My future self #1: The reverse aspirational time capsule
Some reflections on my thoughts about the future today. I might have a different mindset and vision for myself a couple of months later. So, this is a sort of reverse and aspirational time capsule.
Why am I interested in the future?
“ Will there be no Foresight until those bombs begin to rain upon us?” — HG Wells
I am mostly frustrated by how we as humans plan and design things “anthropocentricaly” within pigeon holes of our own construction, blinding ourselves in the process. So essentially, there are two reasons why I’m interested in discourse about the future for wicked problems of today. Firstly, we need to be more robust in our design in order to stop the wait for the worst thing to happen and “make the stitches in time”. Secondly, the poor and the vulnerable- humans and nonhumans of the future may not be able to afford the consequences of our actions in the same way we can afford to implement them. Futures thinking will allow for the decolonization of futures for our future generations. Let’s make it a point to not hand over a worse future than our ancestors handed over to us?
Where do I stand about the future?
My facilitators at OCAD recently made us reflect on where we stand about the future according to the tool “Polak game” developed by Peter Hayward and Stuart Candy. One of my classmate’s Instagram post describes it visually here. Essentially, there are 4 quadrants based on two axes: one about how much you feel you have the ability to impact the future and the other about how optimistic or pessimistic you feel about the future. I personally felt that given my privileges of knowledge and knowledge communities that I am a part of, I have both an intellectual and a material advantage when it comes to influencing change that will mature over time (I certainly feel there is a lot of maturing to do!).
I would also like to add a quote from Hayward and Candy’s paper[1]:
Although for many in the world, foresight is currently a luxury, normatively we could consider it a right (Candy, 2016). I believe, with Robert Jungk — another important figure in European futures, a contemporary of Polak, and like him, a Jewish Holocaust survivor — that “The future belongs to everybody” (Jungk and Müllert, 1987, p.9). For those who share an impulse to democratise foresight, wherever they may be operating, having ways for “everybody” to contribute matters.The fundamental question, “where do you stand?” in relation to futures, as inspired by Fred Polak and crystallised by Peter Hayward, is one we should all consider. To approach it playfully, with good humour, curiosity, and compassion, is a great way to start.
A day in my future life in 2045
I would like to paint the picture of how my ideal future looks like by envisioning an aspirational and fictional story about myself in the future:
In 2045 I will be 54 years old and living in Future India perhaps. I hope to have a family of my own with two kids, adopted (there is overpopulation and increasing number of abandoned or orphaned kids). I have a partner, a working from home dad, taking care of our 2 dogs, 1 duck (who dresses up as a sailor and lays eggs for us) and 2 kids. He designs home vegetable gardens for a living and I am an international social design consultant. I have to travel a lot, but travel time has reduced considerably because of faster airplanes and Musk’s Hyperloop. But it is also incredibly expensive because of the carbon and eco tax. Carbon tax is on the fuel and eco tax is for the nearby ecologies. People tend to plan routes through places that have dead ecologies, like the factory zones to save money. But it has reduced mobility to a great extent. There isn’t much of a need to travel anyways. The kids get schooled from home 3 days a week and have to be present in school for the physical education days 2 days a week. Schools are nearby and direct tunnels with ID authorised entry from residential areas to the school make it easy and safe for the children to make it school themselves. Thankfully, my company covers most of my travel expenses. This saves us money to travel and go on vacation with our children.
My company is called Watermelon and I started it in 2035 with a few of my friends from OCAD university. We named it Watermelon just because it’s a huge fruit that needs to be broken down and shared to be consumed together. One of our team members had a tradition of inviting us over and making watermelon vodka cocktails and we believe a lot of good ideas came from those get-togethers, such as starting “Watermelon consulting”!
The world today is much more energy-efficient. We have a rainwater harvester, a solar panel and a compost pit installed in our homes as a mandatory requirement passed by the government. Most vehicles you see on the road are electric, so the air quality is under the optimum range for healthy living. Sadly, only most well to do middle-class families that can afford these facilities. The poor and homeless have been displaced from their slums and placed in government accommodations in the name of “development” which don’t nearly meet the standards of healthy living. Social and volunteer work involves working on making these low income and homeless people shelters more energy efficient and self-sufficient. New jobs have been created in this space.
We still live with the effects of plastic pollution. Microplastics in the water and soil have led to the creation of new kinds of diseases. Those who can afford better nutrition through practices like having home vegetable gardens or buy microplastic filters are able to fall sick less often. Many of our rivers have been destroyed completely and have been deemed toxic by the government. Children born in 2046 have never seen fishes in rivers over here. There is a lot of investment in artificial lakes and other technologies. Intentional littering is punishable up to a year in jail if caught by one of the surveillance drones near any of the lakes, forests, gardens or functional rivers.
Overall, as a society, values have changed drastically towards consumption.
References
[1] Hayward, Peter & Candy, Stuart. (2017). The Polak Game, or: Where do you stand?. Journal of Futures Studies. 22. 5–14. 10.6531/JFS.2017.22(2).A5.
