The 20th century was a vibrant era for future visions, yet the 21st century has not sparked the same enthusiasm. Sci-fi author William Gibson, known for his groundbreaking cyberpunk work Neuromancer, refers to this phenomenon as “Future fatigue”, suggesting we seldom mention the 22nd century.
This stagnation is partly due to the evolution of many iconic future concepts from the 20th century. For instance, plastic was once hailed as the material of the future. Although it has proven to be durable, versatile, and plentiful, its properties now pose significant environmental and health concerns.
Today’s predominant future imagery carries a legacy of historical influence. Themes such as space colonization, dystopian AI, and a yearning for an imaginary past persist, often shaped by the climate anxiety many people experience. The future begins to feel like a closed book rather than an open road.
Jean Louis Missica, former vice mayor of Paris, articulated it well in his writing: “When the future is bleak, people idealize past golden ages. Nostalgia becomes a refuge amid danger and a cocoon for anticipated decline.”
Another factor contributing to this stuck imagery is social media, which exposes users to a vast array of different time periods at once, fostering nostalgia and a continuous remixing of existing ideas.
However, new visions of the future have emerged this century. For example, the climate aspiration movement gained traction on Tumblr and blogs in the 2000s. Yet, as smartphones became our primary mode of communication, the collective imagination surrounding our vision of the future waned.
I reflect on the future of living, drawing from my experience that a cohesive vision can motivate individuals to drive change. Such visions serve as engines of inspiration and imagination. They enable us to envision the society we aspire to create and commit to working towards that future. Movements like Civil Rights have long recognized this. A unified future vision also manifests effectively in architecture, advertising, and television, with Star Trek inspiring engineers for decades.
As we transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy, we find ourselves in a transformative era. This period is daunting yet invigorating. Numerous hotspots of innovation are emerging, such as rooftop solar energy in Pakistan, where households and small businesses actively adopt renewable energy solutions, or the global initiatives like Transition Town, rethinking local economies and cultures.
Nevertheless, we lack a unified vision that integrates these innovations, embedding them within a social context and building pathways from the present to the future.
In my new book, I explore four visions for the future currently taking shape: DeGrowth, which reevaluates our economic roles; SolarPunk, which revitalizes cultural innovation; the Metaverse, which immerses us in a vibrant digital universe; and movements that encourage us to rethink our relationship with nature.
Yet, the future won’t stop evolving. We must cultivate and nurture more emerging visions, allowing them to take shape as we redefine our narrative of what the future could be.
Sarah Hughesley is the author of Designing Hope: A Vision Shaping Our Future
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Source: www.newscientist.com
