Podcasts about hieroglyph stories

On this episode of the Cohere podcast, co-hosts Bill Johnston and Dr. Lauren Vargas chat with Ed Finn, the founding director of the Center for Science and the Imagination at Arizona State University. As an associate professor in the School for the Future of Innovation in Society and the School of Arts, Media, and Engineering, Finn provides fascinating insights into the Center's endeavors, the collaborative imagination and writing project 'Hieroglyph,' and the pioneering Imaginative Collaboration Framework. Throughout the discussion, Finn emphasizes the influential role of hopeful stories in shaping collective visions for the future and shares examples demonstrating how these narratives can drive innovation, learning, and societal transformation. Mentioned in this episode:  [Book] by a partnership of Slate, Arizona State University, and New America [Book] edited by David H. Guston and Ed Finn [Book] edited by Ed Finn and Kathryn Cramer [Book] by Ed Finn [Article] by Ed Finn and Ruth Wylie [Website] [Website] [Website] [Website] [Website]   About our guest(s):  Ed Finn is the founding director of the Center for Science and the Imagination at Arizona State University where he is an associate professor in the School for the Future of Innovation in Society and the School of Arts, Media and Engineering. He also serves as the academic director of Future Tense, a partnership between ASU, New America and Slate Magazine, and a co-director of Emerge, an annual festival of art, ideas and the future. Ed's research and teaching explore imagination, digital culture, creative collaboration, and the intersection of the humanities, arts and sciences. He is the author of What Algorithms Want: Imagination in the Age of Computing (MIT Press, spring 2017) and co-editor of Future Tense Fiction (Unnamed Press, 2019), Frankenstein: Annotated for Scientists, Engineers and Creators of All Kinds (MIT Press, 2017) and Hieroglyph: Stories and Visions for a Better Future (William Morrow, 2014), among other books. He completed his PhD in English and American Literature at Stanford University in 2011 and his bachelor's degree at Princeton University in 2002. Before graduate school, Ed worked as a journalist at Time, Slate, and Popular Science.   Call-to-Action(s): If you liked this episode, check out: and For more reflections about the intersection of community and futures literacy, subscribe to the Cohere Podcast wherever you listen to podcasts. Share about future guests / topics of exploration. Check out #BookDNA for a list of books, articles, and whitepapers featured on the Cohere Podcast.  

Ed Finn might be best described as an imaginer. The rest of the many things that he is and does kind of fall into place with that foundation. He started and for the past decade has been Director of the unexampled Center for Science and the Imagination at Arizona State University. Origins Podcast WebsiteFlourishing Commons NewsletterShow Notes:Gödel, Escher, Bach by Douglas Hofstadter (06:20)Specialization vs generalization (07:00)N Katherine Hayles (12:00)We have never been modernby Bruno Latour (19:00)Franco Moretti (24:15)Center for Science and the Imagination (26:15)"Innovation Starvation" by Neal Stephenson (28:00)Meeting Neal Stephenson (31:40)Hieroglyph: Stories and Visions for a Better Future co-edited by Ed Finn (33:30)Thoughtful optimism and hope (36:30)Adjacent possible (38:00)David Foster Wallace "This is water" (41:00)Collaborative Imagination: A methodological approach (42:30)What Algorithms Want: Imagination in the Age of Computing by Ed Finn (48:20)Effective computability (50:00)Halting Problem (50:30)Turing Machine (50:30)Curriculum of the future (57:30)"Why the Past 10 Years of American Life Have Been Uniquely Stupid" by Jonathan Haidt (58:20)Flourishing Salons with the Cultural Programs of the National Academy of Sciences (01:03:00)Lightning Round (01:04:00): Book: The Diamond Age by Neal StephensonPassion: travel and the fine art of hospitalityHeart sing: veteran's imagination project and K-12 futures literacyScrewed up: conference callsFind Ed online:Center for Science and the ImaginationTwitter: @zonalWebsite'Five-Cut Fridays' five-song music playlist series  Ed's playlist

Madeleine Ashby's short story By the Time we get to Arizona was first published in the Hieroglyph: Stories and Visions for a Better Future anthology, edited by Ed Finn. By the Time we get to Arizona tells the story of a couple trying to emigrate from Mexico to America. Have you read it? What did you think? Leave a comment on my website www.joncronshaw.com - I'm posting these episodes along with my own short fiction. #scifi #SFF #podcast

Charlie Jane Anders's short story The Day it all Ended Was first published in the 2014 anthology Hieroglyph: Stories & Visions for a Better Future, edited by Ed Finn. It tells the story of a disillusioned executive working for a design company that produces desirable, exoensive, but seemingly pointless gadgets. Have you read this story? What did you think? Let me know on Twitter @shortSFreview. #sciencefiction #scifi #environmentalism

Before Apollo 11, there was Jules Verne’s novel From the Earth to the Moon. Before the Internet, there was Mark Twain’s short story From the ‘London Times’ of 1904. In other words, before the appearance of many spectacular technologies, a writer imagined it first. This truth underscores one of science fiction’s abiding strengths: its ability to test concepts, both technological and social, without spending vast sums on research and development. The editors and writers behind Hieroglyph: Stories and Visions for a Better Future (William Morrow, 2014) think many science fiction writers in recent years have lost their way in this regard. As evidence, they point to the proliferation of what Hieroglyph co-editor Kathryn Cramer calls “tired dystopias.” Rather than provide “cautionary tales that show us what to avoid,” she explains in her New Books interview, these novels use “dystopias as furniture”–backdrops for a plot centered on a central character’s adventures. In contrast, Hieroglyph seeks something different. “We’re asking for a science fiction that actually addresses problems and tries to solve them,” Cramer says. “And what they [the authors of the 17 stories in Hieroglyph] thought of were the problems is almost as interesting as what they think the solutions are.” Among the topics Cramer covers in her interview are how she overcame her initial skepticism about the Hieroglyph initiative, how she and co-editor Ed Finn selected the writers included in the volume, and how the authors worked with scientists and researchers at Arizona State University to postulate plausible technologies based on current scientific understandings. Don’t forget to follow New Books in Science Fiction and Fantasy on Facebook and Twitter, post a review on iTunes, and follow host Rob Wolf on Twitter and his blog. Here are some links related to the interview: * Read more about Project Hieroglyph on its website. * Hieroglyph was inspired in part by Neal Stephenson’s essay “Innovation Starvation“. It was originally published by the World Policy Institute and now serves as a preface to the collection. * Cramer uses the term “neo-Gernsbackian,” which refers to Hugo Gernsback, who published the first science fiction magazine. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Before Apollo 11, there was Jules Verne’s novel From the Earth to the Moon. Before the Internet, there was Mark Twain’s short story From the ‘London Times’ of 1904. In other words, before the appearance of many spectacular technologies, a writer imagined it first. This truth underscores one of science fiction’s abiding strengths: its ability to test concepts, both technological and social, without spending vast sums on research and development. The editors and writers behind Hieroglyph: Stories and Visions for a Better Future (William Morrow, 2014) think many science fiction writers in recent years have lost their way in this regard. As evidence, they point to the proliferation of what Hieroglyph co-editor Kathryn Cramer calls “tired dystopias.” Rather than provide “cautionary tales that show us what to avoid,” she explains in her New Books interview, these novels use “dystopias as furniture”–backdrops for a plot centered on a central character’s adventures. In contrast, Hieroglyph seeks something different. “We’re asking for a science fiction that actually addresses problems and tries to solve them,” Cramer says. “And what they [the authors of the 17 stories in Hieroglyph] thought of were the problems is almost as interesting as what they think the solutions are.” Among the topics Cramer covers in her interview are how she overcame her initial skepticism about the Hieroglyph initiative, how she and co-editor Ed Finn selected the writers included in the volume, and how the authors worked with scientists and researchers at Arizona State University to postulate plausible technologies based on current scientific understandings. Don’t forget to follow New Books in Science Fiction and Fantasy on Facebook and Twitter, post a review on iTunes, and follow host Rob Wolf on Twitter and his blog. Here are some links related to the interview: * Read more about Project Hieroglyph on its website. * Hieroglyph was inspired in part by Neal Stephenson’s essay “Innovation Starvation“. It was originally published by the World Policy Institute and now serves as a preface to the collection. * Cramer uses the term “neo-Gernsbackian,” which refers to Hugo Gernsback, who published the first science fiction magazine. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Before Apollo 11, there was Jules Verne’s novel From the Earth to the Moon. Before the Internet, there was Mark Twain’s short story From the ‘London Times’ of 1904. In other words, before the appearance of many spectacular technologies, a writer imagined it first. This truth underscores one of science fiction’s abiding strengths: its ability to test concepts, both technological and social, without spending vast sums on research and development. The editors and writers behind Hieroglyph: Stories and Visions for a Better Future (William Morrow, 2014) think many science fiction writers in recent years have lost their way in this regard. As evidence, they point to the proliferation of what Hieroglyph co-editor Kathryn Cramer calls “tired dystopias.” Rather than provide “cautionary tales that show us what to avoid,” she explains in her New Books interview, these novels use “dystopias as furniture”–backdrops for a plot centered on a central character’s adventures. In contrast, Hieroglyph seeks something different. “We’re asking for a science fiction that actually addresses problems and tries to solve them,” Cramer says. “And what they [the authors of the 17 stories in Hieroglyph] thought of were the problems is almost as interesting as what they think the solutions are.” Among the topics Cramer covers in her interview are how she overcame her initial skepticism about the Hieroglyph initiative, how she and co-editor Ed Finn selected the writers included in the volume, and how the authors worked with scientists and researchers at Arizona State University to postulate plausible technologies based on current scientific understandings. Don’t forget to follow New Books in Science Fiction and Fantasy on Facebook and Twitter, post a review on iTunes, and follow host Rob Wolf on Twitter and his blog. Here are some links related to the interview: * Read more about Project Hieroglyph on its website. * Hieroglyph was inspired in part by Neal Stephenson’s essay “Innovation Starvation“. It was originally published by the World Policy Institute and now serves as a preface to the collection. * Cramer uses the term “neo-Gernsbackian,” which refers to Hugo Gernsback, who published the first science fiction magazine. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices