future-proofing

"future-proofing: philosophies and technologies of time" looks at literature from the history of science, economic and business history, political theory, media studies, and philosophy in order to examine the myriad ways in which the future is conceived, simulated, "proven", and mobilized by diverse sets of economic, political, artistic, and military practitioners and theorists.

although by no means constituting the entirety of the reading and discussion material, a large portion of the literature to be explored—whether anthropological, theoretical, or historical—analyzes the dynamics and ramifications of the global financial system.

the participants will collectively discuss articles and book chapters by authors such as peter galison, elie ayache, karin knorr cetina, caitlin zaloom, and fredric jameson, on subjects as diverse as corporate and state “scenarios”, financial markets, preemption and simulation in warfare, fiction and contingency, the histories of statistical and probabilistic thinking, science fiction etc. by looking at specific technologies of prediction and preemption, from imagistic warfare technology and the screenic environments of high frequency trading, to operative mathematical formulas in the financial derivatives market and security risk analysis, we will examine how political and philosophical future/futurist thought informs—in quite material, traceable ways—the economic, aesthetic, and technological systems we navigate.

dates: Thursdays, 7-9 pm, starting June 16, 2016.