Kate, I found and downloaded an epub version of P&S. I don’t have any suggestion for the reading. Please tag me when you decide on the book, day, and time. Thank you very much.
Wow, that Kallis article (@alberto) took me down quite the rabbit hole. I’m still mulling Georgescu-Roegen’s Promethian processes.
re Call:
I’m Arizona time, and could make extreme edges of a day work.
re Book Club:
I find most sci fi treatments of economics unsatisfactory, with the exception of LeGuinn and Robinson (Red Mars, New York 2140). The rest give hints of interesting stuff which ultimately doesn’t make sense, and sets the whole programme backward. That said, I’ve been intrigued by Chamber’s Monk & Robot works and what seems to be a gift economy with accounting, and though it’s very incomplete it’s at least consistent.
What are people looking to get out of a bookclub? We could go the other way and read econ, such as Schumacher’s Small is Beautiful, or Graeber’s Debt or Fragments of an Anarchist Anthropology. I’ve just started Romeo’s The Alternative but haven’t gotten far enough to recommend.
I’ll happily go along with any decision.
re Residency:
I’m excited about the possibility of a 4-day in Barcelona in early or late May. Meetings are important.
Haha you are the woman for that job!
I beg to differ here. The point is not if sci-fi authors make good economists (which would be somewhat bizarre!), but what they bring to the table of economics debates that no one else does.
That said, we have had a blast back in the day with book clubs on Varoufakis’s Another Now and Robinson’s Ministry for the Future. I also wrote economic analyses of Doctorow’s Makers and Walkaway, plus some random stuff, like musing on where Modern Monetary Theory is found in science fiction.
Hi @inge @amiridina @joaosf @giacomo.pinaffo (please ping Giuseppe) @zazizoma @Nic010 @lucacominassi and all others - the time for the Reconvening Call is Wednesday 12 Feb at 18:00 CET (GMT+01:00) Central European Time
Please DM me with your email if you want an invite (it won’t seem to let me turn this event public )
Otherwise the link to the meeting room is here
Draft Agenda:
- Checkin: What are you noticing regarding Sci Fi Economics as we begin 2025?
- Update on recent and upcoming events
- New economic theory discussion - who (or what) are you paying attention to right now) (TBC)
- Which book for the bookclub (discussion on what is the Sci Fi Economics category - reference this post by @alberto
Sent invite to ADH pls : )
Is that Andrew? I don’t have it - can you DM me it?
Great! Thanks for catalysing the re-union @Katebee !
Hope to see the Catalunyan retreat happening, happy to help if needed.
And I am fine for next Wed call. Actually, on the very same day, I flag you a really interesting and Sci-Fi Lab inspired initiative (or seems so at least, they were invited in Messina…). https://communitiesforfuture.org/civicrm/mailing/view/?reset=1&id=397&cid=46483&cs=077bff1048eafda03fe4df67bfeb5f2b_1738570821_168
As I was discussing with @alberto, it would be cool to suggest them a more structured sci-fi econ lab, perhaps building up on - and reinforcing what will emerge from those sessions? Just an idea
Nicolò
@Nic010 maybe @Katebee can add this point to the agenda and you could take 5 mins too explain your idea?
Hi everyone,
I had to change it to Thursday same time as we had a few significant clashes. Hope that’s ok!
@Nic010 excited to hear about this project
I should make it, yes. But it’s kind of short notice, are we sure we don’t want to reschedule it one week out?
Yes, ATM.
Good for the 19th, I could not have made it tomorrow. See you next week!
N
My next available Wed AM is March 12. But I’ve communicated my May dates, so please let me know how that planning goes.
The registration link for the Call is here registration - please send it to your friends and colleagues if you want to introduce them to Sci Fi Economics
Note: if you’re already in the existing calendar invite you don’t need to sign up
Sorry @zazizoma on the 12th I can’t make it, and then we’re hitting up against the Lab happening in IST. For the next call I’ll do my absolute best ensure you’re there
Hi everyone,
For those who missed the 2025 Convening Call
The recording of the is here, use the passcode: 6y7ux+&W
Don’t miss the chat - it was full of insights and links to other adjacent projects
Thanks to everyone who joined! great fun
Thanks, @katebee for posting the recording.
Two things for me:
- I’d like to better understand what was meant by theory fiction since it might be related to what we’re doing here at ASU, using worldbuilding to test and develop economic theory. But I don’t want to assume these are the same things.
- Referring to AI as goblins!!! Yes! I will be adopting that. It’s insane over here in academia, apparently no-one needs to write dissertations any more . . .
On a more serious note, the passivity or fatalism I’m observing with respect to being taken over by goblins is quite troubling.
The convening call did not get around to discussing a possible book club. If people are interested, I could contribute to (or even lead, if no one else wants to) a book club on Cory Doctorow’s The Lost Cause.
- Paradigmatic solarpunk fiction, but not of the rosy tinged kind. There are huge wildfires, toxic plumes, toxic politics and asshole millionaires in abundance. People die, and abuse each other plenty (though they also help each other).
- Emphasis on local change in Burbank, California (would be interesting in a residency context like Messina’s).
- Near future, all tech is familiar.
- Interesting debating point: how important is anti-monopoly policy to create the world in the novel?
- Strongly grounded in Modern Monetary Theory – we know where Cory’s heart is when it comes to macroeconomics. There is even a reference to money creation without full monetary sovereignty that I find very intriguing, though I won’t nerd out about it here. @Katebee
I for one welcome our new goblin overlords.
I’m up for doing The Lost Cause for the next bookclub!
I’m very interested in seeing how anti-monopoly policy plays a role.
And also MMT… please feel free to nerd out @alberto