What does this site do? It keeps track of predictions of the future by public figures. How does it work? When someone makes a prediction, people post it to the site along with a brief description and a URL. We monitor it and change its status to true or false when appropriate. # § Future, Politics, predictions
In the new "'experience economy'":http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,7-2043534,00.html we pay to do things, not have things. No epiphany here. Many people buy physical things as a substitute for emotional and spiritual longing or emptiness. This is the key component in advertising: insinuating a desire or need for something where none actually exists. Notice that most print and television commercials are more about the _feeling_ of owning or consuming something (the feeling of safety or power in a luxury car, the hot chick milieu of a beer commercial) rather than the product itself. That people are beginning to recognize consumption for what it is, buying for experience is just a more overt manifestation of what has always occurred. That being said, if the opportunity were available, I wouldn't be averse to paying for a "mind fuck to Mars":http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0100802/. # § Consumerism, Culture, Future, Uncategorized