An alternate approach to doing what’s doable
Vasishth, Ashwani
Ashwani
Vasishth (he/him)
Professor of Sustainability (Retired)
vasi...@ramapo.edu
(323) 206-1858 (cell)
http://linkedin.com/in/vasishth
Founding Advisor, Sustainable Jersey City (SJC)
sustainablejc.org
Board of Trustees
NJ Highlands Coalition (NJHC)
njhighlandscoalition.org
From: Karl Schroeder from Unapocalyptic <kschroeder+stor...@substack.com>
Date: Mon, Jul 20, 2026 at 11:36 AM
Subject: Deadline's Fast Approaching for Protopian Prize Submissions
To: <vasi...@ramapo.edu>
Deadline's Fast Approaching for Protopian Prize SubmissionsLet's do some foresight through fiction.
You’ve got about a week to get a draft ready for me and the other judges of the Protopian Prize to review. The deadline for submissions is July 31. This is a great opportunity to exercise your storytelling muscles, and get some ideas out of your head that may not have another outlet. As we say on the website: Today, corporations and authoritarians tell stories about the limits of democracy, and about trusting our decisions to strongmen and algorithms. These futures are not inevitable. Now it’s time to share your protopian visions for democratic futures. The Protopian Prize fits perfectly with my ethos here at Unapocalyptic: it’s about what’s achievable rather than Utopian. We’d all love to live in some ecotopian world of fully automated luxury communism combined with libertarian capitalist freedom—why not have it all? And we can write stories about such possible worlds, but except as distant ideals to work towards, they don’t make much difference in our daily lives. The Protopian approach asks something quite different: tell us a story about what we could do right now to make things better. That’s your challenge, and, if your original, previously unpublished submission wins you’ll receive USD $5000. If you’re not able to contribute this time around, maybe you know someone who could. Please share this post. Let’s get maximum exposure on the prize this week, for a final push. For more information, visit the Protopian Prize website or read my announcement.
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© 2026 Karl Schroeder
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Sajai Jose
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Ashwani Vasishth
Historians and scholars (academics) always insist we go to the source material. There's a practical reason for this. Secondary and other more distant sources quickly degrade in information content. Go to the source.
I've dug deep into Kelly's work. And yes, his arguments spring from his lived context. It's our work to grow it into our present context and purpose. There is no one interpretation of his ideas. But to dismiss him on the basis of opinion is at least unfair to his idea.
Sajal, if Sale's piece resonates with your held beliefs, (confirmation bias), then that's your truth and no reasoning will move you. I have deep respect for Kirkpatrick Sale's mind, so I would never assert he was "wrong." It's no more than his view of Kelley's concept
My own understanding of Protopia is that it foundationally rejects the predictive arts. Without knowing the context of the Kelly-Sale bet, my own opinion from the literature is that no Protopianist would likely take bets on a future that hasn't yet emerged. And Kelly sees clearly that solutions are an abstraction. Instead, he argues have to work with incremental moves. Be satisfied with small improvements. What is now called Adaptive Management.
Besides, different readers tell different stories about the same reality. This is condition of multi-faceted complex systems. True holistic thinking is only aspirational--we can only be closer or further away.
We only have discernment, judgement based of experience, and connoisseurship (good taste developed with paying attention over time) as our tools.
Another central point from Wicked Problems is, there can be no one correct answer, because there's always more than one authoritative depiction of "the problem.". What we each can see, of any complex system reality, is contingent--upon a series of non-quantifiable factors like purpose, perspective, what's in our own heads, the boundaries we choose to draw, what we already believe and so on. This is not about subjective opinions, where anybody can choose the reality that best suits their beliefs. It's about allowing the reality that any (educated) view of a complex system must only be partial. Judgement is about "running your fingers over the numbers."
Savvy judgement is our only way forward, in this world.
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Ashwani
Vasishth vasi...@ramapo.edu (323) 206-1858 (Cell Phone)
https://www.linkedin.com/in/vasishth/
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Professor of Sustainability (Retired)
Founding Advisor, Sustainable Jersey City (SJC)
Trustee, New Jersey Highlands Coalition (NJHC)
You can ALWAYS set up an Appointment with me, without negotiation, seven days a week,
at: calendly.com/vasishth/google-meet-30