Phase 3: Speculating Desired Futures
Visioning the Otherwise
We asked a simple, generative question: Which systems have we replaced, and with what alternatives? A clear chorus answers: we’ve lost too much to speed and spectacle, and we’re committed to building slower, more human infrastructures of care. Across voices, we hear a shift from optimization to stewardship, from extraction to relation, from technology to meaning.
“We’ve emphasized education and the arts and rethought our political infrastructure for something more humane.” —Radha M.
This is a practical imagination. It doesn’t trade in slogans; it drafts replacements—communication that protects dignity, mobility that privileges access, governance that codes care, and practices that rehearse the futures we want. Which system will you replace—and what will you grow there instead?
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Transcript
- I don't actually need more technological advancement. I don't need a thinner TV. I don't need a higher resolution. I don't need a better camera, I don't need a better phone. We push towards future and we think about technology. I think when we think of technology, we think of things that we can like plug in, and it's, there's not craft in it. And I think something is lost in our humanity when we're not making things.
- And I don't know if all the alternatives are good. Not every technological advance is positive. Not everything is additive. Sometimes technological advances are done because they can be done, not because they necessarily should be done.
- I think that with the proliferation of artificial intelligence and more of us are outsourcing or being outsourced, I think the more things that get taken away from us, the more we feel insecure by what's coming and how technology's replacing things, it means that we seek deeper answers for what our purpose and value is. What do I do now? How do I provide, how do I express? And I think that is the beginning of a gigantic shift in systems and how we view ourselves individually and collectively.
- Can we please reduce our dependency on the car? In my desired future, we've replaced the roadway with functioning public transit. Maybe there are waterways. Maybe we'll be able to fly at that point. I hope the swaths of land in this country that are paved, including the places that have more parking than housing get torn up and nitrified with seeds for healthier cities.
- We've replaced the systems that drive us to always be optimizing. We've emphasized education and the arts and rethought our political infrastructure for something that feels more humane, where human beings are not the only entity who have a right and a say in what happens.
- And I don't know what systems will change in the future, but many need to. And I do hope that they can allow us all to access food and water and healthcare, safe spaces to live and meet our needs so that we can all imagine more possibilities to dream and to support ourselves and each other.