The Future

// A song about the future… and unicorns!

By Joey Camire .
11.16.08 // The Future

Here is a little ditty I’ve written about the future.

I always knew I had it in me to be a rock star, it was only a matter of time.

This one goes out to every music teacher who ever failed me.  So just about all of them.

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And if you are now dying to download this, which you clearly are, here you go.

In The Future – Joey Camire

View Comments / Nov 16.08 / The Future / by Joey Camire

// The Future is Like a Woman

By Alex Aloise .
11.15.08 // The Future

She is unpredictable.
She is exciting.
She leaves you breathless.
She breaks your heart.
Despite all of your best laid plans,
She always has a plan of her own.

The relationship starts when you’re young.
You grow up completely intrigued by her.
You want to know everything about her.
But at the same time you want nothing to do with her.
She scares you.
She might have cooties.

As you enter adolescence,
She starts to take up more of your thoughts.
You start to notice her more.
But the apprehensions still linger.
Your parents start asking about her.
But she’s the last thing you want to talk about.

As you get older,
You long for her.
You cannot wait to feel her full embrace.
You dream of what your life with her will be like.
She is everything you could ever want,
She is limitless.

Over time your relationship matures.
You grow complacent,
And contemplative.
Did things go according to your plan?
Did everything work the way you and she said they would?
Did you and she do all you wanted to do?

Was this all how it was supposed to go?
Or was it the way she planned all along?
She is complex.
She is comforting.
She is constant.
She is all there is.

View Comments / Nov 15.08 / The Future / by Alex Aloise

// The future is the most important myth ever created.

By Ben Cheney .
11.14.08 // The Future

The future is the most important myth ever created.

The future is a figment of our imagination.

We can never see the future.  We can never be in the future.  We can never directly experience the future.  The future is based on the present and the results of our expectations.  Therefore, we experience the future indirectly.  We see whether our dreams have come true or our prayers have been answered.  This is our one connection to the future.

But, the future plays an enormous role in the lives of each and every human on earth.  The future gives us something on which to anchor our hopes and dreams, our fears and expectations.  This is its fundamental importance.

We all set certain expectations in our minds as to what will transpire in the future.  If we don’t know a specific date, we at least know a general time period in which certain events are likely to occur.  And we must be ready.  The future forces us to be prepared for what we are expecting.  The future forces us to move forward.

The future is a myth.  But it is a myth that makes the world go round.  And for this reason, the future is the most important myth ever created.

View Comments / Nov 14.08 / The Future / by Ben Cheney

// The Future

By Husayn Raza .
11.13.08 // The Future

I would write some poetic/philosophical perspective on the future, but I feel that’s been written to quite adequately. Therefore, I did some research to find out what we have to look forward to in the near future. We can argue that fanatics crying about the end of the world have been around since the beginning of the world. We can argue that there have always been wars, political disturbance and economic hardship. And that maybe this is just one of those times when things have looked bad only to get swiftly better. That we won’t really feel the pinch on this one. I too hope this to be true.

However, I don’t believe it so.

I think that the limits of our economic system have been stretched. That greed has made off with the worst of us. And that we now stand at the brinks of an economic collapse. One that no amount of shoving billions of dollars will repair itself by.

Ladies and gentleman, the reason I don’t believe that we’ve dodged the bullet yet again is one man.

I introduce you to CEO of Trends Research Institute, Gerald Celente:

This man correctly predicted the 1987 stock market crash and the fall of the Soviet Union. Listen to what he has predicted next…

Revolution in America, food riots and tax rebellions – all within four years.

“Celente says that by 2012 America will become an undeveloped nation, that there will be a revolution marked by food riots, squatter rebellions, tax revolts and job marches, and that holidays will be more about obtaining food, not gifts.
“We’re going to see the end of the retail Christmas….we’re going to see a fundamental shift take place….putting food on the table is going to be more important that putting gifts under the Christmas tree,” said Celente, adding that the situation would be “worse than the great depression”.
“America’s going to go through a transition the likes of which no one is prepared for,” said Celente, noting that people’s refusal to acknowledge that America was even in a recession highlights how big a problem denial is in being ready for the true scale of the crisis.

Celente, who successfully predicted the 1997 Asian Currency Crisis, the subprime mortgage collapse and the massive devaluation of the U.S. dollar,told UPI in November last year that the following year would be known as “The Panic of 2008,” adding that “giants (would) tumble to their deaths,” which is exactly what we have witnessed with the collapse of Lehman Brothers, Bear Stearns and others. He also said that the dollar would eventually be devalued by as much as 90 per cent.
The consequence of what we have seen unfold this year would lead to a lowering in living standards, Celente predicted a year ago, which is also being borne out by plummeting retail sales figures.
The prospect of revolution was a concept echoed by a British Ministry of Defence report last year, which predicted that within 30 years, the growing gap between the super rich and the middle class, along with an urban underclass threatening social order would mean, “The world’s middle classes might unite, using access to knowledge, resources and skills to shape transnational processes in their own class interest,” and that, “The middle classes could become a revolutionary class.”
In a separate recent interview, Celente went further on the subject of revolution in America.
“There will be a revolution in this country,” he said. “It’s not going to come yet, but it’s going to come down the line and we’re going to see a third party and this was the catalyst for it: the takeover of Washington, D. C., in broad daylight by Wall Street in this bloodless coup. And it will happen as conditions continue to worsen.”

“The first thing to do is organize with tax revolts. That’s going to be the big one because people can’t afford to pay more school tax, property tax, any kind of tax. You’re going to start seeing those kinds of protests start to develop.”

“It’s going to be very bleak. Very sad. And there is going to be a lot of homeless, the likes of which we have never seen before. Tent cities are already sprouting up around the country and we’re going to see many more.”

“We’re going to start seeing huge areas of vacant real estate and squatters living in them as well. It’s going to be a picture the likes of which Americans are not going to be used to. It’s going to come as a shock and with it, there’s going to be a lot of crime. And the crime is going to be a lot worse than it was before because in the last 1929 Depression, people’s minds weren’t wrecked on all these modern drugs – over-the-counter drugs, or crystal meth or whatever it might be. So, you have a huge underclass of very desperate people with their minds chemically blown beyond anybody’s comprehension.”

I hope this is the one time we can count this mans prediction as inaccurate. But for some reason I have a strong amount of faith in it. I see how unbalanced our way of life is. Unattached to the struggle the rest of the world succumbs to on a daily basis. Hopefully we can rise above this and bring about urgent changes that can prevent such calamity. Otherwise..

Let us hope for the best and prepare for the worst

View Comments / Nov 13.08 / The Future / by Husayn Raza

// December 21, 2012.

By Kyle Wai Lin .
11.12.08 // The Future

The future, as I see it, is measurable only by two things…

The Star Trek Transporter…

The Hoverboard…

Until these things come to pass, I consider all other technological advancements less than amazing. That’s not to say that the Gameboy or the CD aren’t cool, but just think about the impact THESE things will have.

I’m not gonna get all deep and philosophical and shit. Simply stated, I’ve always wanted to fly (even if by contraption) and instant transportation from one location to the next would make vacationing a whole lot easier.

In closing, I hope this can all happen in the next four years, because according to the Mayan calendar, about the time when Sarah Palin is the next president elect, the world will come to an end.

View Comments / Nov 12.08 / The Future / by Kyle Wai Lin

// I chose to email my future self.

By Tristan Smith .
11.11.08 // The Future

Scuba diving through the Internet today I found this site:

Futureme.org allows you to send an email that will not sent until the date you select.  While this could be used to confess affairs or reveal the location of treasure, I chose to email my future self.  Here’s what will be delivered to my email address on November 26th, 2014-  My 30th birthday.

Tristan.

I am imagining you in your now.
Assuming there hasn’t been some terrible accident, you’re still the same 6’4″.
Hopefully not much heavier.
Hopefully all our hair has stuck around.  That would be great.

This may be shortsighted, but I hope you’re still childless.  I think that having another human life to take care of will severely curtail our ability to seek fame and luxury vehicles.

Unless, of course, you managed to impregnate Scarlett johansson.  In that case, amazing job.  I can’t wait to find out how we did it.

But beyond the obvious starfucking and wealth building, I hope you’re better read than I am now.  Mom and Dad crush crosswords and Jeopardy like no other, but I have a suspicion that it’s more a matter of wisdom than intelligence.  Prove me right.

You probably don’t remember things as they actually are.  My todays must seem hazy and mildly pleasant from where you’re sitting.  There are probably a lot of things that you have that I don’t.  I doubt all of them are good.  If they’re not, think about doing something new.  Become a river guide.  Become the guy that hauls the rafts back and forth from the river but never actually leads any of the trips.  Whatever.  You’ve been an adult for a while now.  Feel it out.

Actually, I’ll close with how you can really impress me:

Read this email in your sun painted study, perched on the second floor of your house, a post-modern construction on New Zealand’s South Island.

Don’t read it at Mom and Dad’s house.

See you.  Be you.

Tristan

View Comments / Nov 11.08 / The Future / by Tristan Smith

// The Future is Death

By Jordan Childs .
11.11.08 // The Future

The only thing certain in our future is death. Not to stem from a depressing standpoint, but from an inevitable one. When we gaze out into our possible future, there it sits, waiting. A large black wall where our lifeline ceases.

We never have any choice but to accept this future because it is the price of being. But that does not keep us from stopping from time to time to recognize our immediate future is completely unknown- in the cosmic, infinite sense that is. It’s that static Wednesday afternoon when you stop for some unknown reason, perhaps a commercial or an old song pulls our minds to a contemplative place, and we recognize our fate.

Our true future is set. There is no alternate route and no other outcome. There are choices to be made as to which way to walk to the cliff, but every direction leads to the edge.

Put everything in perspective and it could lead to hedonism, perhaps religion, or maybe even adoption.

Does this not give us more of a right to do our absolute best to make it to the top? To do what it takes for us to promise ourselves the best while we’re alive.

We can work hard. We can have a good time. Have kids. Pets. Hobbies. Fetishes. We can step on people, stab them in the back, lie, cheat, steal, extort. Maybe carry groceries for an old lady, become a public servant, keep animals safe.  All trying to secure a happy place in our life and what it could eventually manifest itself into before our real future steps in.

This thought motivates me, quite the opposite from what I thought my reaction would have been. There’s a tiny part of me that begs to take that approach of, “well I guess everything is futile and ultimately without meaning.”

But this is silenced quite quickly.

How would that really serve any purpose? We are sure of one thing and that is we are here, cognizant and coherent. Past this we begin to make assumptions about what’s in store and, well, then we’re speculating the unknown and that’s a waste of time. Choosing to waste the present and immediate future because of an eventual absolute zero survival -rate would be the greatest tragedy in our insignificant lives.
Pick a life that will serve your purposes presently. Bet on a tomorrow that will continue and hope you come up cherries.

To some their future is focused on money. To others it is the search for contentment. To more, it is simply survival. Still, for some, their future is a seemingly accepted, preplanned, plotted course to our inevitable death. One’s life could be the pursuit of some actualization of a concept or perhaps one’s self. A conquest, a journey or a complete failure.

Some paths are picked, others chosen for us by individuals ranking higher in a personal hierarchy. Regardless of how we ramble down our roads, the choice is ours as to the speed at which we go, our eventual off-ramps and the passengers we take with us.

Live the best life you can and be proud of the past because it’s all we really own.

View Comments / Nov 11.08 / The Future / by Jordan Childs

// Small Meditations in a Big Piece of Real Estate

By Charles Hodges .
11.10.08 // The Future

The future is important. In short, we wouldn’t be here without it.

It is not a source, but rather the location where our lives move – the magnet to which humanity is polarized.

It has gone by a lot of names: 100 years from now – The end of time – tomorrow.

Nothing dominates the conversation more.

“What will be best for ____ from now?”

The past, no matter how bad, is a safe place to living.

The ever-so-fleeting present barely gives us enough time to think about the previous moment before moving on to the next.

But the future is different.

The past fades, morphs and bends (always with some anchor).

The future expands, dims and explodes (with nothing but guesses).

Our wellbeing is dominated by our relationship to our future.  Will we change?  Can we change?  Will it be better?  Worse?  Will we be here for it?

The future is filled with two prime emotions: fear and hope.  Sometimes they are related in that our greatest hope may be for our greatest fear to not come true.

But it always does.

We die.  Our loved ones die.

We are loved.  We are forgotten.

And our human future becomes someone else’s.

They will try, like we did, to control it.  Tarot cards.  Weathermen.  Stock brokers.

When their future lets them down, they will be sad.  When it exceeds their expectations, they will feel fortunate.  When it comes in right as planned, they will nod their heads and say, “told you so.”

But they will learn, just as we did, that the future contains the most powerful motivator of all: the unknown.

If we knew what was coming, it wouldn’t be worth it.

It is true.

We are best off enjoying life one sandwich at a time.

View Comments / Nov 10.08 / The Future / by Charles Hodges