From the archives (nearly 4 years ago) on my blog: Post-apocalyptic pastoral and post-industrial

"So we need to imagine something completely new: the answer is clearly not a continuation, or even a slight reduction, of industrial capitalism, but nor is it a pre-industrial utopian fantasy — some eco-fascist version of a Renaissance fair — in which millions of (the most vulnerable) people would die. "

https://www.lazaruscorporation.co.uk/blogs/artists-notebook/posts/post-apocalyptic-pastoral-and-post-industrial

#AcidCommunism #DeepEngland #Utopianism #ClimateChange #Capitalism

Moved here to my own instance (formerly on mastodon.art), so here's a new #introduction

I'm an #artist working primarily with #drawing, #photography, and #printmaking, based in #Brighton & #Hove on the south coast of the UK. Links in my profile.

I also blog reasonably often, covering topics such as my #Artwork, #AcidCommunism, #Anarchism, #Utopianism, #CapitalistRealism, #Mythology, and #Folklore.

Me: he/him, cis, #anarchism (on the collectivist/social spectrum), veggie, bit of an old #goth.

From the archives (nearly 4 years ago) on my blog: Post-apocalyptic pastoral and post-industrial

"So we need to imagine something completely new: the answer is clearly not a continuation, or even a slight reduction, of industrial capitalism, but nor is it a pre-industrial utopian fantasy — some eco-fascist version of a Renaissance fair — in which millions of (the most vulnerable) people would die. "

https://www.lazaruscorporation.co.uk/blogs/artists-notebook/posts/post-apocalyptic-pastoral-and-post-industrial

#AcidCommunism #DeepEngland #Utopianism #ClimateChange #Capitalism

Seems like the paperback edition of my next book Red​ Enlightenment: On #Socialism #Science and #Spirituality is now available to pre-order!

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1914420195/ref=redir_mobile_desktop?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1665115915&ref_=tmm_pap_swatch_0&sr=8-1

#enlightenment #communism #acidcommunism #secular #religious #marxism #theology #LiberationTheology #postcolonialism @philosophy #philosophy #cybernetics #AncientPhilosophy #indianphilosophy #ChinesePhilosophy #dialecticalmaterialism #ContemporaryArt #Art #utopianism #ChristianSocialism #engagedbuddhism #metamodernism

Seems like the paperback edition of my next book Red​ Enlightenment: On #Socialism #Science and #Spirituality is now available to pre-order!

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1914420195/ref=redir_mobile_desktop?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1665115915&ref_=tmm_pap_swatch_0&sr=8-1

#enlightenment #communism #acidcommunism #secular #religious #marxism #theology #LiberationTheology #postcolonialism @philosophy #philosophy #cybernetics #AncientPhilosophy #indianphilosophy #ChinesePhilosophy #dialecticalmaterialism #ContemporaryArt #Art #utopianism #ChristianSocialism #engagedbuddhism #metamodernism

Scans from Buckminster Fuller's I SEEM TO BE A VERB (via Austin Kleon's Tumblr) → https://tumblr.austinkleon.com/post/88781099541

❝ Fuller himself provides the main narrative, which includes his predictions, such as “When automation frees all workers we will be able to ask, ‘What was it I was thinking that fascinated me so, before I was told I had to do something else in order to make a living?’” And, yes, it’s also a time capsule of 1960s utopian idealism. ❞

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#BuckminsterFuller #utopianism #books