Summer Retrospective 2024
Wrapping up another summer out of school
Summer is winding down and this week marks the return to classes for the University of Houston. Just between us, I had felt pretty burned out on the whole going-back-to-school-at-40 thing by the end of last semester. However, now I’m excited to be back and talk to all my futures friends again, so summer worked exactly as designed. Just like last year, I wanted to bring together all the content into a convenient package for your perusal.
Writing
Strange Rites by Tara Isabella Burton
An interview with science fiction author and futurist Karl Schroeder
The Atlantic article about Phoenix as harbinger of America’s futures
Assembling Tomorrow by Scott Doorley and Carissa Carter
TV/Movies
Design
Daybreak by Matt Leacock and Matteo Menapace
Sneakers exhibit at the Portland Art Museum
Overall it was a fun mix of topics and fiction/non-fiction, unfortunately slanted a little toward the collapse of civilization (or at least democracy). I did have a tiny existential crisis this summer, though, about my approach: what am I doing, exactly? They aren’t exactly reviews of the media in question; they kind of presuppose some level of familiarity with what I’m discussing, but I also tend to be light on the in-depth plot discussion that would fully lean into this assumption. This week I heard someone describing one of my articles as a “book report”, which didn’t feel quite right either. I’ve decided that primarily I’m writing these to process and document my own thoughts, and secondarily it’s an awkward one-way conversation1 with a group of people with similar interests, who will either be made aware of an interesting piece of content, be convinced to try it out, or think differently about it.
Bonus Content 1: Las Vegas
Last week I was on vacation and spent a few days in Las Vegas. I ended up liking the city a lot more than I expected — it’s pretty sprawl-y but has a mostly regular grid of wide streets with a 45 MPH speed limit, and the concentration of most of the “grossest” parts of town to a few ultra-dense tourist-focused spots2 leaves a lot of nice areas. I did notice a couple little pockets of future that I thought I would mention:
My discussion of the Phoenix article covers this a fair amount, but I got to learn what it was like to live somewhere with frequent extreme heat. In addition to intentional shade infrastructure, misters, etc, many outdoor venues3 have heat policies, explaining which areas will be closed when the forecast exceeds some threshold. As a corollary, there’s a rise in indoor entertainment complexes where you can engage in various activities all day without leaving air conditioning4.
I think this was the first time I’ve seen oxygen bars in the last 10 years, so maybe they’re becoming more than a novelty. I could see some version of this becoming more common in areas with frequent bad air days from wildfire smoke etc.
Las Vegas has been working hard on water conservation, and there’s xeriscaping everywhere. Embracing the desert aesthetic and ditching lawns is a growing trend in the West.
Bonus Content 2: 100 Subscribers Celebration
This week Substack informed me that I had reached 100 subscribers. Thanks and welcome to everyone! At present about 1/3 of my subscribers have come from Karl Schroeder’s excellent Substack, but I will take some credit for consistently writing an article I feel good about every week for the past 19 months.
Bonus Content 3: Article Published
Maybe it’s some kind of misguided modesty that leads me to tuck this away down here where people will have stopped reading long before they get to it, but I published a paper! I wrote a research paper growing out of my final project in Futures Research, and it was published in a special issue of the Economía Creativa journal out of Mexico. The website says it was published in May, which is a little weird because I was reviewing proofs earlier this month. Anyway, it was a huge effort and I’m thrilled to contribute to the academic conversation of making futures games more interesting!
Until you guys start leaving more comments!
As opposed to Portland, where both the amenities and disamenities are pretty evenly distributed. Some of this isn’t so much concentrated as hidden from view in Vegas, because so much of the homeless population lives underground, out of sight.
Including the wonderful Springs Preserve.
We went to Area 15, where we spent about half a day exploring Meow Wolf’s Omega Mart and pondering the nature of art, commerce, and our place in the universe, on the (wonderful) recommendation of fellow UH Foresight student Devin Rivard.