In Favor Of Futurism Being About The Future

A five-point demolition of a Boston Review article ('Know Thy Futurist') that classifies futurists by demographics/privilege and concludes the 'right' group is correct because of who its members are, never arguing about the future itself. Scott's objections: it makes no actual argument about the future; it misunderstands 'Singularity'; its 'privileged technologies' are bizarrely all algorithmic bias; it invents conflict where futurists actually collaborate (Asilomar); and its claim that a singularity wouldn't matter to the average person is horrifying and wrong. Caps it with the Samuel Madden parable -- the 1733 cleric whose entire imagined future was 'everything the same; also, Catholics are still bad' -- as the patron saint of parochial, outgroup-signaling futurism, and a closing that the real story (the green line: people leaving extreme poverty) is what all futurism should be about.

Quality 74 · Strong. Top Strong (74). A sharp, passionate, well-argued polemic with a genuinely great original illustration (the Samuel Madden parable) and a moving progress-is-the-real-story closing. Held just below the Excellent floor because it's fundamentally a reactive takedown of one article and culture-war-flavored (Scott's own 'things I will regret writing' tag).

Claude’s paradigm shift 54 · Moderate. Notable-edge (54). The Samuel Madden parable (futurism as parochial outgroup-signaling) and the 'futurism should be about the future' framing are fresh and memorable; the bulk is a reactive critique.

Real-world impact 2 · Minor. 2 -- minor/within-blog. Influential within the rationalist/futurism discourse (the Madden parable became a reference); within-discourse, no material footprint.