Here's a
presentation by Jamais Cascio, a "foresight specialist", who despite his daft job title has put together quite a nice gentle trot through the opens. He gets most of it right, aside from the egregious clanger of calling Linux an operating system....
Trust me, this was not the audience eager for a discussion of the distinctions between an OS and a kernel.
ReplyDeleteOh, I'm sure: it's just that once you've talked to Richard Stallman for a few hours, strange things happen to your brain when you see Linux described as an operating system, and you find yourself reaching involuntarily for that vitriol-dipped pen....
ReplyDeleteI'm also waiting for someone to take me to task for calling Linux "open source" instead of "free/libre software." Again, it's a consideration of the audience's time and attention.
ReplyDeleteBTW, "foresight specialist" isn't my daft title. My daft title is "world-builder-in-chief."
"Foresight specialist" makes me think of an optician for cyclops (and also makes me wonder whether you have a colleague who is a "hindsight specialist"); "world-builder-in-chief" sounds much better.
ReplyDeleteFuturism has enough baggage as a concept (ranging from the unfortunately fascism-linked art & architecture movement to the variety of self-promoting hucksters calling themselves futurists) that a good number of us who think about future possibilities professionally have taken to emphasizing "foresight" rather than "futures" as our interest.
ReplyDeleteConversely, we're *all* hindsight specialists (given that it is reputedly 20/20), but in terms of professions, historians probably fit best.
Yes, it's a problem when an otherwise useful term has been shucked of its meaning.
ReplyDeleteHow about mellonologist?.