The two first conference was about how the science fiction written in the 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s.., influence the society, today; and why a lot of products come from this imaginative production were commercial failure.

Except for the first examples, like Jules Verne, which use to imagine future stories context with contemporary technologies-or technologies studies(industrial materials and tools)- the SF provided a lot of ideas about future, very close to utopias. This future were optimistic, with very individual advanced consumption goods.

No collective utopia.

We saw that, even if these technologies would be totally possible, most of them would never be used in the reality, because there is not a real need. It is not really useful.
Moreover, People wouldn't be- and for many examples, like the videophone or the intelligent fridge, were not- adopt by anyone because of the rise price.

So, there were a lot of products from SF which were failures, and according to Nicolas Nova, it is very important to understand why, in order to be able to improve innovation.

Some SF provide other point of view; For example, a collective one: the anticipation.
This kind of SF show societies falling down, because of a political or social system in decadence: “1984”, a society where you even cannot think about a criticism, with “Telesceens” able to watch you all the time; “A brave new wold”, or “Gattaca” where children are created in vitro, and where their destiny are chosen before their birth, “Brazil”, which describe a system improbable, based on overinformation....

All these stories are Dystopias, and show how amazing could be a society with so many technologies. It is interesting to use all these criticisms in the same way than people used 30s/40s SF stories in order create flying car or fridge endowed with screen.

What could be a new way of traveling, for example, using our real context, and our technologies?

It is my third LIFT conference and I feel like a little kid! All the people, all the ideas, unfortunately also the bloody fondue! Now back to life...

The Creativity Utopia Workshop is something that has me all excited at this late hour. However due to my own inaccessibility - not answering phone, out of skype or ignoring IM - for the past couple of weeks and Henriette's quite exciting OpenStage talk, she will let me do the whole thing by myself. I will miss her bubbles and enthusiasm in the workshop, and am looking forward to exploding tabus, exploring utopia and getting real about finding access to that wonderful chimera of one's butterfly's dream.

Transhumanism and Calvin did not make it as a program discussion, and that in itself is interesting to me. I was cryptic about what I was trying to get at... but then there will be Kevin Warwick as a live cyborg, and we are in Geneva anyhow and ready to give Calvin's heresy a good go.

Anticipation is a wonderful elixir, and when it comes to this conference, it is part of the crack that makes the whole so damn exciting. I could never predict how these things go, but then I could not ever predict much.

There are many ideas floating around and I am writing and reading a lot. There are the central issues of identity, public and private, evolving media, and humanity's relationship to both technology and psychology... and all of this I am writing about.