near future design: the performance of infinite futures

Near Future Designthe performance of designing infinite futures

Jorge Luis Borges

ACT 1

–Jorge Luis Borges

“The people who write novels have to take the infinite reality and make it finite, give it an order. A novel has a beginning and an

end: for this it is a finite world. The tale, instead, is the only infinite literary genre. A good tale is a story which does not have a

beginning and end. To describe the infinite, you sketch a trace of it, which is also infinite. A tale is a trace of infinite.”

La Biblioteca di Babele

ACT 2

–Jorge Luis Borges

“The Library of Babel is an hallucinatory universe composed by a spatially infinite library made from hexagonal halls, which chaotically collects all of the possible books of 410

pages, in which are all the possible permutations and combinations of letters and numbers. !

In the library, all the possible books of 410 pages are present. Therefore it is present the Book of Truth, all of its variants including its opposite, and human beings do not have any

way to distinguish one from the other: !

« Starting from this incontrovertible premises, he dediced that the Library is total, and that its shelves record all the possible combinations of the 25 alphabetical signs, all that we can

express, in all languages. Everything: the detailed story of the future, the autobiagraphies of the archangels, the truthful catalogue of the Library, thousands and thousands of false

catalogues, the demonstration of the falsity of all these catalogues, the demonstration of the falsity of the true catalogue [...] the translation of each book in all languages, the

interpolation of each book in all of the other ones. »”

F for Fake

ACT 3

–Orson Welles

“Once, a friend of a friend showed Picasso a Picasso. "No, it is fake", answered the painter. The same friend got hold of another presumed Picasso, and Picasso said that also this was a fake.

The friend took another one, but this was fake as well, said Picasso. "But, Pablo", said the friend, "I have seen you paint this with my own eyes." "I can paint a fake Picasso just like anybody

else", replied Picasso.”

Rapina

ACT 4

–Jean Baudrillard

“Go and organize a fake hold up. Be sure to check that your weapons are harmless, and take the most trustworthy hostage, so that no life is in danger

(otherwise you risk committing an offence). Demand ransom, and arrange it so that the operation creates the greatest commotion possible. In brief, stay close to the “truth”, so as to test the reaction of the apparatus to a perfect simulation. But you won’t succeed: the web of art)ficial signs will be inextricably mixed up with

real elements (a police officer will really shoot on sight; a bank customer will faint and die of a heart attack; they will really turn the phoney ransom over to you). In

brief, you will unwittingly find yourself immediately in the real, one of whose functions is precisely to devour every attempt at simulation, to reduce everything to some reality: that’s exactly how the established order is, well before institutions

and justice come into play.”

Simulazione

ACT 5

–J.G. Ballard

“Everything is becoming science fiction. From the margins of an almost invisible literature has sprung the intact reality of the 20th

century.”

Future?

ACT 6

–Philip K. Dick

“If You Find This World Bad, You Should See Some of the Others.”

Immaginario

ACT 7

–Antonio Caronia

“TIt is not a random fact that futurology is developing in an historical moment such as the present one, in which we are witnessing a radical mutation of our planet.

Wether we call it "post-industrial society", "information society", "technotronic age", "superindustrial society" or "third wave", the progressive emergence of a new reality is clear: the situation of the planet is changing, in the

ways in which we work, in our lifestyles, in the social and political conflicts, in economy and love, in the institutions and in the codes of behaviour.

Understanding this mutation is essential to direct it, to deal with the emergencies and with the effective risks of catastrophe (environmental, social, economic) which will not address themselves. The work on the

understanding and forecasting of the future seems essential to adequately confront with all of these issues. At the condition which this work does not generate a caste of super-technicians who assume for themselves the

right to decide – alone or together with the bureaucracies which govern us – everyone's destiny. On the direction of this destiny the last word pertains to the people: there must be no doubt about this.”

Thank You!

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