By Michael Cobley
Recently in the last few weeks I’ve been reading through varied articles and journal entries, which go into depth of the different perceptions that can be seen of futurism. A journal style article I came across was Maja Kuzmanovic and Nik Gaffney sharing their experiences in finding an understanding of futurism through an Anitpodean Research Retreat. In this written work Kuzmanovic and Gaffney exemplify the importance of culture as being an overwhelming notion in predicting the possibilities of what the future may behold. These comments and observations by these two journalists enlightened me into predicting the possible circumstances of an overwhelming single worldwide culture, which could potentially be perceived as a more peaceful outcome in the future. As nearly every individual is aware of that global warming seems to be the inevitable end of existence, but what if there was solution? What if in a future parallel universe scientists were able to reverse the cycle of green house gases and potentially save the planet. This is theoretically speaking, but if green house gases are no longer an issue and for a miracle of a reason earth continues to functions for trillions of years then theirs a possibility that all countries may join together as one. Scientist have made it clear that each country slowly moves a small amount of distance over a long period of time, which creates the possibility of all countries being connected together in a far away future.
Kuzmanovic and Gaffney emphasise the idea of culture being the turning point of determining how a future world will be functioning. Even in this modern world culture truly is bringing a sense of unity to nations, but on the other hand it is also enforcing violence and warfare which has condemned the human race to suffer major losses. This futuristic possibility of having a connected nation across the world could form a single united culture, which is riddened of racism and cultural warfare. The idea of a potential peaceful planet seems a bit far-fetched but the power of unity amongst a connected country and the gradual removal of racism to this current day could truly be a potential world. Ridley Scotts 1982 film Blade Runner provides a rough insight of what this world could potentially be seen as, this film portrays a future perspective of earth were all varied backgrounds and races are together, which can be made clear in the opening scene of the film in the streets. But on the other hand, Scott does portray an accepted non-racist background of people but the rest of this futuristic universe is conveyed as a dystopia, were nature is no longer existent due to mass corporations. This theory of a united culture or nation seems almost impossible and too good to be true, but as Gaffney emphasise’s in the article that “the possibilities are endless”.
References:
Musings from an Antipodean Research Retreat
by Maja Kuzmanovic & Nik Gaffney
Dystopian Designers 
Solid blog, Michael!
And to think this is the blog that allowed us to create our scenario all the way to the end of the semester!
As we discussed as a group, there are so many positive and negative sides of having one single nation.
Some of the positives:
Potentially one native language, communication is much easier
Resources can be traded with ease
Culture can potentially enhance and remove all religion, creating one giant peaceful nation.
Negatives:
Plague can spread throughout the one giant nation and potentially wipe us all out
Biodiversity such as animal species and wild life may become extinct due to lack of diverse environmental conditions
Even though this may not happen until many million years later, it’s interesting to think of such scenario becoming a reality. As you said yourself in the article, the parallel universe may have already made this happen!
-David Cho
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