Econ-SF: final naming decision

Hi everybody,

before starting the communication of the event and the crowdfunding campaign, we need to make a final decision on the naming of the event.

There are some elements that are crucial and - in my opinion - should be present in the name:

"Economic"

The message here is that we are thinking about different models for our society, BUT we feel the urge to validate them with an academic approach.

Alternatives/synonims :

  • Econ
  • Eco
  • Value

Science Fiction

The message here is that we are going to elaborate completely different models from the actual one. We are going to look for help in the SciFi literature, from authors that usually are being looked on just as entertainment but are the only ones that are able to think differently.

Alternatives/synonims :

  • scifi
  • science fiction
  • utopia
  • future
  • alternative
  • alt
  • different

Noun [event definition]

Probably we’ll need to append also a noun that defines what kind of event this is going to be

Possible alternatives:

  • seminar (-> more academic)
  • lab (-> more interactive)
  • conference -> (more than a single talk)
  • workshop (-> ?)
  • festival (->more than talks)

The original naming was something like:

Economic Science Fiction Seminar

Economic Science Fiction Conference

Economic Science Fiction Lab

personally, I find this very effective and spot-on, as:

  • it is very clear about the 2 worlds that we want to unite (academic economic research <-> SciFi enthusiasts)
  • it is a bit cold and descriptive, if you want, but this lets emerge how we are rigorous about the issue
  • at the same time the term Science Fiction is very inspiring and evocative to all the fan base audience / nerds

I like it.

A totally different road would be to have a sentence like “Shaping the Future” ( same structure as “Living on the Edge”) but I think we would loose something.

What do you think?
Do you have suggestions?

We need to take a decision on this by the end of this week :sweat_smile:

Guys sorry, I have to really really plead for you to answer @augusto’s question ASAP. It’s only five minutes of work. Pretty please? :slight_smile:

People who I specifically need:

@hugi
@matthias
@noemi
@johncoate
@nadia (though Nadia gets a pass, she already invoked personal reasons)
@ilaria
@marina

Also welcome:

@chrisjcook
@GrahamCaswell
@martin

My take: we stay away from everything that smacks of Future studies. No “shaping the future”.

For me it’s “Economics (with S) Science Fiction Lab”

I don’t really like Lab, but it’s the lesser evil. Asking native speakers of English: how would something even more “hands on” sound?

Economics Science Fiction Workbench
Economics Science Fiction Toolshop

Or similar. Too metaphoric, maybe… :frowning:

I would also say Economics Science Fiction Lab. I like the idea of something to work on through discussion and then, in some way, action.

Doesn’t it depend on how the event is going to play out? Isn’t conference more accurate? In what way would it be a lab?

Lab is in the side events:

  1. Workshop on turning yourself into an activist.
  2. Academic seminar, building skeletons for future papers?
  3. Solarpunk art installation?
  4. Party (“if I can’t dance, I don’t want your alt economy”).
  5. @hugi @jakobskote any way we could port your collective narrative experiment into this context? It would become a collective story set in an alternative economic system, and the ethno work would uncover how “economics” and “the economy” (both abstractions) play out in their daily life, and reveal aspirations…

(edit: sorry for shooting from the hip ladies and gents, this is our world now in EarthOS)

…is a bit longish, but nothing better to offer here & today.

Starting from Alberto’s proposal of “Economics Science Fiction Lab”, I propose one of the following:

Sci-Fi Economics Workshop
Sci-Fi Economics Lab
Sci-Fi Economics Immersion

Because:

  1. What you want to work on is “Economics”, not “Science Fiction” per se. This is an event not for pure imagination, but with potential real-world implications for our economic system. So it’s an “Economics Lab”, not a “Science Fiction Lab”.

  2. Now we need to integrate “Science Fiction” as an attribute. My feeling is that “Sci-Fi” is a better candidate to serve the function of an attribute than the long form.

  3. This way, we also get around using “Economics” as a weird specifier of “Science Fiction”. It cannot be understood as an attribute because it’s clearly a noun. Two nouns in a row of which one is a specifier of the other is weird and not intuitively understandable. I guess that’s why people intuitively switched to saying “economic science-fiction”, which is wrong for other reasons as it would be understood as “resource efficient science fiction” or the like.

  4. To me, a lab is an institution, not a type of event. It’s permanent. A workshop would be the type of event you can hold in a lab, but it’s unfortunately much overused. So maybe let’s look towards event types that authors / creative folks frequent; about which I don’t know much at all, but “Immersion” sounds somehow hip to me :stuck_out_tongue:

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Good work @matthias!

Nadia suggests “science fictionomics lab”.

The word ‘Convention’ is often used when science fiction aficianados gather…but since the conventional has failed maybe we need an ‘Unconvention’ ?

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I like Sci Fi Economics Lab. It’s process able and I don’t know if Lab means more of an institution for most people. To me, it speaks of a mix of formats, which is what it will be, but with the creative approach to it.
If we call it like that, it also makes sense to connect it with the ER Festival later in November. A lab can be part of a festival, but i.e. a convention not so much…

It’s also bigger than a workshop or seminar, so by exclusion one also gets here.

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Woha @matthias !
Totally agree on the “Sci-Fi Economics” part, love it!

I’m not 100% sure about Lab: to me it sounds something we do with a smaller group of people (20ish?). It doesn’t sound like a call to travel to another city/country and gather with 200-500 people from all around Europe/world.

But as @noemi says

So if the “international gathering” message is the most important I would choose one of the following:

Sci-Fi Economics Convention
Sci-Fi Economics Conference
Sci-Fi Economics Meeting

if the hands-on and interactive and unconventional approach is more important I would go with:

Sci-Fi Economics Lab

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I prefer Lab too. “Immersion” is cool, but it’s a metaphor, whereas “Lab” is almost correct.

That means we have the final name :slight_smile:

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It’s a great name, sorry for being late to the party. I was busy all week stacking containers and making them pretty. Now that we have a lab, I would love to host something at Blivande and the container square next spring and tie it in with Babel Between Us.

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