TRULL@cl.uh.EDU ("Kim J. Trull") (08/24/89)
Hello! I joined this discussion board a couple of months ago, but I'm not really clear what it is really all about. Info-futures could be information sources, discussion about the future in general, or discussion of the field of study called futures research. Which is it? Kim J. Trull TRULL%cl.uh.edu@RELAY.CS.NET Graduate Student Studies of the Future Univ. of Houston - Clear Lake
bzs@ENCORE.COM (Barry Shein) (08/25/89)
>Hello! > I joined this discussion board a couple of months ago, but I'm >not really clear what it is really all about. Info-futures could be >information sources, discussion about the future in general, or >discussion of the field of study called futures research. Which is >it? > > Kim J. Trull Seems like a question worth answering every once in a while. INFO-FUTURES was formed to discuss the future of computing and related technologies. The preference is for the realizable future, the next few years, rather than speculating in the realm of science fiction (although a little of that is ok, but there has to be some tie-in to current realities, at least a healthy respect for the state of the art in physics/medicine/etc.) Short term futures (i.e. the next 12-24 months) are of course always welcome. Thus, questions like what are we all going to do with 100MIPS workstations on our desks seems like fair game but fantasizing about what we are all going to do with fully intelligent cyborgs probably isn't going to be very productive. Futurological methodologies are always welcome, how does one take what we know and extrapolate it into the future reliably. Juicy rumors usually justify their space also. -Barry Shein Software Tool & Die, Purveyors to the Trade 1330 Beacon Street, Brookline, MA 02146, (617) 739-0202