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Greetings;

Tom Atlee

I’ve been taken to task… and by Tom Atlee, no less.  (My friend and co-founder of “The Co-intelligence Institute”  and author of “The Tao of Democracy” is someone whom I deeply respect.)

In my Kickstarter campaign for my new book, “The Chronicles of the Upheavals” I said, “Name one book of speculative (“science”) fiction that provides a positive future for humanity – one that relies on human vision and initiative, not space aliens, impossible technologies or divine intervention.  Name just one.”

Tom named three.  He said:

Hi Shariff. Congratulations on getting your first volume out. I wish you the best on the next stages of the work. I’m curious to learn more about the story so will read the first book when I get it; if it fits my own sense of things, I will try to donate more.

Are you familiar with the positive future novels of Ursula LeGuin and Starhawk, and Miki Kashtan’s amazing stories in Reweaving Our Human Fabric ? There are others, too, but I was surprised by your sense that there is NO other such fiction.

In one way, he is correct.  (In another way… I am! Stay tuned…)  These are three of several writers who write from a point of view of a positive, inclusive future.  (This is especially true for our mutual friend Miki Kashtan.  Miki and I have influenced each other’s writing and thought over several years.)

Question:  Are there others?  Do you know books or movies that posit a positive pathway to a positive future?  Let me know!  (Reply to the online version, so that others can see your comments.)

Peace,

Shariff

PS:  There’s more to this conversation with Tom, where he posits the concept of “backcasting”.  Stay tuned…