The Speculist

All Hail, Old Spec. U!

F. 2003 A.V.

Motto: Vitus Id Spectare (Lat. "Live to See It")

Last week, Phil founded the Speculist University and gave a brief glimpse at the curriculum to be offered by said august institution. (And, believe me, we of the Fast Forward Posse have long believed an institution is exactly where Phil belonged.) In these few remaining hours of my tenure as Deputy Speculist, I'd like to elaborate upon that foudation and begin giving substance and direction to our putative alma mater.

The two initial courses of study, Master of Arts in Writing Predictions and Master of Science in Practical Time Travel fall rather neatly into the framework of classical pedegogy (the art and science of learning), corresponding to the artes triviales or artes sermocinales (Grammar, Rhetoric, and Dialectic, or Language, Oratory, and Logic) in the first case and to the artes quadriviales or artes reales (Arithmetic, Geometry, Astronomy, and Music. Corresponding to the modern "hard" sciences.) in the latter case. Doctor of Speculism, in its turn, would include elements of all of these seven liberal arts, the artes liberales. (Literally, the proper studies of a free citizen, as opposed to the artes illiberales the artisanal arts of slaves and non-citizens. These distinctions correspond most closely to our modern concepts of "white collar jobs" and "blue collar jobs", respectively. Before you send me any hate-mail, or get up a petition recommending that Phil render me up to the village mob for a proper tarring and feathering, allow me to categorically state that, while I admire the structural devisions of classical education, I do not now, nor have I ever engaged in, or supported in any sense, moral or material, and will never in the future engage in or support the institution of chattel slavery! There, now I've got the disclaimer out of the way, where was I? Oh, right! A point, I was making a point.)

Each of these artes will, in turn, serve as foci, points of concentration for future blog entries. (And you, beloved readers, thought I'd forgotten that this is, after all, "only", "just", a weblog and not some kinda' high falutin' factory for skull sweat and fancy words.) The breakdown should resemble the following:

Grammar / Language: A series of entries devoted to explaining the terminology and jargon associated with our favorite topics. (Suggested Title: Lexicon)

Rhetoric / Oratory / Writing: These entries might address the art of fashioning compelling cases, clear hypotheses, and illustrative examples and parables regarding future developments and their impacts.

Dialectic / Logic: Entries presenting and evaluating the tools and techniques available to us in our quest to discern and determine the shape of future events would fall into this category. Similar in spirit to the current Time Traveler's Notebook. (Possible Title: Fabrile (Lat. Tools))

The artes reales correspond in our case to our oft-mentioned favorite topics: Nanotechnology, Negligable Senescence and Life Extension, Artificial Intelligence, Space Exploration, et. al. Our ongoing, practical investigations of these topics will continue to serve them well.

Finally, I'd like to introduce another course of study, one that might equally-well serve as a separate body of knowledge, meriting its own "Masters"-level program, and as a supplementary extension to those already in place. The Masters of Applied Science in Technics would involve fundamental studies in basic Physics and Chemistry (Now aren't you REALLY glad that the tuition is low and the grading system is, ahem, conveniently voluntary) and examinations of specific Technologies that support the artes reales, such as Metallurgy, Electronics, Biology, and the ever-popular Rocket Science.

Well, that bell ringing in the background must mean that it's time for this lecture to end. Until next time, then.