Systems and Futures Archives - Public Books https://www.publicbooks.org/section/systems-futures/ a magazine of ideas, arts, and scholarship Sat, 17 Jan 2026 02:10:58 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 https://www.publicbooks.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/cropped-favicon-2-300x300.png Systems and Futures Archives - Public Books https://www.publicbooks.org/section/systems-futures/ 32 32 “No Future” Lexicon: Darkness https://www.publicbooks.org/no-future-lexicon-darkness/ Tue, 22 Jul 2025 15:00:37 +0000 https://www.publicbooks.org/?p=60090 Darkness often appears as a solely obscure and secondary trait of modernity; but, in truth, darkness impregnates and bolsters so densely modernity’s creative powers.

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]]> “No Future” Lexicon: The Post-Post-Apocalyptic https://www.publicbooks.org/no-future-lexicon-the-post-post-apocalyptic/ Mon, 21 Jul 2025 15:01:04 +0000 https://www.publicbooks.org/?p=60165 But what lies beyond the end of the world? Casting off the trappings accreted by the post-apocalyptic genre emerge stories of the post-post-apocalyptic.

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]]> “No Future”: A Lexicon https://www.publicbooks.org/no-future-a-lexicon/ Mon, 21 Jul 2025 15:00:51 +0000 https://www.publicbooks.org/?p=60235 If the future hasn’t changed in the past, how could it possibly change now?

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]]> To Counteract Apocalyptic Technoscience, We Need New Myths https://www.publicbooks.org/to-counteract-apocalyptic-technoscience-we-need-new-myths/ Tue, 26 Nov 2024 16:00:54 +0000 https://www.publicbooks.org/?p=58157 If there is contentment on the artist’s face, it is because she knows that she has left Babylon behind and is on her way to Zion.

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]]> Planetary Alchemy, or, Learning to Read the Earth with “Zelda” https://www.publicbooks.org/planetary-alchemy-or-learning-to-read-the-earth-with-zelda/ Thu, 01 Aug 2024 15:00:23 +0000 https://www.publicbooks.org/?p=56826 “Tears of the Kingdom” lets you play through the planetary archive. In so doing, it suggests the pleasures of thinking at planetary scale.

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]]> Public Thinker: Infrastructure Tells Us That We Need One Another https://www.publicbooks.org/infrastructure-tells-us-that-we-need-one-another/ Thu, 18 Jul 2024 15:00:20 +0000 https://www.publicbooks.org/?p=56665 “Seeing infrastructural systems for what they are requires us to understand them as the product of massive collective investment and to reflect on the value of that.”

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]]> Reality, as Seen by Godzilla https://www.publicbooks.org/reality-as-seen-by-godzilla/ Thu, 04 Apr 2024 15:00:09 +0000 https://www.publicbooks.org/?p=55556 Perhaps the function of Godzilla is to trouble happily ever after.

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]]> The Revolution Will Be Caring https://www.publicbooks.org/the-revolution-will-be-caring/ Thu, 14 Mar 2024 15:00:50 +0000 https://www.publicbooks.org/?p=55475 What makes something mutual aid or collective care and not capitalist charity?

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]]> Surfing; Or How to Consume a Beach https://www.publicbooks.org/surfing-or-how-to-consume-a-beach/ Thu, 15 Feb 2024 16:00:15 +0000 https://www.publicbooks.org/?p=55223 The keys to surfing—wetsuits, surf forecasting, and surfboard manufacturing—emerged from Southern California’s military-industrial complex.

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]]> “A New Life for Us”: Zelda and the Future of Stories https://www.publicbooks.org/a-new-life-for-us-zelda-and-the-future-of-stories/ Wed, 06 Dec 2023 16:00:22 +0000 https://www.publicbooks.org/?p=54378 “As I continued to wander its world, I began to realize Tears of the Kingdom marks a new achievement in art itself.”

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