During World War II, Henry Miller wrote an interesting essay called “Art and the Future”. [This article on it](http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2012/11/07/henry-miller-of-art-and-the-future/) piqued my curiosity enough to track down a print copy–my first physical book purchase in a while–and jot down a few quotes.
On the purpose of art:
> To put it quite simply, art is only a stepping stone to reality; it is the vestibule in which we undergo the rites of initiation. Man’s task is to make of himself a work of art. The creations which man makes manifest have no validity in themselves; they serve to awaken, that is all. And that, of course, is a great deal. But it is not the all. Once awakened, everything will reveal itself to man as creation. Once the blinders have been removed and the fetters unshackled, man will have no need to recreate through the elect cult of genius. Genius will be the norm…
What is the end game of communication technologies?
> What we have overlooked, in our frenzy to invent more dazzling ways and means of communication, is to communicate. The artist lumbers along with crude implements. He is only a notch above his predecessor, the cave man. Even the film art, requiring the services of veritable armies of technicians, is only giving us shadow plays, old almost as man himself…
> It may be that the revolution ensuing will envelop us in even greater darkness. But even in the blackest night it will be a joy and a boon to know that we are touching hands around the world. That has never happened before. We can touch and speak and pray in utter darkness. And we can wait for the dawn–no matter how long–provided we all wait together.
> This is why I love SF. I love to read it; I love to write it. The SF writer sees not just possibilities but wild possibilities. It’s not just ‘What if’ – it’s ‘My God; what if’ – in frenzy and hysteria. The Martians are always coming.
– [Philip K. Dick](http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/136554-i-want-to-write-about-people-i-love-and-put)
> What is now proved was once only imagined. – [William Blake](http://www.blakesociety.org/about-blake/gilchrists-life-of-blake/chapter-x/)
[A few interesting quotes](http://www.pbs.org/newshour/businessdesk/2013/07/should-we-fear-the-end-of-work.html) from [Cornell’s recent Employment and Technology roundtable](http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/ICS/InsightsAndConvenings/EmploymentSustainabilityInitiative/). As a new father this is even more interesting to me than it used to be…
The likely false hope of everyone moving to “creative” jobs in the future:
> If you’re talking 100 years, there’s no doubt in my mind that all jobs will be gone, including creative ones. And 100 years is not far in the future — some of our children will be alive in 100 years. – [Hod Lipson](http://lipson.mae.cornell.edu/)
And the thought of what careers would even support 8 billion people all working:
> I have a question for those of you here that are more optimistic about the future. What specifically do you think might be the future economic domains in which there might be large-scale employment? I’m not interested in the cases where there’s a cool new job that really, really smart people who read Wired magazine can do. What I am interested in are new occupations that hundreds of thousands of people could do, in game-changing ways like when the automobile industry once opened up. – [Gary Marcus](http://garymarcus.com/bio/bio.html)
I’m with the skeptics–it’s hard to imagine a world where technology continues to advance and people still have jobs. The question is whether we can steer society more toward [The Culture](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Culture) and away from [Player Piano](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Player_Piano_(novel)).
> With enough minds, all tomorrows are visible – [Jamais Cascio](http://futuryst.blogspot.com/2012/09/design-is-team-sport.html)
> To be a futurist, in pursuit of improving reality, is not to have your face continually turned upstream, waiting for the future to come. To improve reality is to clearly see where you are, and then wonder how to make that better. – [Warren Ellis](http://www.warrenellis.com/?p=14314)
> Fiction is the study of the human condition through the medium of interesting lies. – [Charlie Stross](http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2012/05/spoilers.html)
> Is it possible that, we human beings–who are soft-wired for empathic distress–is it possible we could actually extend our empathy to the entire human race as an extended family, and to our fellow creatures as part of our evolutionary family, and to the biosphere as our common community?
> If it’s possible to imagine that, then we may be able to save our species and save our planet. And…if it’s impossible to even imagine that, I don’t see how we’re going to make it.
– [Jeremy Rifkin on “The Empathic Civilization”](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7AWnfFRc7g)
> “When you cut into the present the future leaks out.” – [William Burroughs](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cut-up_technique), on the “cut-up” technique of randomizing his writing.
> People in organizations don’t change until their fear of survival exceeds their fear of learning – Organizational theorist [Edgar Schein](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgar_Schein), [via](http://fora.tv/2010/10/16/Long_Conversation_with_Stuart_Candy_and_Katherine_Fulton) [Katherine Fulton](http://www.monitorinstitute.com/about_team.html#fulton)