Tag Archives: Louis-Sebastien Mercier

the future: misleading desires for permanence

The future is a relic, and industry and a myth. For all our scientific prognostications, do we know any more about it than the average Zoroastrian? …After Louis Sebastien Mercier passed into the dustbin of history, a new breed of … Continue reading

Posted in Feature Article, Ideas/Opinion, Literature/poetry/spoken word | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

future: like beads on an infinite string

The modern future was born, according to one dating, in the year 1770, when a Parisian hack writer named Louis-Sebastien Mercier wrote a book called L’an 2440… …This linear conception of the time is another essential ingredient of the modern … Continue reading

Posted in Feature Article, Ideas/Opinion | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

tomorrow: not rotating on the great cosmic wheel

The modern future was born, according to one precise dating, in the year 1770, when a Parisian hack writer named Louis-Sebastien Mercier wrote a book called L’an 2440 in which he set out to predict the blissful state of human … Continue reading

Posted in Feature Article, Ideas/Opinion, Literature/poetry/spoken word | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

the future is not what it was

…Our notions of the future have not only varied,they have also changed greatly in the course of time. The future, if nothing else, has a past-our own conception of it included. The modern future was born, according to one precise … Continue reading

Posted in Feature Article, Ideas/Opinion | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment