Society. Spaces. Screens

Abstract

Many myths and stories from popular culture warns men about the risks of knowledge. Nonetheless, we reach the 21st century with the impression that time is progressively condensed, for technological advance has reached every aspect of our day-to-day life in a somewhat aggressive manner. Amazed at the wonders provided by our own intellect – and, of course, by the global economic system that sustains the whims of our existence – we learned to underestimate the environmental and social impact of those creations. As the mainstream mentality stimulates the development of tools that increase productivity, traditional communities keep calling for a slowdown. According to those calls (and considering the anticipation of pessimistic scientific predictions of the effects of human action), the cost to be paid is clear: the world as we know it and, eventually, life itself. In the context of a mediated society so influenced by stories, one could ask: how did we get here? Haven’t we seen in books, comics and films how the world succumbed at the hands of humanity before? From storytelling to future studies, it’s possible go through a vast portfolio of imaginary scenarios in which humankind tries to save what’s left of life on Earth. But as we break the line between imaginative fiction and metaphoric reality, we realise that, rather than a post-apocalyptical future, we are living in a pre-apocalyptical present. From that assumption, we go back to social groups placed alongside the mainstream culture and try to come up with alternative models to re-think the years to come. And even more important than what stories they tell, is how they connect them. Thus, we can see new timelines coming around: not from a cone representing diverged possibilities starting at a defined point in a single line, but a treetop linked through a thick trunk to deep roots – and therefore with many branches. That’s how we move from an “ancient future” – a straight timeline where humans dominate nature – to an “ancestral future” – a set of interconnected timelines where humans are part of nature.