I hate traffic, you hate traffic, we all hate traffic, but we can’t do anything about it because we are traffic. The conventional wisdom, at least, my conventional wisdom on any of my local freeways, is to get out of it by driving as fast as possible, and perhaps that slow drivers should be charged [...]

Cyberculture luminary R.U. Sirius has done a great interview with Joel and Jamais about the Prevail Project, and what we’re trying to accomplish. As Joel says, ”Politics, in its most useful incarnation, is the marketplace of ideas. It’s about how we allocate our dreams. Prevail also hopes to play a role in the emerging political split between [...]

What a year it’s been! Starting with the little things, the Prevail Project itself has been active for about a year, running in stealth mode for most of that time. But we launched (and I invite you to check out our amazing featured guest posts). But anything that we’ve done is small potatoes compared to [...]

By Dr. Richard O’Meara On December 15, 2011, the last US flag was cased and the War in Iraq was declared over. It is well to remember that since the end of WWII, wars have ended without much fanfare and with a great deal of ambiguity regarding what the idea of victory means. Korea is [...]

When the idea for creating The Prevail Project first formed, I wondered if I could get away with calling it “The Institute for Ethical Magic.” As my daughters were growing up in the 1990s, I was struck by how, in their lives, the most magical change seemed utterly routine. First – abracadabra! – came the [...]

There are three fundamental principles for the Prevail scenario: 1. The future is not predictable; uncertainty trumps technological determinism. Prediction is a fool’s errand. That’s why we need multiple scenarios to navigate the future. 2. Connectedness is crucial: “a gradual ramp of increased bridging of the interpersonal gap.” I share with Howard Rheingold the belief [...]

Thirty years ago I wrote Taming the Tiger about our conflicted attitude towards technology: we distrust machines, even as we rely on them; we are always surprised by the unintended consequences of technology, as if our creations should be perfect; and we are eager to adopt the next new thing, even as we bemoan the [...]

Look, I’m not much of an abstract thinker. In my field—trying to do something about global warming, the worst problem the planet has ever faced—I’ve long since figured out what it is we must prevail over. That would be money, the gobs of it possessed by the fossil fuel industry. I’m no theologian, but I [...]

I have in front of me a late 1960s advertisement from the Burroughs Corporation. It shows a sketch of a guy — in a snappy suit and crisp haircut — sitting at what one must assume is a Burroughs business computer. A large genie-like figure billows from the machine, and the caption reads “MAN plus a Computer [...]

“Prevail Project” is about the subtle and interesting notion that some day soon, some of us may not be human. My readers are presumably human, and so might find this topic of dubious relevance.  So let’s get right into the “subtlety” aspect. There are stem cells among us, we can all agree on that, but [...]

The Prevail Project is looking for a few good people to accelerate the impact of this organization. Among the slots we’re looking to fill are:

Moderators: People who can spark conversations in our groups with their own postings, as well as welcoming new members to the site, guiding them to groups they may be interested in, and encouraging them to join conversations.

Video editors and curators: People interested in scouring the net for videos and graphics that capture the spirit of “prevailing,” and posting them daily.

Virality mavens: Practitioners of the dark art of “going viral” who can help us figure out how to gain a preposterously large number of members in the next 12 months.

Authors: Those interested in contributing “featured posts” to the site.

To apply, please contact us at prevailproject@asu.edu, telling us about yourself.