wastebook2014

WASTEBOOK 201435A disruption in the time-space continuum chronofactshas somehow caused voicemails from thefuture to fall from the sky, warning everyonewho hears them about the disastrous effectsof global warming: Zombies on the loose,airports underwater and bananas nearlyimpossible to find. So sets the stage for agame called FutureCoast, which attempts toteach people about what the future mighthold if climate change makes the seas rise. 489It’s all funded by the National ScienceFoundation using a portion of a $5.2 milliongrant to Columbia University given, in part,to develop an interactive game to spurclimate change activism. 490 FutureCoast isa “collaborative game” set in an alternativeworld where fictional voicemails have beentransported back in time – cased in pieces ofcircular plastic called “chronofacts” – allowingpeople to listen in on what earthlings from thefuture say about the climate. 491Participants play along by discoveringthe location of chronofacts, which are stashedaround the country in different locations –all tagged with GPS coordinates. Every sooften, the game’s organizers will releasethe coordinates of one or two over Twitter,allowing players to go out and search for them.Once found, players load information from theVoicemails From the Future Warnof Post Apocalyptic World$5.2 milliononline and a new voicemail ismade available on the FutureCoast website. 492One message describes sunny 75degree weather in Antarctica compared toa chilly -2 degrees in Arizona with expectedhailstorms. 493 In another message, someonetalks about how Washington, D.C. was hitwith ten feet of snow. 494 A different characterleaves a voicemail about rioting over foodshortages and rationing across the country. 495One caller claims “neo-luddites” are out tokill anyone with scientific knowledge, 496 andanother paints a cryptic image of a zombieapocalypse saying that “when you see them,you will know what to do.” 497The game’s creator, Ken Eklund, callshis work “authentic fiction” and insists he“create[s] the attractive narrative vacuumthat people fill up with their stories – playfully,yet with intention.” 498 In designing the game,he tried to create a world “that has this ringof authenticity to it, even though it might bewildly fictional.” 499 According to him, “[t]hefiction part is kind of a term for a playful worldthat you’re creating together, and a playfulprocess.” 500The game’s producer, Sara Thacher,believes the game allows people from differentviewpoints to discuss climate change usingtheir voicemail messages. 501 Eklund agrees,but adds that the game is more than that,“We’re looking for black swans. We’re lookingfor people who have an insight about thefuture.” 502“I think that there are a lot of people whowant to have an invitation to say somethingabout climate change,” Eklund continued,“And I think this is the opportunity. It is thissort of creative challenge – you say it, but yousay it in your future voice.” 503In the end, the goal of the game wasmodest, according to its designers. StephaniePfirman, a professor affiliated with the projectnoted that the goal of the game wasn’tnecessarily to educate people on climateresearch, but rather to get people able toaddress the issue to simply think about it. 504In one voicemail from the future, a little girl asks grandma tosee the last living lobster.34