Douglas Coupland / A radical pessimist's guide for the next 10 years (feliz año nuevo)

Douglas Coupland / A radical pessimist's guide for the next 10 years


Soy fan de Douglas Coupland, y si ustedes ni siquiera lo conocen es porque Ediciones B decidió que traducir sus libros no era negocio, porque somos unos mojados que duermen a la sombra de un cactus. Anyway. ¿Sí ubican que siempre les estoy dando pronósticos mala onda sobre el futuro y todo eso y ustedes sólo me dicen: "¡Hey, Bob, ya consíguete una novia, Maaaan!". Bien, este post me da la razón (salvo en lo de conseguirme una novia).


Este post fue tomado de un periódico que no me acuerdo, y si no es el mejor modo de cerrar el año, yo no sé cuál es. Se llama A radical pessimist's guide for the next 10 years. Por cierto, Mister Coupland hoy cumple 49 años. Happy birthday, Doug.



1) It's going to get worse

No silver linings and no lemonade. The elevator only goes down. The bright note is that the elevator will, at some point, stop.
Words to live by
A glossary of new terms for a messed-up future

2) The future isn't going to feel futuristic

It's simply going to feel weird and out-of-control-ish, the way it does now, because too many things are changing too quickly. The reason the future feels odd is because of its unpredictability. If the future didn't feel weirdly unexpected, then something would be wrong.

3) The future is going to happen no matter what we do. The future will feel even faster than it does now

The next sets of triumphing technologies are going to happen, no matter who invents them or where or how. Not that technology alone dictates the future, but in the end it always leaves its mark. The only unknown factor is the pace at which new technologies will appear. This technological determinism, with its sense of constantly awaiting a new era-changing technology every day, is one of the hallmarks of the next decade.

4)Move to Vancouver, San Diego, Shannon or Liverpool

There'll be just as much freaky extreme weather in these west-coast cities, but at least the west coasts won't be broiling hot and cryogenically cold.

5) You'll spend a lot of your time feeling like a dog leashed to a pole outside the grocery store – separation anxiety will become your permanent state

6) The middle class is over. It's not coming back

Remember travel agents? Remember how they just kind of vanished one day?

That's where all the other jobs that once made us middle-class are going – to that same, magical, class-killing, job-sucking wormhole into which travel-agency jobs vanished, never to return. However, this won't stop people from self-identifying as middle-class, and as the years pass we'll be entering a replay of the antebellum South, when people defined themselves by the social status of their ancestors three generations back. Enjoy the new monoclass!

7) Retail will start to resemble Mexican drugstores

In Mexico, if one wishes to buy a toothbrush, one goes to a drugstore where one of every item for sale is on display inside a glass display case that circles the store. One selects the toothbrush and one of an obvious surplus of staff runs to the back to fetch the toothbrush. It's not very efficient, but it does offer otherwise unemployed people something to do during the day.

8) Try to live near a subway entrance

In a world of crazy-expensive oil, it's the only real estate that will hold its value, if not increase.

9) The suburbs are doomed, especially thoseE.T. , California-style suburbs

This is a no-brainer, but the former homes will make amazing hangouts for gangs, weirdoes and people performing illegal activities. The pretend gates at the entranceways to gated communities will become real, and the charred stubs of previous white-collar homes will serve only to make the still-standing structures creepier and more exotic.

10) In the same way you can never go backward to a slower computer, you can never go backward to a lessened state of connectedness

11) Old people won't be quite so clueless

No more “the Google,” because they'll be just that little bit younger.

12) Expect less

Not zero, just less.

13) Enjoy lettuce while you still can

And anything else that arrives in your life from a truck, for that matter. For vegetables, get used to whatever it is they served in railway hotels in the 1890s. Jams. Preserves. Pickled everything.

14) Something smarter than us is going to emerge

Thank you, algorithms and cloud computing.

15) Make sure you've got someone to change your diaper

Sponsor a Class of 2112 med student. Adopt up a storm around the age of 50.

16) “You” will be turning into a cloud of data that circles the planet like a thin gauze

While it's already hard enough to tell how others perceive us physically, your global, phantom, information-self will prove equally vexing to you: your shopping trends, blog residues, CCTV appearances – it all works in tandem to create a virtual being that you may neither like nor recognize.

17) You may well burn out on the effort of being an individual

You've become a notch in the Internet's belt. Don't try to delude yourself that you're a romantic lone individual. To the new order, you're just a node. There is no escape

18) Untombed landfills will glut the market with 20th-century artifacts

19) The Arctic will become like Antarctica – an everyone/no one space

Who owns Antarctica? Everyone and no one. It's pie-sliced into unenforceable wedges. And before getting huffy, ask yourself, if you're a Canadian: Could you draw an even remotely convincing map of all those islands in Nunavut and the Northwest Territories? Quick, draw Ellesmere Island.

20)

North America can easily fragment quickly as did the Eastern Bloc in 1989

Quebec will decide to quietly and quite pleasantly leave Canada. California contemplates splitting into two states, fiscal and non-fiscal. Cuba becomes a Club Med with weapons. The Hate States will form a coalition.

21) We will still be annoyed by people who pun, but we will be able to show them mercy because punning will be revealed to be some sort of connectopathic glitch: The punner, like someone with Tourette's, has no medical ability not to pun

22) Your sense of time will continue to shred. Years will feel like hours

23) Everyone will be feeling the same way as you

There's some comfort to be found there.

24) It is going to become much easier to explain why you are the way you are

Much of what we now consider “personality” will be explained away as structural and chemical functions of the brain.

25) Dreams will get better

26)

Being alone will become easier

27)Hooking up will become ever more mechanical and binary

28) It will become harder to view your life as “a story”

The way we define our sense of self will continue to morph via new ways of socializing. The notion of your life needing to be a story will seem slightly corny and dated. Your life becomes however many friends you have online.

29) You will have more say in how long or short you wish your life to feel

Time perception is very much about how you sequence your activities, how many activities you layer overtop of others, and the types of gaps, if any, you leave in between activities.

30) Some existing medical conditions will be seen as sequencing malfunctions

The ability to create and remember sequences is an almost entirely human ability (some crows have been shown to sequence). Dogs, while highly intelligent, still cannot form sequences; it's the reason why well-trained dogs at shows are still led from station to station by handlers instead of completing the course themselves.

Dysfunctional mental states stem from malfunctions in the brain's sequencing capacity. One commonly known short-term sequencing dysfunction is dyslexia. People unable to sequence over a slightly longer term might be “not good with directions.” The ultimate sequencing dysfunction is the inability to look at one's life as a meaningful sequence or story.

31) The built world will continue looking more and more like Microsoft packaging

“We were flying over Phoenix, and it looked like the crumpled-up packaging from a 2006 MS Digital Image Suite.”

32) Musical appreciation will shed all age barriers

33) People who shun new technologies will be viewed as passive-aggressive control freaks trying to rope people into their world, much like vegetarian teenage girls in the early 1980s

1980: “We can't go to that restaurant. Karen's vegetarian and it doesn't have anything for her.”

2010: “What restaurant are we going to? I don't know. Karen was supposed to tell me, but she doesn't have a cell, so I can't ask her. I'm sick of her crazy control-freak behaviour. Let's go someplace else and not tell her where.”

34) You're going to miss the 1990s more than you ever thought

35) Stupid people will be in charge, only to be replaced by ever-stupider people. You will live in a world without kings, only princes in whom our faith is shattered

36) Metaphor drift will become pandemic

Words adopted by technology will increasingly drift into new realms to the point where they observe different grammatical laws, e.g., “one mouse”/“three mouses;” “memory hog”/“delete the spam.”

37) People will stop caring how they appear to others

The number of tribal categories one can belong to will become infinite. To use a high-school analogy, 40 years ago you had jocks and nerds. Nowadays, there are Goths, emos, punks, metal-heads, geeks and so forth.

38)Knowing everything will become dull

It all started out so graciously: At a dinner for six, a question arises about, say, that Japanese movie you saw in 1997 (Tampopo), or whether or not Joey Bishop is still alive (no). And before long, you know the answer to everything.

39) IKEA will become an ever-more-spiritual sanctuary

40) We will become more matter-of-fact, in general, about our bodies

41) The future of politics is the careful and effective implanting into the minds of voters images that can never be removed

42) You'll spend a lot of time shopping online from your jail cell

Over-criminalization of the populace, paired with the triumph of shopping as a dominant cultural activity, will create a world where the two poles of society are shopping and jail.

43) Getting to work will provide vibrant and fun new challenges

Gravel roads, potholes, outhouses, overcrowded buses, short-term hired bodyguards, highwaymen, kidnapping, overnight camping in fields, snaggle-toothed crazy ladies casting spells on you, frightened villagers, organ thieves, exhibitionists and lots of healthy fresh air.

44) Your dream life will increasingly look like Google Street View

45) We will accept the obvious truth that we brought this upon ourselves


Próximo post: mi top anual, stay tunned. Recuerden, este blog regresa con fuerzas.

Los amo.

regalo noise-freak de navidad de este blog que los ama, aunque a su manera

Ok, les voy a explicar:

Sirako y yo somos artistas visuales salidos de la Enap de esos que pierden horas y horas de su vida escuchando discos de noise y música contemporánea y free jazz y electrónica experimental y avant-rock y de esos discos ñoños que cuestan carísimo por igual en Mix-Up (si los hubiera) que en una tienda fancy especializada (de esas que le escriben los precios a los discos a mano sobre estampitas blancas) pero que igual no los pagamos porque a la inaccesibilidad del mercado le respondemos bajando discos de Taringa.net. Suck on that.

Conocí a Sirako en una Feria de Arte Contemporáneo Emergente en Polanco (eso suena como a canción de Flans). Dijo que hacía performance gay, lo cual es cierto, pero te lleva un rato darte cuenta.

Un día me lo encontré en el concierto de Atsuhiro Itto en Radar 2008. Fue uno de los mejores conciertos a los que he ido en mi vida, era un japonés sacándole ruido a una lámpara de neón. Ahí ubiqué que Sirako también era noise-geek. Y que tomaba coca-cola y fumaba.

Un día en una fiesta de Plaqueta alguien hablaba sobre la facilidad de saltar a la fama haciendo una banda con el Garage Band de la Mac y eventualmente le dije a Sirako que deberíamos hacer una banda just because.

Sirako y yo somos altos. Él mide como 1.95 o algo así y yo le llego al hombro. Una 'persona-amiga-mía', hace años, después de conocer a Sirako dijo, en tono amistoso y de broma, que "pensaba que nadie era más alto que Bob". Pensándolo con detenimiento, en su momento fue un comentario casi tierno (cosa inexplicablemente rara). Anyway, aunque obviamente capté el mensaje, pensé que alguien que pensara que su conocido más alto era el más alto del universo, definitivamente era una persona con muy "poca cultura de la gente alta". Y nació un monstruo. Dijimos que nuestra banda se llamaría así, y que sería requisito ser alto para tocar con nosotros, y que el segundo requisito sería no saber tocar ningún instrumento, y que si querían entrar chicas podían ser bajitas pero debían ser chicas guapas. Sick Sad World.

Después de años y años de especular y no hacer nada (más o menos, el ocio debería ser una actividad remunerada -publicistas no cuentan) lo logramos.

"Él tiene lo que quería pero perdió lo que tuvo" en colaboración con "www.sirako.blogspot.com" les ofrecen, como regalo de navidad, los dos primeros discos de Poca Cultura de la Gente Alta: "Contre Les Laptopistes I-II" y "Folk Jam", ambos de 2010.





"Contre Les Laptopistes I-II" se llama así por aquella canción del "A thousand leaves" de Sonic Youth llamada "Contre le sexisme". Se me hizo muy de activista escribir consignas en francés, como en la película de Southpark cuando arman 'La Résistance' y todo se pone heroico. Además, una vez leí en el Myspace de Omar Alejandro (otro músico noise) un comentario de Beto Pop diciendo que "a la mierda los laptopistas". Luego me acordé de Christian Galarreta, que cuando lo invitaron a tocar a Radar sólo trajo una laptop PC mugrosa y descompuesta a tocar feísimo y pensé que los laptopistas sí estaban gachos. "Contre Les Laptopistes I-II" son un montón de archivos .wav tocados uno encima de otros en una laptop PC de 1999 y grabados en un Audacity en una eMac en Mono en un sólo golpe, sin edición posterior. En ese disco sólo toco yo sin Sirako (sólo lo grabé para darle celos de mí mismo y que ya nos pusiéramos las pilas). El disco son 2 tracks de 35 y 25 minutos c/u. Es más bien drone muuuuuuuuy prolongado y extendido y muy Lo-Fi. Es una mezcla entre Daniel Menche y NwW pero grabado con $2 pesos. Domingo hace el arte, y si son listos deberían ver su tumblr.





"Folk Jam" es el primer disco grabado entre Sirako y yo. Un día se me ocurrió decirle que grabáramos un single navideño en dos patadas: yo llevaba mi laptop vieja y él tocaba en su Mac. Dijo que va. Antes de grabar nos pusimos a babosear en su compu viendo cosas. Aproveché para ver la página de Mungo Thomson porque en ninguna de mis compus puedo verla porque está en Flash, un artista que es mi ídolo pero así cabrón. Estábamos viendo piezas random y le dije que nos claváramos en una serie llamada Folk Jam. Son botellas como de alfarería clásica y estandartes con diseños de Jack Daniels y unos dibujos sueltos misceláneos. Estaban preciosos. Nos clavamos particularmente en uno de un señor con una estatua y justo antes de empezar a grabar el disco, que necesitábamos un nombre para el archivo del GarageBand, se nos ocurrió ponerle así, Folk Jam. Grabamos el disco comiendo Ruffles de queso (de las de empaque verde) y Coca-Cola (si bajaron el disco pueden verlo en el arte del disco). Anyway, "Folk Jam" es un sólo track. Yo hago las partes drone rough y Sirako hace las partes con instrumentos en un programa. El disco tiene percusiones muy onda Keiji Haino, capas noise todavía á la Daniel Menche e incluso partes de órgano a lo Medeski, Martin & Wood. Dura una hora, pero hay más cambios y es menos prolongado, o sea, mucho más user friendly. Nosotros hicimos el arte al aventón pero con mucho amor. La portada del disco es un empaque de papas del McDonald's volteado.


Bajen el disco sin pagar un quinto, llévense noise hecho con mucho pero mucho amor. Si alguien ya lo bajó/escuchó, comenten plís. Las voces más autorizadas del mundo bloggero/tuiteril lo recomiendan.

(Si no detectaron los miles de links allá arriba, aquí hay dos últimas oportunidades:)



Bajen Folk Jam de Poca Cultura de la Gente Alta totalmente gratis, MP3, 60 MB, 64 minutos

Bajen Contre Les Laptopistes I-II, de Poca Cultura de la Gente Alta totalmente gratis, MP3, 42 MB, 61 minutos



(Aquí están más datos y cosas en onda seria de los discos)


Los quiero más de lo que merecen, pero eso no importa.