The WTF Awards / sketching a map to an escape from steam engine time

The myopic utility- and profit-oriented nature of markets funnels us into a world where monoculture & path dependence turns technological development into endless deja-vu. In my previous article on this subject, I recommended counteracting these forces through a proliferation of small-scale independent contests designed to reward absence of apparent utility. In this one, I would like to present a sketch or prototype of what such a contest’s ruleset would look like.

This kind of contest should be made small-scale and as inexpensive as possible to run: I would like to see a federation of similar contests occurring simultaneously, run by different universities and other organizations.

If you are in the position of creating such a contest, feel free to crib & modify these rules.

The XXth Annual X University WTF Awards

Abstract
Short-term thinking locks us into decisions before we have the opportunity to determine the best path forward. On the other hand, the results of undirected exploration can become useful after they have already matured. To this end, we would like to encourage undirected exploration through a celebration of the pointless, unclassifiable, and inexplicable: those things that push the boundaries we can’t see yet.

Rules
1. Applications begin April 1st, at the beginning of the awards ceremony for the previous year, and end at…