Inviting social futures, imagining unicorns: a commentary on the story of LCHC: a polyphonic autobiography

ABSTRACT

The Story of LCHC: A Polyphonic Autobiography

is a hybrid narrative of the history of the Laboratory of Comparative Human Cognition (LCHC) as told by a collective of authors. It includes five sections and 15 chapters (see https://lchcautobio.ucsd.edu). To date, “Section 6: The Future” remains undrafted. In this commentary, I interpret the undrafted section to reflect an open invitation to various individuals and collectives to build with the work of the LCHC, adapting and transforming it in response to changing historical, social, and cultural conditions toward more accessible, inclusive, equitable, and sustainable social futures. Across three sections, I describe several examples of prolepsis: building with and transforming the past in a process of imagining and acting toward social futures in the present. Consistent with the hybridity of the LCHC Polyphonic Autobiography, the examples are drawn from a literary journey taken by William of Baskerville, the main character in Umberto Eco’s (1983)The Name of the Rose, and juxtaposed with an alternative form of prolepsis described in Rainier Maria Rilke’s (1923/1949) Sonnet 4 in Book II from Sonnets to Orpheus. Sonnet 4 describes the proleptic process of bringing a unicorn to life. As undrafted, I interpret “Section 6: The Future” to reflect this latter form of prolepsis and an open invitation created by belief and fed with possibility that holds space for contributions toward multiple unicorns, or social futures, to emerge.

Acknowledgments

I am grateful for the comments of Michael Cole, Beth Ferholt, Alfredo Jornet, and Kristiina Kumpulainen on an earlier version of this commentary.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1. A life transforming experience, created with love and possibility, I am forever grateful to Professor Angelika Bammer.