IN THE BUBBLE JOHN THACKARA - witz cultural

228 Notes to Pages 3–10
transformation in our cities and lives. Along the way the car has enabled sprawl, disrupted
communities, polluted the air, and killed a lot of people—and it continues to
do so. But its inventors could not have known this would happen.
8. For Thacker, the main actors in biotech imagineering are science research institutions,
pharmaceutical companies, public policy negotiations, science education,
medicine, and popular science culture. ‘‘Its primary aim,’’ he says, ‘‘is to forge intimate
links, if not outright linear histories, between future promises and current research.’’
Eugene Thacker, ‘‘The Science Fictioning of Biotechnology,’’ 032c, no. 4
(Winter 2002–2003), 106, available through the publisher’s website (www.032c.com).
9. The ‘‘vested interests’’ Thacker refers to are those mentioned in note 8. Thacker,
‘‘The Science Fictioning of Biotechnology,’’ 109.
10. ‘‘Conversation is our next instrument providing the inspiration for achieving
ambitions which have hitherto seemed impossible,’’ says Zeldin. ‘‘Big changes are superficial
unless they are the sum of a lot of little changes in the way we understand
and treat one another.’’ To faciliate such conversations, Zeldin set up The Oxford
Muse in 2001. ‘‘The First Outline of the Aims of The Oxford Muse 2001,’’ available on
The Oxford Muse website at http://www.oxfordmuse.com/museideas/museaims.htm.
11. Statistics taken from the South African website CellularOnline (http://www
.mobileoffice.co.za/stats/stats-main.htm).
12. François Jégou and Ezio Manzini, Sustainable Everyday: A Catalogue of Promising
Solutions (Milan: Edizione Ambiente, 2004). Manzini ran design scenario workshops
in several countries as preparation for the exhibition ‘‘Sustainable Everyday: Scenarios
for Urban Life,’’ which was held at the Milan Triennale in 2003.
13. The English writer Charles Leadbeater has written extensively about innovation
as platform building. See, for example, Charles Leadbeater, Personalisation through
Participation (London: Demos, 2004).
14. Papanek, Design for the Real World, 14.
15. Alain Findeli, ‘‘Rethinking Design Education for the 21st Century: Theoretical,
Methodological, and Ethical Discussion,’’ Design Issues 17, no. 1, 5–7.
16. BoloBolo is a visionary booklet that addresses the question ‘‘How would I
really like to live?’’ The book’s author, styled only as ‘‘P.M.,’’ discusses the constituent
elements of a human-scale utopia. P.M., BoloBolo (New York: Autonomedia,
1995), 58.
1 Lightness
1. According to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, the Earth’s surface temperature
has risen by about one degree Fahrenheit in the past century, with accelerated