That’s right, it’s another top 10 list.  To be fair, we all love them (you know you do…) and they always prove to be popular.  Given that Future Conscience exists slightly outside of the usual futurist circles, I thought that the readers here would appreciate a list of the sites that I often rely on when looking for inspiration about the future trajectory of humanity.

These sites represent my favourites at the time of posting – subject to change, requiring additions…enjoy!

 

10. Southern Poverty Law Center – Intelligence Report

The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) is a ‘non-profit civil rights organization dedicated to fighting hate and bigotry’ and I have long been visiting their site not only because of the great work they do but also because of the publication they produce called the Intelligence Report.  This is a quarterly magazine which is reproduced online that monitors trends in extremism in the U.S and is incredibly well researched and written.  I have a keen interest in groups that foster extreme ideology of any kind, and it is undeniable that in an era of rapid change and social turmoil we must ensure diligence against any group or organisation that promotes an ideology of hatred and destruction.

 

9.  io9

This site is well known to those that tend towards the geekier side of life (i.e. awesome people).  Primarily covering science fiction and comic-related news, the site also has a strong focus on interesting technology and futurist thought.  Basically, from a love of science fiction comes a love of futurist news and its presented in a very accessible and entertaining way.  Bite-sized but with depth, accessible without being asinine, io9 is a great site for anybody with an interest in the future to have as your homepage.

 

8. Antiwar.com

At first you might wonder whether this site could really be called ‘futurist’ at all, it’s almost completely a news site reporting on current events.  However, it is impossible to have any insight into the future without an accurate understanding of the present and Antiwar.com provides one of the best daily overviews of global conflict that you are likely to find.

Of course, it wears its political leanings on its sleeve and I often find some of the comments from readers to tend towards the more conspiratorial side of things – but the news it aggregates comes from across all sources of media and the commentary from some of its columnists is refreshing in the attempt to get beyond partisan political standpoints and delve deeper into the issues at hand.  There’s not much point thinking about the future if you’re ignoring what’s occurring right now, so make sure to put Antiwar.com on your reading list.

 

8b. Future Timeline

Okay, sometimes you miss something from a list that  really does need to be included.  Future Timeline is one such website that I overlooked when first publishing this post yesterday – and since Antiwar.com is not really a futurist website I figured it would be appropriate to rectify this oversight here.  The site feels old-school in its design (like many futurist websites, funnily enough) but contains an almost encyclopedic overview of futurist topics and is one of the few sites to attempt to delineate a timeline of progression.  If nothing else, it gives some perspective to the futurist field and makes you think about where you would place the different advances being discussed.  With a relatively active forum that has built some considerable depth to it over the years, and a good selection of links and regular new updates Future Timeline really does deserve to be on this list –  so here it is.

 

7.  Singularity Institute

Originally focusing on the implementation of artificial intelligence, the Singularity Institute has widened its remit in recent years to include many forms of futurist thought that surround the concept of the ‘intelligence explosion’ or Singularity.  This is where you have Ray Kurzweil (whose site Kurzweilai.net I’m including within this entry on the list) hanging out with Aubrey de Grey, Peter Thiel with Eliezer Yudkowksy – the Singularity Summit is one of the  most discussed events on the futurist calendar each year and for good reason.

Having said this, I’ve always approached it with a slight degree of caution as those attracted to the Singularity Institute do seem to be amongst the more zealous and ideologically alarmist of the futurist community.  Which is not to say that there isn’t concern warranted in the direction that humanity is taking, indeed it is the entire focus of this blog, but amongst all of the very deep and thought-provoking research and position papers there’s an underlying ideological conformity that’s worth noting.  But as far as the futurist ‘rock stars’ are concerned – most of them can be found relating to this Institute in some shape or form, and for that reason alone its a central hub of activity.  Speaking of hubs, I’m going to throw in Singularity Hub into this entry as well – a very good collection of futurist news and links updated daily.

 

6. Science Daily

For obvious reasons, a lot of futurist thought revolves around scientific advancements in technology and medicine; and one of the best sites for announcements and articles from reputable sources is Science Daily.  It’s packed full of content and although the site layout is a bit dense (and also relies on the old ‘hide the Google ads’ technique) there’s enough here to keep you learning for a long time.  It tends towards a pure science focus, and as such there is less exploration of the implications of the advancements being discussed, but that doesn’t stop it from being a great resource to keep on top of the latest scientific advancements from around the world.

 

5. World Future Society

The World Future Society is the preeminent organisation for global futurist thought, and The Futurist magazine gives on a bi-monthly basis the most comprehensive and authentic overview of the field available.  The fact that a large proportion of current-issue content is available online for free is commendable, and although they don’t have the vast free resources of others that will be mentioned below there are for-pay archives available running back through to the 1960s (and at $0.10 an article I think we can call that fair enough).

Beyond the well-known magazine, they hold annual conferences and have an extensive membership network with meetings around the world.  Unfortunately the website itself is falling behind the times a bit in terms of layout and design, and thus I can’t give the WFS the top spot on this list…but as far as futurist organisations are concerned, they certainly deserve it!

 

4.  Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies (IEET)

The IEET was amongst the first futurist sites that I really started visiting on a regular basis, and you can see its obvious correlation to the focus of Future Conscience.  The site provides a great news overview that includes multiple posts a day, and papers from their peer-reviewed Journal of Evolution and Technology are available free to download.

The site does suffer like the World Future Society from having a slightly archaic look – but it gets the job done and it gives you the information and inspiration that we crave.  Co-founded by Nick Bostrom, who is the Director of the Oxford Future of Humanity Institute – another organisation well worth your time so I’m going to include them in this entry on the list.

 

3. r/futurology and #future

Reddit – the ‘front page of the internet’.  Given the recent eye-opening news about Digg’s spectacular fall from grace, and the not negligable role that the humble narwhal that is Reddit played in that demise, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that one of my top recommendations is a user-controlled news aggregator along with Twitter, everybody’s favourite little microblogger that could.

With just under 11,000 subscribers on r/futurology, there’s a lot of people posting a lot of news, images, thought and generally inspiring things that you will want to see.  Right now on the front page of r/futurology there are night-vision contact lenses, a graph showing the implementation of Moore’s Law, predictions for 2030, transhumanism, space travel, solar energy…the list is endless and changes every few hours.  Beyond the external content, it’s the level of discussion the community generates on an endless diversity of topics that will keep you thinking and deserves such a high place.

Twitter hashtags such as #future (and to a lesser, but more focused extent #futurist) should also be one of your primary sources when it comes to getting an overview of the futurist zeitgeist at any particular moment.  By following the people who post to #future and other similar hashtags you will receive a constant stream of futurist updates on topics you didn’t even know you were interested in.

 

2. RAND Corporation

One of the largest and most influential think tanks in the world, the RAND Corporation is controversial because of its close ties to the US government and armed forces.  Although what their research is used for and by whom should be very carefully considered, the fact remains that the papers that come out of RAND are necessary reading for any potential futurist.  Areas of focus cover all major socio-economic sectors and concerns, and the vast majority of it is filled with useful data, forward looking and projection based.

With over 10,000 research papers available online, papers that inform much of the foreign policy of the world’s largest superpower,  the RAND Corporation influences our general perception of the future more than most people realise.  If you’re looking for data on almost anything relevant to the futurist field, there’s probably a paper on this site that you can refer to.  Whether you should or not, I’ll leave that up to you…

 

1. Wired – Blogs

It’s kind of an obvious choice, but I have to give the top spot to Wired and in particular to their collection of blogs that explore on a daily basis our path towards the future.  If I was pressed to choose, I would immediately say that Threat Level is my favourite blog not only on the Wired site but on the web as a whole.  There are a lot of bloggers out there (and I include myself in this) who are okay at what we do and happy to comment on the world around us, but few have such detailed a grasp and depth of understanding on their chosen topic as the writers over at Wired.

All of their blogs are excellent and each one on its own deserves to be on this list, but Threat Level just picks up on such a fascinating aspect of the modern era (online privacy, crime and security) that I find almost every post there to be a revelation.   The team of writers over at Wired are at the forefront of accessible reporting on often unfathomable cultural paradigm shifts, and their implicit focus on liberty and an overall concern for the collective wellbeing of society can never be applauded enough.

I’ve missed something, but what is it?  Let us all know by leaving a comment below!  And for all you futurist bloggers out there that feel left out, you haven’t been forgotten.  Stay tuned…

We are the 99%. We are the hands and minds that allow the corporations and institutions of society to function and grow, to produce and profit. Our capability for global decentralised communication allows localised acts to transform the global landscape almost immediately through our ability to shift perspective faster and more effectively than ever before.

Because of this, we have ultimate power over our future existence; but this also means we have a responsibility to act collectively towards a higher mode of being.

The revolution begins now, with you.

Active and vocal resistance such as the Occupy Wall Street movement and its global counterparts must be supported wholeheartedly, but such expression is only one component of the transition that can occur once we hold as sacred our ability to connect and share. An uprising of the 99% is not a call for violent revolution – unless in explicit contexts of violent oppression – but is instead a sign that the global community is beginning to embrace a new way of being. Wherever possible this must manifest through peaceful means that embody the true depth of human communication rather than revert to the easily accessible hatred and anger that our primal instincts might instill within us.

Our focus should be on formulating a collective understanding of the ‘common good’ and how it relates to corporations, governments and communities. Discuss privately and publicly what it means to better these areas; how one can identify and encourage such behaviour; what alternatives or options might exist and how they might allow us to grow and evolve into the multitude of different contexts and forms that transform society.

As a society we have to better understand the difference between desire and need, to recognise when we have enough of a personal share and it is time to distribute of ourselves to others in greater need. Our demand is that we renew society around a central proposition of fairness and equality, arrived at through transparent representation, rather than remain with the status quo that often serves only the needs of a self-perpetuating elite.

We must not dismiss the true hardship of life that countless face, barely finding the capacity to eke out a meagre existence within the current order. Nor should we ever allow ourselves to forget that almost half the planet lives on the equivalent of $2 a day, experiencing difficulties that many of us cannot even fathom. But we must recognise that to make demands of an amorphous and unaccountable ‘They’ will not bring about the revolutionary change that is needed in the very fabric of society in order to ensure a fair and just future for all. Injustices should always be fought against within specific contexts and towards particular guilty parties; but the wider movement overall must focus on proactive progression towards equality and liberty that transcends national borders and uplifts the exploited rather than focuses too narrowly on tearing down the impenetrable.

We cannot progress on opposition alone, for we must also provide the solution and become an active participant in its manifestation. The momentum being gained through the current physical expression of discontent must be harnessed and utilised to bring about a positive change in the many and varied structures of global society. You are the revolution!

In order to see progress we have to start acting upon our grievances, for it is only through action that we can improve our understanding of goodness and life; of justice and peace. Embrace openness, and always maintain the peaceful composure of genuine fraternity whilst not holding back from standing up to those who attempt to break down the bonds of society. The 1% are not to be identified through a bank account balance, but rather those working actively against the common good, looting the global community in order to ensure dominance, and rejecting transparency in instances where openness will benefit a large proportion of society.

Where are the practical suggestions behind these words of idealism? Even whilst reading this you are already imagining them, picturing them each to your own context and capacity. You already know what to do, or at the very least how to make a start. Particular actions can’t be dictated to you, because the reality is that a truly revolutionary movement must find its birth in all of us. By doing so it manifests across all social strata and circumstance and builds strength through the bridges formed between different local situations. Transformative power emerges from the unique perspectives of all those who participate. The one thing you must do now is start participating with open sincerity and pure intention.

The popular occupation movement cannot in and of itself lead to the change demanded, but what it does very successfully is galvanise those who hear its message from the influence of a deeply corrupted system. A system that promotes narcissism over compassion and thrives on our capacity to feel powerless and apathetic amongst the distractions and noise of modern life. Stand in peaceful unity when you see such a movement emerge in your locality, but know that you do not do this just to represent your own particular beliefs and values; you do this to change the world for the better of all that wish to see humanity flourish in its diversity.

No matter what community you identify with, you have a sense of what it means to belong and an empathy that can extend its membership beyond the immediate and increase your networks. Always seek to widen your capacity to give and receive. Be emboldened by the magnificence of life and the miraculous nature of creative endeavour.

It is important that we overcome the disgraces of the modern world with a joy that signifies our hope in the inherent goodness of humanity. An uprising of this nature means nothing if we will merely fall back onto the old tropes of xenophobic tribalism and selfish endeavour. True activism requires one to shift the entire momentum of their life and to shift it in such a way that maximises positive impact in whatever context we find ourselves in.

Do not reject authority outright, do not fall into the trap of blind anti-authoritarianism that often serves to weaken the possibility of representation and participation. Strive for ownership of government, not rejection of it. Recognise that government exists in a wider sense than just the halls of parliament, and that we are all guardians of a just and honest society. Radicalism for its own sake runs the risk of serving up change without true form, of revolution without recreation. It also runs the risk of playing into the very hands of those who seek to oppress this movement by undermining the deeper and wider message of participation that it represents.

It is vital to keep a strong basis of peaceful solidarity and not be goaded into actions that undermine the core message. Aggression must sometimes be used against particular injustices in order to overcome their influence, however true systematic change cannot be predicated on hostility but must rather be built upon foundations of charity. To stand together arm in arm, literally and figuratively, is to create a unified solidarity that will embolden those who come into contact with it. It will allow and encourage them to make the changes in their lives that are required on an individual level, across millions and millions of people, in order to make a lasting difference.

This is why, if nothing else, it is your duty to identify that you are part of the 99% and that you do so not just because you are angry but because you are hopeful. There is no fixed political message, no ideology or dogma other than an acceptance that the way forwards is to be built upon equality, openness and mutual understanding. Be very wary of those who would seek to undermine this message with calls for violence based upon hatred, for they are either seriously misguided or attempting to provoke you away from productive action.

The moment to physically stand up and be heard is right now, but what must come afterwards requires a concerted effort to move the message beyond the picket lines and into the heart of our collective being. It’s about recognising how to actualise the capacity for charity and compassion that the wisest throughout history have promoted as the peak of human endeavour.

We must continue to be vigilant against injustice, but at the same time also accept some responsibility for allowing such grievances to occur in the first place.  We must stand in solidarity alongside the vulnerable and exploited around the world, but at the same time recognise that standing alone is not the only action needed. Once we have accepted this responsibility we can make a solemn commitment to no longer be culpable either through action or inaction. This will be the watershed moment that brings about a true revolution and recreation of society.

We are the 99% and there is no need to expect us because we are already here. Those who make decisions and act contrary to the tenets of goodness, justice and equality are not afraid of resistance; they are afraid that we might realise that they can be ignored and sow the seeds of a new form of social existence. Now is not the time to tear down the 1%. Now is the time to make them irrelevant.

For more information see United for Global Change – 15th October 2011 and Occupy Together

“Now, ultimately, this issue isn’t just about information freedom; it is about what kind of world we want and what kind of world we will inhabit.  It’s about whether we live on a planet with one internet, one global community, and a common body of knowledge that benefits and unites us all, or a fragmented planet in which access to information and opportunity is dependent on where you live and the whims of censors.” – Hillary Clinton, 21st January 2010.

My how times have changed, eh Ms. Clinton?

I doubt that there is anybody reading this blog that isn’t already aware of the WikiLeaks juggernaut that continues to gain steam both in the press and in the reaction from various governments around the world.  With each passing day we are being provided with more information showing all of us just how government bodies work, and perhaps unsurprisingly the amount of underhanded activity that takes place.

What is also becoming more clear with each passing day is just how much effort is being placed into bringing the site down.

Emerging over the past week is a clearly co-ordinated attempt to remove WikiLeaks from the internet, and even to end its existence as an organisation.  So, what I wanted to do with the discussion this time is look at whether or not WikiLeaks can actually be shut down – and what this very serious precedent might set for the future of internet neutrality.

I don’t want to get too bogged down in discussions of whether or not the ‘scandal’ surrounding WikiLeaks is deserved.  There are many naysayers (as there always are with any kind of large game-changing event of this nature) that will happily dismiss the leak of 250,000 cables as irrelevant and uninteresting.  To be honest, I don’t particularly even want to take part in such a discussion.  Except to make two statements:

1) WikiLeaks is currently being used as a test-case for just how much ideological freedom the internet possesses and how easily that freedom can or cannot be circumvented.

2) It is kind of disheartening to see just how jaded some people have become in regards to true betrayals of trust perpetrated by those who are supposed to represent the common good.

With that said, let’s survey the recent week in the fascinating struggle to keep us all from viewing WikiLeaks and its recent release:

A massive Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack takes place from an unknown source (often linked to a Lone Wolf operator known as th3j35t3r - ’The Jester’).  This amounts to essentially flooding the servers that WikiLeaks resides upon with a massive amount of data requests in order to clog to internet pipelines (estimated at up to 10Gb/sec); forcing the site to become unavailable for various periods of time.  Despite DDoS attacks clearly being illegal under various jurisdictions such as the UK and Sweden (unlike WikiLeaks), no attempt is made to condemn or discover the source of the attacks.

Calls from various right-wing fronts of the US Government to remove WikiLeaks from accessing any kind of internet services – most notably from Senator Joe Lieberman and Sarah Palin.

WikiLeaks moves to the Amazon cloud service in order to scale up according to how strong the DDoS attacks are coming in.  Amazon soon after drops WikiLeaks, citing a breach in its Terms of Service as reason.

everyDNS.com drops WikiLeaks from its Domain Name Server service, thereby removing the ability for people to access the site through a normal web address (i.e. http://www.wikileaks.org).  The site can still be accessed directly through one of its IP addresses, and a few days later it moves its DNS capabilities to Switzerland.

The French servers that were hosting some of the leaked material mysteriously go offline, coinciding quite neatly with calls from people within the French government to remove any assistance for the organisation.  The material is quickly brought back online via The Pirate Party in Sweden, and subsequently a French court declines to force the permanent removal from French servers.

PayPal freezes the WikiLeaks donation account, taking hostage an amount of roughly US$60,000.  The banking arm of the Swiss postal service, Postfinance, quickly follows suit by cancelling Assange’s account – which has since prompted a DDoS backlash in its own right.  In a seemingly unrelated postal incident – the Melbourne based post-office box for WikiLeaks will face closure (the number 4080 will never be the same again).

Mastercard and Visa both remove their support for their customers who wish to make donations to the various WikiLeaks funds – citing again Terms of Service breaches and ongoing investigations into the legality of the organisation.  It should be noted that Mastercard at least still enables people to donate to white supremacy causes such as the Ku Klux Klan.  Facebook and Twitter won’t join the lynch mob until true evidence of law-breaking is proven – showing that innocent until proven guilty can thankfully still apply.

Julian Assange gives himself up to authorities following an Interpol request for his custody via Sweden for unrelated allegations of sexual misconduct.  He is quickly arrested and a few hours later brought to court in which he is refused bail and is currently being held in a remand prison in the UK.

The US government has outright stated that it is trying to find a way to charge Assange through its Espionage Act; Senator Joe Lieberman also goes on record stating that the New York Times should also be investigated for reporting on the leaks.  A press conference with Barack Obama goes by without a single question being asked about the affair…

So, that’s most of the story so far; and we can be assured that there is yet still much to come in this struggle to keep WikiLeaks available to those who wish to view the material they have published.  What is interesting to watch is just how desperate many powerful people are to see the site be taken offline, and even more interestingly just how futile their attempts are proving to be.

Can WikiLeaks be shut down for good?  All things point to this never being able to occur.  Firstly, the site and its content has already been mirrored over 1,000 times; covering pretty much every jurisdiction on the planet.  A number of news outlets hold in their possession the complete files and can release findings at their leisure (and the Guardian newspaper from the UK should be commended for its stellar and continued coverage); and there’s also the fact that a few hundred thousand people have downloaded the archive in encrypted (and therefore inaccessible) form via bit.torrent.  All of this is even before we begin discussing other whistleblowing websites that have existed for many years, and new ones that are preparing to launch as all of this takes place.

To top it all off, an encrypted insurance file allegedly containing numerous more leaks and sensitive material of an unknown nature has been disseminated amongst tens of thousands of people in the case that anything might occur to Julian Assange (such as an unfortunate ‘accident’) or WikiLeaks as a whole.  All that is required is an encryption key to be released and I fear the world’s media outlets might implode with information overload!

WikiLeaks, at least when it comes to the totality of the material they have in their possession as of this moment, is not going anywhere – ever.  The people behind it are technically savvy enough to have ensured they remain one step ahead of those trying to silence them.  Whether or not they will be able to continue to release future leaks of this magnitude (such as the alleged leaks covering a major US bank) is yet to be seen.  However, undoubtedly somebody will else will just step in or the organisation will change form.

Overall, this is actually a wonderful testament to the true power of internet neutrality and the ability for information to remain available no matter who wants to censor it.  What we have here is the first test case for global freedom of information – truly what we are seeing here is the power of the people over government in its full glory.

Now, I’d like to go on record and state that I’m definitely not advocating that the internet should just be some kind of Wild West (an appropriately cynical historical analogy if ever there was one) where any kind of activity, criminal or not, is allowed free reign.  But clearly there is an issue of public accountability and transparency at hand here – the information being fought over is already changing the global stage in immeasurable ways, and there is more than enough support for it around the world to put forward a very solid case that it should not be allowed to be censored (if democracy is what we really want here).

What it really comes down to is that it has yet to be established that WikiLeaks have broken any laws – and therefore the constant and sustained harassment and persecution of the organisation should be viewed very dimly indeed by people concerned with human liberty and a global freedom of speech.

Apparently, Hillary Clinton and the US Government subscribed to such a world-view less than a year ago…

Since this is a discussion, I’m going to leave further comment until we hear from some of you.  So, what do you think?  Can WikiLeaks be shut down for good?  If so, should it be shut down?  What does this mean for the future of the internet?  For the integrity of investigative journalism?  For the future of freedom of speech?  Can the US still host World Press Freedom Day in 2011 with a straight face?  I look forward to your responses.