Futurist Manifestos

I joined the London Futurist Meetup a few years ago because I was taking a holiday in London, and I still get their announcements. They are currently interested in a new futurist manifesto from the Fork in the Road Project: https://forkintheroadproject.com/manifesto/

I found this a rather tepid and vague piece of work who core revolves around the following four points:

While many forces challenge the future, we recognize these 4 overarching issues

1. Dealing with the Climate Crisis so that humans and all life can continue to flourish on Earth
2. Designing New Economic and Political Frameworks, based on sustainable principles such as “People, Planet, Purpose & Prosperity”
3. Managing Exponential Scientific and Technological Progress
4. Governing Human Enhancement, Longevity, and Human Genome Editing so that progress continues while consequences are carefully considered

“The initiators and initial signatories of this manifesto agree and hereby declare the urgent need to raise global awareness, to engage in wide education and debate, and to take decisive actions on these key issues in order to bring about fundamental shifts in all areas of human endeavour.”

Um, yeah. Let’s all uh, do that.

This really lacks the artistic flare and mad lust for life that Marinetti’s original Futurist Manifesto possessed: https://www.societyforasianart.org/sites/default/files/manifesto_futurista.pdf

`Come, my friends!' I said. `Let us go! At last Mythology and the mystic cult of the ideal have been left behind. We are going to be present at the birth of the centaur and we shall soon see the first angels fly! We must break down the gates of life to test the bolts and the padlocks! Let us go! Here is the very first sunrise on earth! Nothing equals the splendor of its red sword which strikes for the first time in our millennial darkness.'

Of course Marinetti was also a fascist of the first order and wanted to burn the world down:

“We want to demolish museums and libraries, fight morality, feminism
and all opportunist and utilitarian cowardice.”

All this was before the first world war which sobered everyone up a bit.

But between the bland modernist technocrats, and frothing fascist poets, there must be a middle way for us to explore. What should a contemporary futurist manifesto look like? What must it address?

Come and argue these points and let’s see if we can establish our very own Futurist Manifesto!

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