Growing up in America there is a common idea I grew up hearing in elementary school. It goes something like "If you work hard to chase your dreams then the work will pay off." So when I think about the future I focus on the best possible outcomes, and find myself disappointed when those visions don't full-fill themselves. In our first class of Future to New Media we were each asked to contribute a a question if we knew that a future person could answer it in perfect detail. Each person in the class unloaded their interests, passions, and uncertainties in the way they presented their ideas. The following question posed was "What is the underlying question underpinning these surface level questions." This was a difficult task, because each attempt at stating the answer led to a new fundamental question. For example, What is the individual or the collective? Is the care for the future selfish or unselfish? Does evolution and survival motivate our desire to prepare? As we were unveiling the commonalities among the questions I had a thought. Maybe, the primordial question cannot be simplified to a simple sentence, but must be mapped out as a strain of logic. A thought process that involves our desires, self awareness, self preservation, etc. The world that we live in is continuing to unveil itself as an interconnected web of first principles. My answer at the end of the class came in two parts. 1. Our desire to formulate solutions for the future is due to our desire to feel safe and on the flip side the dissatisfaction with the world we live in. The same idea voiced in two ways. 2. The framing of our relationship to time. The past- what is the truth? The present- how should we act? The future- what is our ideal future? I enjoy this class greatly. I feel that it embodies my personal philosophy, "The role of a genius is not to complicate the simple, but simplify the complicated."
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