<\/p>\n
length<\/em>: \u00a03-4 pages<\/strong> (again, on to the fourth sheet of paper by at least a word, but not on to a fifth)<\/p>\n due dates<\/em>: \u00a010.5 (proposal<\/em><\/a>), 10.8 (draft<\/em>), 10.10 (final<\/em>)<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Though we tend to think of the future as something “out there,” as an object of abstract speculation and imagination, we’ve begun to look at ways in which the future can also become visible and describable through the investigation and interrogation of concrete specifics. \u00a0Think about the way Bill McKibben articulated the future of climate change<\/a> by drilling down into the raw numbers of carbon emissions, the way Margaret Talbot got at the possible futures of “cosmetic neurology”<\/a> by interviewing experts and users of neuroenhancing drugs, or the way the authors of the Living Under Drones report<\/a> reoriented our sense of the future of warfare and foreign policy by poring over statistics and talking to Pakistan residents. \u00a0“What Futurists Actually Do”<\/a> framed the future as an object not just of speculation but of study and research, and your task in this paper is to bear that out.<\/p>\n Find some trend, development, or phenomenon that has not yet played itself out\u2014something that has a future of some sort\u2014and investigate it. \u00a0Look into it. \u00a0Research it. \u00a0If you have time and your topic is amenable to it, interview someone relevant. \u00a0If not, find what you can find to make your chosen phenomenon an object of concrete study rather than abstract speculation. \u00a0Remember: \u00a0part of the ethos of the investigative report is that your audience doesn’t know enough about what you’re investigating to pay it its proper due, which is why your investigation (and your subsequent reporting of that investigation) is important. \u00a0Shedding light on your chosen subject should activate readers who might not have known about or been interested in your topic before (think about McKibben’s claim that if people had a better understanding of the numbers involved in climate change, there would be moral outrage). \u00a0You are finding and discerning the facts of an issue, but you are also translating them for an audience that is presumably less familiar with your subject than you are. \u00a0You are convincing them that this issue, whatever it is, is relevant to the future\u2014that now that you’ve told your readers the important details, there’s some action they can take (petitioning representatives to pass a carbon tax, reconsidering potential attitudes to cognition-enhancing drugs, making noise about not just the human costs but the strategic costs of drone warfare). \u00a0You are unpacking a phenomenon as it has developed in the present, but crucially, you are selling it as important by painting a well-evidenced picture of where it might go in the future.<\/p>\n I understand you don’t have a huge amount of time to lay your empirical groundwork here, and as such, I’m not expecting something as thoroughly researched and documented as some of the pieces we’ve read (some of which were the products of months, sometimes years, of investigation). \u00a0Do the best you can with the time you have: \u00a0find out what you can find out, frame it in a compelling way, inform us about whatever you think we need to understand, and articulate how this phenomenon is relevant to the future.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Investigative Report: \u00a0Studying the Yet-to-Be length: \u00a03-4 pages (again, on to the fourth sheet of paper by at least a word, but not on to a fifth) due dates: \u00a010.5 (proposal), 10.8 (draft), 10.10 (final) Though we tend to think of the future as something “out there,” as an object of abstract speculation 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