That's great!!

I like your positive future angle a lot. Well, I suppose that goes without saying since I like Future Hi a lot.

I don't knwo if this helps any, but here's the role I think Future Hi (and a number of other sites) can play...

Seeing the future is an exercize in pattern recognition, trying to tease the patterns out of a huge amount of noise. It's human nature to see the patterns that we expect, rather than the ones that are actually there.

It seems that most people, particularly when it comes to technology, expect dystopia. They see it everywhere.

Future Hi works to change that expectation, to provide a different set of patterns in the noise. Perhaps no more or less "valid" than the dystopian ones -- it's all sheer speculation, after all -- but when you consider the angle of self-fulfilling prophecy, a more utopian analysis is desperately needed.

Yes.. self-fullfilling prophecy is exactly my angle.

Besides, I think embracing a positive vision of the future is shocking, especially nowadays. It's not what people expect! The idea that there is a way out of our mess is mind blowing for a lot of people. For us to make it, it's going to take nerves of steel, and a heart of gold. Because afterall, we are talking about people having to surrender their most sacred beliefs about what they thought was real. It's those beliefs that are the root cause of our delima. As Mckenna once said, things are going to get so crazy, that our only way out is the FORWARD ESCAPE.

I find the sceptics like a worse-case scenario hook – something to hedge their bets against should they be made to look hopeful fools. I generally suggest, ‘Hey, at the end of the day if I’m talking crap, the worse that can happen is I lived well;’ this always gets a reluctant nod out of the most hardened.

Congrats man, hope it all works out!

Hey that's great news, I hope it works out for you, and if it does, good luck with spreading the word!

Awesome!

I agree that the concept of the forward escape is the key.

I was talking to a friend last weekend about Future Hi specifically and futurism more generally and it was interesting that a lot of the concepts were pretty foreign to him. The idea of the singularity, for example. This from an artist who is fairly familiar with most aspects of psychedelic culture.

Also interesting was his skepticism at my attempt to exlain why I thought, in spite of the state of the world, there is room for optimism. There is an awful lot of pessimism out there, and a surprising amount of "end times" thinking from all quarters. (And I note that the concept of the singularity is often regarded as a kind of annihilation event rather than as a mystery.)

Try and get Coast to Coast to agree to let you post the audio! They seem pretty uptight about their content.

Dear Paul- I think I may be responsible for turning Coast to Coast on
to your site. On Wednesday night, they had a guest on, Dr. Bruce
Lipton, who was talking about a new way to view the organization of
Life, starting at the cellular level.
http://www.coasttocoastam.com/shows/2005/02/09.html His thesis was
that instead of cells being controlled by DNA and genes in the
nucleus, cells are like an information processor chip where the
"brain" of the cell is actually the membrane, which receives and
responds to stimuli from within the body, such as thoughts, and from
stimuli outside of the body, such as energy fields. Anyway, while
this was on, LVX23 posted "What is Reality?" and I found it to be
immediately pertinent so I used the fastblast feature and sent it to
the host, George Noory, but apparently it goes straight to the
producer. I am almost certain that's where they got it. The topic of
that show was certainly interesting, but it is one of the few times I
have listened in a long time.

I used to be a nightly listener starting in January of 2004, about
the same time I discovered Planet P and FutureHi; I have had FutureHi
as my homepage ever since then. But I haven't listened much the last
several months for many reasons, from some of the "out there" topics
they cover a little too often, to the "middle america" demograhic, to
the gloom and doom and conspiracy shows they had on all too often; I
found myself thinking that time was running out one way or another for
civilization on earth . . . and all I could think about was "I need to
dig a bunker." I really related to your post "Evaporating Zeitgeist"
on August 7th and felt that I too had "lost something." I was no
longer living for the future but living in spite of it. Now I'm not
saying Coast to Coast is to blame, but what I am saying is that I had
become too entrenched in certain messages of the show that
overshadowed my normal positive, optomistic, excited outlook for the
future--which is why FutureHi is my homepage in the first place. Of
all of the different interactive sites out there, yours is the only
one that consistently crosses the boudary into painting a bright
future to look forward to, on so many different levels, all within
realistic terms. So my message to you is that for the angle to go
with on Coast to Coast, you should present a counterpoint to the gloom
and doom guests, much as you already have suggested. HOWEVER, I
suggest a slight tweak. Instead of overtly saying that you are
presenting a counterpoint--"there is a way out . . . amidst all the
tragedy, crisis and catastrophe in the world,"--don't leave room for
such a possibility in your message. Instead, expose people to a
positive vision of the future as if it's already here. Instead of
saying, "We can do this." Say, "We are already doing this!" This is
much the same message that JohnFen posted in the comments section in
regards to a self-fulfilling prophecy. Instead of leaving it open to
two possible outcomes for the future, present it as if there is only
one. It is a matter of changing people's expectations. If the
negative thoughts are never entertained as possibility, then they are
never possible (more or less). I think an angle of you enumerating
exciting ideas from each of the "Categories," from Architechture to
Transhumanism, that are on the right side of the site will go over
well. This is sort of a teaser but many of the listeners will not
have heard of most of these ideas before, as MrNeutron suggested above, and, consequently, if these
ideas are presented as if they are already happeneing (which they
are), then people will respond as if their world has just been opened
up. After all, isn't that what FutureHi does anyway?

Let me know what you think.

P.S. Art Bell still hosts Coast to Coast on weekends.

Cheers to you Dhughes for pushing the meme around!

As with Paul, I believe that it's up to us as humans to write our story. Whatever we believe in most has a way of becoming true. We manifest our imagination - that's the gift of being human. So it's critical that we encourage positive futures and grab enough mindshare to make them come true.

Everyone deep down wants peace, and love, and security and comfort. Fear and hatred obscure the true desires of our social species. We do it to ourselves by giving into the malaise of dystopia, and our leaders are encouraged to guard their power by keeping us separate and alone.

Dystopia breeds dystopia. The most revolutionary act, IMHO, is ardently believing in a bright future and working to make it become a reality. If we believe in Apocalypse, that's what will happen. If we believe in harmonic convergence, that will come to pass. Whichever mythic metameme has the most adherents, that's the one that will be played out across our lives.

Hi, Paul.

Congratulations on your opportunity. I think you will do a great job bringing a new perspective to this audience.

One topic you might want to consider is your encompassing theme of psychedelic futurism. What excited me about that theme when I first read about it on your website was the optimism about possible futures that is missing from most media today.

To me, psychedelic futurism is an antidote to fear and punditry; it emphasizes the increase of intelligence, health, and connection with an underlying spirit of exploration and adventure. Not since the death of Timothy Leary have I heard a voice of hope and fearlessness like yours.

- sean

P.S. Bruce Lipton (mentioned earlier and a recent guest on C2C) is an old friend of mine and he might be willing to give you some thoughts on preparing for he C2C experience. If you are interested in talking with him, I will contact him for you.