(In fairness, one of the questions raised at 2 seems like an interesting one, but not, as far as I can see, one that is in any way foreclosed by the conference blurb)

Ah yes, the vaunted Time-Content Positioning/Interpolation Principle. And the ancillaries, such as the HyperTime Transmutation Proposition, which like modern set theory has been interpreted as practically axiomatic by those who have unwittingly come to depend upon it.

We apologize for what you consider the excessive formality of our communications, but we are at pains to respect your prominence in the community of adventurous, protean, cross-domain, out-of-the-box, public intellectuals. When you arrive at the conference, I assure you that we will engage you in more “down-to-Earth” informal colloquies. In addition, we are aware of all Internet traditions, so we can communicate with you online in future in any semiotic modality that you find preferable.

It is a rare and refreshing privilege to encounter an academic man for all seasons, a plain-spoken man of the people whose passion does not impair his scholarly precision, and whose pragmatic careerism does not cloud his visionary perspective. We welcome such outstanding thinkers to the growing community working to build the University of the Future, and we eagerly await your participation in our conference.

And Ingrid, the conference looks great. Kudos for organizing it! And please say hello to Eva from me. . . .

We are delighted that you will be joining our conference program. We hope that you will be interested in participating in our panel on “Bye-bye charisma: the fate of the academic rock star in the global faculty.” Another possibility is the session on “The excellence threat: preserving mediocrity in worldwide academic competition.” We are sure that your unusual combination of scholarly interests will enrich the experience of the conference participants and provide new perspectives on incongruity in future university curricula.

Please note that Tierra Del Fuego temperatures in July average around zero degrees celsius, so we advise an appropriate choice of beach wear. (Be sure not to miss the lichen spotting tour that will be conducted during the final weekend of the conference.) Regarding food and dietary preferences, please rest assured that no expense will be spared in meeting the requirements of our honored guests, the visionary vanguard of the University of the Future.

The underpinnings of a physics of knowledge are coming into view. The Internet is the medium, and the packets of knowledge that traverse it are the fundamental particles. The shaping, storing, and transformation of knowledge are the field effects created by, and enabling, emergent online social phenomena. Next will come the fundamental laws and theories, and finally we will enjoy the fruits of engineering.

Teilhard de Chardin anticipated this emergent social superstructure half a century ago. (He called it the Noosphere.) It is amusing to witness the increasingly powerful transformative manifestations of knowledge physics while receiving assurances from conventional authorities that nothing of consequence has changed.

Rubbish! There isn’t that much concentrated magnetism in the world to generate a social field that strong!

There is no return trip after the future is seen, because there is no un-biting of the Edenic apple. Fortunately, the university scholars are well-prepared for this journey. They have been carefully selected, not only for their extraordinary powers of learning, reasoning, and explication, but also for their intellectual courage.

Including the return trip? After all, traveling into the future’s the cheap direction.

I have contacted your university library and I regret to inform you that the format of our newsletter is incompatible with the sophisticated pneumatic tube system used to circulate publications on your campus. We will notify you when our newsletter meets the technical requirements of your institution.

On a separate subject, would you consider speaking at our planning conference in Tierra Del Fuego this Summer? The conference theme is “University of the Future: Myth or Monster?” Our organization would, of course, cover your travel expenses and provide a small honorarium of USD $50,000. Copies of our newsletter will be available at the conference.

HH