Hi everyone, and thanks for checking out my new blog! What an exciting time to be alive.

You may be wondering, “Why,” (and “What is,” for that matter) “Ignis Fatuus?” When selecting a name for this blog, the first criterion it had to meet was to be as pretentious as possible; my first choice, Ouzelum.com, is currently occupied, so rather than consign myself to the .org ghetto, I went with ignisfatuus.com, which I was stunned to find available.

The Ouzelum bird, for those not already familiar with the mythical bird of misty origins, is a bird with the ability to fly backwards (not to mention being able to stick its head up its own ass, something I attempt almost daily). Different motives are offered for this behaviour, but the one I prefer is that it likes to see where it has been, as opposed to where it’s going. Some even say that it navigates by looking backward. I find this an especially poetic idea. We like to think of ourselves as going forward into the future, and leaving our past behind us, but what a clearer way of visualising things it is to imagine ourselves walking in reverse. We can see where we’ve just been – the more recently passed markers much more clearly than the distant ones – but the obstacles in our paths remain unseen. The Ouzelum bird, in my mind, is a beautiful metaphor for the way each of us tries to envision the path we’re about to take by examining the path we’ve already followed.

Alas, 123-reg.co.uk is squatting there. The bastards.

Still, Ignis Fatuus is a serviceable replacement. Of course, you’ll recognise ignis fatuus as the Latin for “foolish light” (a synonym for will-o’-the-wisp) so named because anyone attempting to chase after the spectral illumination is on a fool’s errand. Whether it is simply legend or whether there is some scientific explanation for the phenomenon is a subject of some debate; it may be combusting swamp gasses, or it may be the lanterns of spirits returned from the grave. In either case, you can chase it but you can’t catch it.

In metaphor, ignis fatuus is used to represent any unattainable goal – something like “pie in the sky” – the sort of thing only a fool would set out to accomplish. Maybe you can see where I’m going with this:

The central theme this blog will focus on is founded in futurism (the study of the future, that is – not the Italian art movement of the 1900s); I hope the two metaphors I’ve cited so far have made it obvious that I approach the whole idea of futurist thinking with a great deal of apprehension and humility. One is counted among the genii of futurism if one’s predictions bear out on even a handful of occasions. So let me be upfront and say that everything I plan to write about here will be on par with thought experimentation – none of it will be predictive, per se, let alone prescriptive. I’d consider it a success merely to get people thinking and planning more about the long-term. Even though solid predictions of the future are ignis fatui of the highest order, we can, like the ouzelum, form some idea of what lies ahead by looking at what lies behind us.

While I will be writing about future trends, generally, I will be writing, specifically, about telecommunications and culture. Put another way, anything involving future developments in the technology we use to communicate, both interpersonally and on a mass scale, is fair game, as is anything related to cultural texts. I will be exploring ideas like social networking and advertising, cyberdisinhibition, cybernetics, copyright, DRM, distribution, economic models of production, privacy, textual analysis, the effect of new technologies on art and vice versa. I won’t be writing about how much the new G3 iPod will cost, or writing reviews of movies I’ve seen. My guiding principle will be to stick to developments that I cast roughly 20 to 100 years into the future.

I’m not a scientist or specialist of any measure. I have but a lowly BA (for now). I don’t consider myself an expert – I’m merely going expound on topics that interest me. I am and will remain open to tempered criticism, since I’m well aware that I have absolutely no authority on any of the subjects I’ll raise. That said, I tend to get very passionate about them, and I love a good argument (the operative being “good”). Even though I often play devil’s advocate, I welcome feedback, strive not to be dogmatic, and hope I’ll learn a lot from the process of writing this blog. And if anyone has a topic they’d like to discuss, by all means, post a comment here and I’ll do my best to address it.

That’s it for now! Check back soon.