[-empyre-] Simon Biggs: Resolution for Digital Futures

[Timothy Murray]

Resolution 2009

There are no effective decrees, manifestos or resolutions. We may 
have hopes but expect them to be let down, often gently, sometimes 
brutally. Due to this we fear the public articulation of our hopes.

If events occurred by chance we could employ a statistical approach 
and entertain a greater number of hopes, thus increasing the 
likelihood of their realisation. We could create a computer program 
that could do this for us. However, as this seems too much like good 
luck it is unlikely to effect events and we will only be disappointed 
more often than otherwise. Things happen because other things happen. 
Entertaining a wider array of possible futures may make the chance we 
are right more likely - but it will not enhance the chance of a 
future we might hope for. There is no winning 'system'. Do not gamble.

Alternatively, we can take action calculated to enhance the 
likelihood of certain events occurring. However, things are complex 
and it is extremely difficult to identify all the factors involved in 
things happening. We can never know enough to determine the future 
but can study the past and, employing that most powerful of analytic 
tools (the hunch), make assumptions based on a worst case scenario. 
We can then choose to hope it will not come to pass, calibrating our 
degree of hope as a function of the likelihood of the event occurring 
divided by our fear of it.

Where h=hope, e=event, l=likelihood and f=fear:
h=el/f

We should read our copies of 'The Coming Insurrection'

Simon Biggs (UK) is an artist working with interactive and digital 
media across various modes of diffusion. He is also Professor at the 
Edinburgh College of Art.
-- 
Renate Ferro and Tim Murray
Co-Moderators, -empyre- a soft-skinned-space
Department of Art/ Rose Goldsen Archive of New Media Art
Cornell University