Just listened to your interview with Kevin Kelly (May 23, 2023) in which you discussed this contest. Seems it’s already too late, but like RyanCarey below, I thought ANASTROPHE could be the logical positive counterpart to CATASTROPHE. Since, as they note, “anastrophe” already exists as a term in linguistics/rhetoric, here are some other alternatives based on ancient Greek :
PROSTROPHE : “a turning forward / towards the front”
AGASTROPHE / AGASTOSTROPHE : “a turning to the good/noble/moral”
ARISTROPHE / ARISTOSTROPHE : “a turning towards the best/noblest/most moral”
HYPERSTROPHE : “a going above/beyond/over”
PROSOSTROPHE : “a turning to the good/noble”
EUSTROPHE : “a turning to the good”
In other discussions with foresight on their discord, it was noted that “-strophe” already was linguistically linked to bad outcomes, and changing that seemed implausible, so a different term was likely better.
To quote Dennis Krause, in Jan 2022: “I stumbled upon ‘anastrophe’ in the german wikipedia, which is more or less =eucatastrophe. But I also think that *strophe always reminds people of catastrophe, because it is the most common.” (This echoed Joy, here.)
Just listened to your interview with Kevin Kelly (May 23, 2023) in which you discussed this contest. Seems it’s already too late, but like RyanCarey below, I thought ANASTROPHE could be the logical positive counterpart to CATASTROPHE. Since, as they note, “anastrophe” already exists as a term in linguistics/rhetoric, here are some other alternatives based on ancient Greek :
PROSTROPHE : “a turning forward / towards the front” AGASTROPHE / AGASTOSTROPHE : “a turning to the good/noble/moral” ARISTROPHE / ARISTOSTROPHE : “a turning towards the best/noblest/most moral” HYPERSTROPHE : “a going above/beyond/over” PROSOSTROPHE : “a turning to the good/noble” EUSTROPHE : “a turning to the good”
In other discussions with foresight on their discord, it was noted that “-strophe” already was linguistically linked to bad outcomes, and changing that seemed implausible, so a different term was likely better.
To quote Dennis Krause, in Jan 2022: “I stumbled upon ‘anastrophe’ in the german wikipedia, which is more or less =eucatastrophe. But I also think that *strophe always reminds people of catastrophe, because it is the most common.” (This echoed Joy, here.)