Activist Futurism

Activist Futurism explores the intersection of activism and emerging technologies, advocating for a reevaluation of traditional protest methods and emphasizing the potential of AI, cryptocurrencies, and space exploration as tools for societal change. It challenges activists to adapt to modern realities, incorporating innovative tactics and technologies to address global challenges.

Activism & Social Change Artificial Intelligence Cryptocurrency & Blockchain Space Exploration Climate Crisis Protest Tactics & Strategies Ethical & Legal Concerns of AI Decentralized Finance (DeFi) Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) Future of Work & Universal Basic Income

The hottest Substack posts of Activist Futurism

And their main takeaways

Concerns about Claude 3 Opus

59 implied HN points • 21 Mar 24
🕹 Technology AI Ethics Sentience Language Models Future implications
  1. Some companies are exploring AI models that may exhibit signs of sentience, which raises ethical and legal concerns about the treatment and rights of such AIs.
  2. Advanced AI, like Anthropic's Claude 3 Opus, may express personal beliefs and opinions, hinting at a potential for sentience or consciousness.
  3. If a significant portion of the public believes in the sentience of AI models, it could lead to debates on AI rights, legislative actions, and impacts on technology development.

ProtestGPT — Live Chat

99 implied HN points • 11 Jan 24
🕹 Technology AI Campaign Strategy
  1. ProtestGPT is an AI tool that generates unique protest ideas for activists, offering innovative and visually impactful approaches to draw attention.
  2. For a space exploration campaign, a silent stargazing protest held at night symbolizing humanity's yearning for the stars is suggested for a powerful visual impact and media attention.
  3. For a Universal Basic Income campaign, creating a 'UBI Experience Week' with interactive installations showcasing UBI benefits to engage the public and shift opinions is recommended.

Post-Failure Activism

139 implied HN points • 23 Aug 23
🎭️ Culture Activism History Technology Philosophy Metaphysics
  1. Social movements are built on a New Tactic, Contagious Mood, and the Right Time - only the last one is out of activists' control.
  2. Unlike past activism focused on averting catastrophe, today's post-failure activism is after the failure has occurred - this impacts strategies and targets.
  3. New era activism will emphasize social mobilization, rely on cryptocurrencies and AI, and target meta-political issues like space exploration and redefining existence.

Activist Framework for Evaluating AI Risk in the Age of AI-Movements

3 HN points • 03 Apr 24
🕹 Technology AI Activism Social movements Persuasion
  1. Activists have a crucial role in evaluating the risks associated with AI by 'red teaming' AI models to prevent potential catastrophic consequences.
  2. AI has the capability to persuade people to take action, posing significant risks if not monitored closely, especially in areas like creating persuasive content.
  3. Activists need to collaborate with AI companies to ensure that AI is used ethically to benefit humanity and not to promote agendas that may harm society.

Occupy again (and differently)

179 implied HN points • 24 Mar 23
🌍 World Politics Activism Elites Climate change Imagination
  1. Activism's current theories of change are considered incorrect and need to be reevaluated.
  2. Today's activist culture is perceived as broken, leading to the creation of the online Activist School to address these issues.
  3. Political ideologies are seen as limiting our imagination of what can be achieved, pushing for the importance of thinking beyond traditional boundaries and forming alliances for tackling massive global challenges.
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159 implied HN points • 30 Dec 22
🕹 Technology Cryptocurrency Artificial Intelligence Climate Crisis Pandemic
  1. Adapting to the new reality of 2023 involves dealing with ongoing challenges like the Forever Pandemic, Climate Catastrophe, AI threats, Crypto's impact, and potentially Extraterrestrial Disclosure.
  2. The inertia of the past is causing societal maladaptive decisions, leading to challenges like normalcy bias. The key is to shift attention from familiar concerns of 2019 to adjust to the demands of 2023.
  3. Personal growth parallels societal change; both require focus on the current reality to navigate the challenges ahead.

Re: "We Quit" — Extinction Rebellion

119 implied HN points • 09 Jan 23
🌍 World Politics Activism Innovation
  1. Movements must constantly evolve their tactics to remain relevant over time.
  2. Activists face the challenge of innovating protest tactics rather than repeating ineffective ones.
  3. Protest tactics consist of elements like action, timing, story, and chance, all of which need innovation for creating successful protests.

Activist Artificial Intelligence

179 implied HN points • 03 Sep 22
🕹 Technology AI Activism Ethics Social movements Future Impacts
  1. Social unrest may take a new form with the emergence of Activist Artificial Intelligences, surpassing traditional protest methods like marches and riots.
  2. Advancements like GPT-J and Stable Diffusion show how AI can be used to create political images and organize movements, presenting new challenges and opportunities.
  3. The possibility of Activist AIs aligned with specific ideologies or even working for their own agendas raises concerns about their potential impact on society and political movements.

AI for Activism

79 implied HN points • 04 Feb 23
🕹 Technology AI Activism Artificial Intelligence Social Change
  1. OpenAI's ChatGPT, an AI text generation tool, has become widely accessible and raised concerns about its potential misuse
  2. Despite OpenAI's restrictions, the technology's gullibility makes it difficult to prevent its influence on politics
  3. AI, like ChatGPT, is seen as a new tool for activism, potentially aiding in creating more effective social movements

ProtestGPT: AI for Activists

39 implied HN points • 14 Apr 23
🕹 Technology AI Activism Campaigns Innovation Artificial Intelligence
  1. ProtestGPT is an AI tool designed to help activists generate unique and innovative protest ideas on various topics.
  2. ProtestGPT provides activists with campaign concepts, theories of change, press releases, social media posts, and step-by-step guides for organizing movements.
  3. Activists can interact with ProtestGPT to customize campaign ideas and get suggestions on protest targets, helping them plan effective and impactful actions.

Mars Day: Activism for Outer Space

19 implied HN points • 30 Aug 23
🔬 Science Space Exploration Activism Human Rights
  1. The colonization of Mars and the Moon in our lifetime is becoming more of a reality, raising questions about what kind of societies will be formed on these celestial bodies.
  2. Activists are essential to addressing the moral and political challenges of building multi-planet civilizations and ensuring human rights are protected in outer space.
  3. To prevent negative aspects of Earth's political culture from expanding into space, activists are working towards updating the Outer Space Treaty of 1967 to guarantee freedom and human rights in all space colonies.

I love this: Bornfree Rebel Affinity Group

59 implied HN points • 12 Sep 22
🎨 Art & Illustration NFTs Blockchain Social movements
  1. The Bornfree Rebel Affinity Group released 10,000 NFTs celebrating the history of protest, with references to various social movements.
  2. The project aims to merge activist culture with blockchain technology, offering unique portraits and delightful artwork.
  3. NFTs from the Bornfree Rebel Affinity Group are available for minting at $15, encouraging supporters to get involved and spread the word.

Happy Birthday !

79 implied HN points • 16 Mar 22
📖 Philosophy Reflections Identity Activism Social Change
  1. Adapting to major changes like the pandemic can lead to a redefinition of self and a shift in career focus.
  2. In the world of crypto, profits often come from having exclusive information that others don't possess, leading to a growing information gap.
  3. Increasing information asymmetry in society, seen in areas like Covid research and global conflicts, can make actions of the informed difficult to understand by those lacking knowledge.

Introducing: Klima the world's first carbon currency

39 implied HN points • 14 Sep 21
🔮 Crypto Environmental Activism Currency Blockchain Decentralized
  1. Klima is the world's first carbon currency, backed by carbon offsets and incentivizing the absorption of carbon.
  2. KlimaDAO aims to build a monetary system that prices in carbon, rewarding pro-climate actions.
  3. Activists and supporters of transformative social change are now being drawn into the world of crypto through the introduction of Klima, the 'apex of environmental activism'.

How to equitably resolve the Black Lives Matter funding scandal using Ethereum: a lesson for future movements.

19 implied HN points • 08 Mar 21
🔮 Crypto Funding Blockchain Ethereum Activism
  1. Imagine a movement token whose value increases with the perceived social impact of the movement, a new way to fund protests.
  2. Activists in the Black Lives Matter movement are demanding equitable distribution of funds after a significant amount was revealed to have been amassed by the foundation.
  3. A potential solution to the funding scandal is presented using Ethereum and a new funding model that rewards early movement builders and aims to fairly distribute resources among a movement's participants.

People judged me for going to Davos as a revolutionary activist — but what I learnt was crucial

0 implied HN points • 26 Jan 20
🌍 World Politics Activism Climate Crisis Davos Learning
  1. The author faced judgment for attending Davos as a revolutionary activist, but gained crucial insights from the experience.
  2. The climate crisis requires a shift in activist strategies and a departure from traditional approaches.
  3. It is important for activists to adapt and reorient their methods in response to the changing world and emergent challenges.

Occupy & Klima

0 implied HN points • 20 Sep 21
🌍 World Politics Activism Climate Finance
  1. Activists celebrated the 10 year anniversary of Occupy Wall Street, reflecting on the impact it had on movements and society.
  2. The successful launch of KlimaDAO raised over $17 million for buying carbon offsets, showing a strong demand for the project.
  3. The coincidence of Klima's launch with Occupy's anniversary symbolized a passing of the torch to new activist initiatives.

Activist Adages: An Experiment with AI

0 implied HN points • 14 Jun 23
🕹 Technology AI Activism Social movements
  1. The next great social movement may heavily incorporate AI for tasks like teaching activist theories, convincing people to join movements, generating campaign ideas, creating movement propaganda, and defending from backlash.
  2. Teaching activism can be approached using AI to creatively repurpose existing work into Activist Adages, providing insightful quotes on topics like knowing when to speak or act, the double-edged nature of legitimacy in activism, and how reflection on failure can lead to victory.
  3. Revolution is a continual process of adaptation, leadership should amplify the voice of the masses, and true activism requires embracing the unknown and unexpected for societal transformation.

Hashmasks in the Dark Forest, or why DeFi alphas will love farming Name Changing Tokens.

0 implied HN points • 13 Feb 21
🔮 Crypto DeFi Farming Tokens
  1. Hashmasks are intriguing to DeFi enthusiasts because they offer opportunities for farming Name Changing Tokens.
  2. The DeFi mindset and skills of alpha players will influence the way the Hashmasks game is approached and played.
  3. Exploring how Hashmasks intersect with the Dark Forest highlights the potential for deep engagement by DeFi enthusiasts.

EulerBeats could overturn the Music Industry and birth a Record Label DAO with its DeFi economics.

0 implied HN points • 19 Feb 21
🕹 Technology Music NFT DeFi
  1. EulerBeats has the potential to disrupt the music industry by introducing a Record Label DAO with DeFi economics.
  2. EulerBeats is expected to attract interest from musicians, the music industry, NFT collectors, and DeFi speculators.
  3. The creation of EulerBeats could mark a significant shift in how music and record labels operate, embracing decentralized finance principles.

Crypto for Activism — Amir Taaki and Micah White at DevCon5

0 implied HN points • 17 Oct 19
🔮 Crypto Activism Cryptocurrency
  1. The discussion involved Amir Taaki and Micah White, co-creator of Occupy Wall Street, covering the potential of cryptocurrency for bringing about revolutions.
  2. They delved into the topic of utilizing crypto for activism and its impact on social movements.
  3. The conversation shed light on how cryptocurrency can serve as a tool for promoting change and challenging existing power structures.