FUTURISM AS POLICY: What should futurists want from political change?

The Consensus ( http://cdfp.org ) recently held a meeting to discuss how futurist values and ideas should inform UK politics. The meeting was very successful, with lots of vigorous and creative discussion. It soon became clear that specific policies are less important to futurists than promoting a new technological infrastructure than can circumvent corruption and censorship, giving people a voice independent of vested interests and the powers-that-be.

We came to the conclusion that futurists want to begin with principles, creating a movement around a few key values that unite different organizations, and which can give rise to specific organizations within the movement, such as political parties and think tanks. We have decided to spend this summer building that (as yet nameless) movement from first principles and building a network of like-minded people in London and around the world.

The principles we have adopted as our starting point are those of the Zero State (http://zerostate.net) futurist community, which will form part of this new, larger movement, and which can be found at http://doctrinezero.com . Over time, these principles will evolve to reflect the fact that they are not just those of ZS, but of the movement as a whole.

On Saturday May 4th we will again be meeting upstairs at the Queen's Larder, to discuss the following three questions - will hope you will come along and join the conversation!

1. What are futurist principles?

How can and should such general futurist principles inform the principles of the international Consensus of Democratic Futurist Parties (CDFP)?

2. What are futurist policies?

Consensus UK has a draft manifesto ( http://zerostate.net/documents/Consensus_Manifesto_V1-01.pdf ) of national policies that need to be considered in terms of our principles. Are these principles and policies compatible? What compatible futurist policies should be in that manifesto, which aren't?

3. What technologies will help us build our futurist network?

By the end of this summer we will have created a movement based upon futurist principles, having national policies compatible with those principles, and with a network of working groups helping to build the new democratic technological infrastructure that we need. We will use this network to support all groups aligned with our principles, such as Pirate Party UK. How should we begin? What technologies do we need to start using now? What problems can we begin working on now, and how can we find like-minded people who will help us solve them?

There will be no charge to attend, but attendees will be encouraged to join or donate to the Consensus, helping us to hold advertised meetings in larger venues.