Aug 5, 2008 03:53 PM
909
Enter your username and password.
San Francisco, 2:28 AM
Wed Feb 10
25 posts in the last 24 hours
Expect to see some seriously interesting writing over at SciFi Channel's new blog How You Can Save the World, which the channel's president Dave Howe says will be "championing an optimistic outlook of the future." It's delightful to see smart futurists like Jamais Cascio and Esther Dyson blogging alongside heavy hitters like Richard Branson and former CIA director John Deutsch. Contributors will discuss what the future might bring, as well as how to get there in one piece. In an introductory essay about the blog, Howe writes about traveling to Indonesia and his fear of terrorism there — this sparks his desire for visions of a better future where we don't worry about terrorists while vacationing. While this sentiment is a good one, and a blog like How You Can Save the World is surely needed, there are some problems here.
But first, the good stuff. I'm especially excited about an essay by Richard Branson about space travel, and one from brainiac Peter Schwartz on maintaining optimism about the future.
Still, it was strange to see Howe beginning this conversation about the future by talking about Indonesia when there are almost no international contributors to this blog who come the developing world. In fact, there are almost no people of color contributing at all, regardless of country of origin. And apparently there is little room for women to help save the world — only 2 out of 19 contributors represent over half the human population on this blog about the future.
Normally I wouldn't harp on something like this, but it's terrifically hard to imagine us getting from here to the future without some ideas from women, people of color, and citizens of developing nations. It's not that I don't want to hear from every single contributor listed on this blog's awe-inspiring masthead — they're all fascinating. I'd just like to hear from a bunch of non-men and non-whiteys too. Because the future is going to belong to all of us.
Nevertheless, I'll be tuning in to see what's posted. As long as the blog can bring in many more diverse voices, I think it's going to be an exciting place.
How You Can Save the World [blog]
Send an email to Annalee Newitz, the author of this post, at annalee@io9.com.
Original material is licensed under a Creative Commons License permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution.
Start a new discussion