[sudo-discuss] Proposal: SudoRoom Dystopian Science Fiction Night // A Humanities perspective

[Romy Ilano]

I have a proposal - a SudoRoom dystopian science fiction night.

*Background:* Since the November elections [actually the past 2 years]
there's been a sharp uptick in dystopian science fiction novels, especially
for young adults. After the election books like *The Handmaid's Tale
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Handmaid%27s_Tale>* and 1984 have
skyrocket to the top of the bestseller lists.

In this climate of fear, many artists' groups are experiencing an uptick in
membership. In this time, more than ever, we need well-meaning art, science
and the humanities to make sense of a dystopian world that has become
reality.

*Proposal: *Let's gather all the people who feel overwhelmed by current
events and have a Dystopian Tea Party every week. Ideally Wednesdays.

While the topics are a little negative, they'll also provide *a positive
springboard* - if the future really can go this badly, and it looks like it
might happen, what can we do to mitigate or avoid it?

If we deregulate auto emissions and return to pollution levels of the
1950s, how can we turn this around and reverse the damage?

*Meeting Ideas:*


   - *Nuclear War night*
      - Create art around nuclear war hitting San Francisco
      - Understand the science and art behind nuclear bombs - how would
      this affect our environment
      - What political arrangements and military mistakes would provoke a
      nuclear war? [political science
      - What kind of clothes could we wear to protect ourselves from
      nuclear war?
   - *AntiFeminist Dystopia Night*
      - What are all the possible scenarios where women's rights could be
      trampled in the US? Could Texan abortion laws reach California?
      - art and science fiction around an antifeminist dystopia
      - Studies of feminist texts like Backlash and The Handmaid's Tale
      - how science is used to oppress women, how science could be used to
      free women
   - *Environmental Disaster Scenario*
      - Predictive Futures Design topic - As the United States looks
      increasingly headed for environmental disaster with the assault
on the EPA,
      will our cities look like Delhi and China?
         - Predictive future illustrations of what a smoggy United States
         will look like
         - Design of gasmasks for children in places where auto emissions
         are deregulated. We could make a 3D printout
      - Environmental 101 - how does polluting a national park work? What
      are things that can go wrong when oil pipelines spill?
      - How can hackers fix Flint Water supply? WHat's the science behind
      this?
      - Health Sciences Hacking - Poor americans are probably going to live
      in increasingly polluted, unhealthy environments with little or no
      regulation. More air pollution, more cancer. In a predictive futures
      scenario, what kind of low-end hospitals will exist for these
people? What
      strange new diseases will appear?
   - *Education Disaster Scenario*
      - Predictive futures: What happens when education is completely
      privatized and what dystopian outcomes can happen as more for-profit
      universities and private religious schools become the only option for US
      children?
      - Science Fiction scenarios: we could do a writing workshop. Imagine
      the US became total theocracy and only conversvative Christian schools
      believing in creationism were allowed to exist. What kind of evolution
      underground would form? What if science had to be conducted in secret?
      - We could design a education disaster scenario textbook. What if
      only mega corporations took over and presented textbooks full of
      "alternative facts" ????
      - What kind of society would we become if all funding for the arts
      and humanities were entirely cut at universities, as has been
suggested in
      Florida. What if nobody was only allowed to study a topic if it
suited the
      needs of a mega corporation and no theory was allowed ever? What
if people
      were only allowed to take business and commucinations degrees and had no
      concept of philosophy?
         - This would be pretty cool, it'd be fun to have a film project
         where someone in this society would discover the lost book of
humanities
         and create a secret theater group, then get jailed.
      - Muslim Disaster Scenario
      - What if muslims in the United States and Europe were systematically
      targeted in a way that the jews were by the Nazis in the 1940s?
      - In a science fiction novels how could  noble heroes protect an
      increasingly muslim minority, as some national organization moves to move
      them into concentration camps?
      - This scenario is actually too depressing, but it would be cool to
      highlight great tMuslim scientists of the past and find safety check
      scenarios


Links

   - Trump era's top-selling dystopian novels -
   http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-38764041
   - Women don Handmaid's tale robes to protest Texas abortion laws
   http://www.avclub.com/article/women-don-handmaids-tale-robes-protest-texas-abort-252463



=============================

Romy Ilano
romy at snowyla.com
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://sudoroom.org/pipermail/sudo-discuss/attachments/20170322/baaf0781/attachment.html>