This paper presents a research approach on anticipatory democracy which addresses the methodology for computing the “desirable futures”, a basic concept in Anticipatory Democracy studies (Bezolt, 1978, 2010). The paper elaborates on the build-up of a computational and simulation model for computing the desirable future in anticipatory social-political systems. The research is aimed for the study of hybrid social-political systems defined as anticipatory systems and can be further developed for virtual and immersive social-political anticipatory systems. This paper provides a anticipatory democracy research approach on achieving desirable futures in a social-political system defined as a hybrid environment, where the term ‘hybrid environment’ defines a social-political environment which includes both physical and virtual space and time dimensions, and the term ‘anticipatory system’ is the definition of a complex social-political system with an internal model of itself which employs it for achieving reflexivity and computing the future state(s) (Rosen 1985, p.341; Dubois, 1998a, b; Leydesdorff and Dubois, 2004; Dubois, 2020). The approach reported in this paper is a research methodology approach based on early theory and methodology in (i) modelling and simulation of political culture by value mappings (Voinea, 2021a, b; 2022a, b), and (ii) mathematical and computational modelling of anticipatory systems (Dubois, 1998a, b; Dubois and Resconi, 1993; Dubois, 2001). The research approach on the modelling of a hybrid social-political anticipatory system in this paper is inspired by the theories on time and spatialization of time from classic and contemporary film theory and cinematography (Panofsky, 1934/1947; Deleuze, 1985/1989; Elsaesser, 2009). Filmmaking can teach us two lessons about how to employ space and time in order to explain and provide for a desirable future state of an evolving complex social-political environment (Dunat, 2022; Yaffe, 2003; Deleuze, 1985/1989; Bluestone, 1961). The approach in this paper adapts the concepts of ‘time’ and ‘space’ in film theory to the simulation and computation of a anticipatory system for achieving the desirable future state of the system. This research approach proves relevant for the research on hybrid, virtual and immersive anticipatory systems in areas with high emotional intensity and stress, like healthcare, financial markets, and art industries with high emotional and cultural impact like movie industry. It addresses research issues like meaning co-creation, value co-creation, and design of aspirational futures in social and political environments.
Keywords: anticipatory democracy, film theory, value mapping simulation, political culture