The Future of My Dreams – The Future of My Nightmares
What will 2050 look like? Two imaginary scenarios make us contemplate the challenges of our time from a different angle, and assist us in reflecting on the future impact of current societal decisions.
The way we will consider human movement in 2050 depends very much on how 2050 will look like. Making predictions is a risky exercise, because the future arises from probabilities, and no one can be sure about which one of the many possibilities will become a reality. There are no automatic paths or clear patterns in the chaotic movement of events. Even when everything seems to be sliding smoothly in the same direction, an unexpected incident or decision may change the course of time. For this reason, I tried to imagine two futures for this exercise: the future of my dreams, and the future of my nightmares. Both are extreme possibilities, and I do not believe that any one of them will come true exactly as I imagined. Yet, I am convinced that we have a role to play in the direction to be taken; it is up to us to aim for utopia or dystopia.
The Future of My Dreams
2050 – The world is finally at peace, extreme poverty has been eradicated. Nation-states and borders are a memory of the past. The global society is now governed by a multi-scalar network of representative assemblies with limited and democratically controlled power. Automated machine work fulfills the satisfaction of basic needs, and resources are distributed fairly across the planet. Freed from the need to engage in productive labor, humans can now concentrate on improving their well-being and creativity. Fossil energies have been abandoned in favor of more renewable sources, and new techniques of atmospheric carbon capture are countering global warming. The universalization of access to education and healthcare has reduced population growth, thus limiting the pressure of humans on their environment. Massive programs of ecosystem restoration are in progress.
Schoolchildren across the world learn how the first half of the 21st century was a crucial turning point, during which humankind headed for disaster, and managed to reverse the trend. Memorials across the planet remind their contemporaries of the many vegetal and animal species that permanently disappeared due to the massive destruction of their habitat; the billions of living beings who suffered from environmental pollution, social inequality and violence; the forgotten minorities who were rejected because of their particularities, … Most people agree that the practice of depriving some humans of basic rights, such as the freedom to travel and migrate, because of their nationality and socioeconomic status, was an absurdity. The worship of economic success that prevailed during the previous age is now associated with a kind of religious fanaticism. One of its most tragic consequences, the creation of a gradually increasing divide between rich and poor, and the possibility for rich nations to define the rules of the global game to their advantage, has been re-labeled in history books as “the global apartheid”.
Of course, not everything is perfect. Finding compromises between the diverse interests at stake across the planet requires time, effort, and a shared willingness to build governance structures based on fair political representation and participation. Fortunately, in the face of danger, humans learned that peaceful collaboration was their best chance. They accepted that a certain degree of disagreement and frustration is inevitable to the functioning of any system, and they joined forces to create the conditions under which they could blossom together.
The Future of My Nightmares
2050 – The world is divided between a small, powerful elite class that controls most of the planet’s resources, and helpless masses that struggle to survive in a dying landscape. The elite does not need the masses anymore, because automated machine work provides them with everything they require to sustain their gated lifestyle. Since they have started to use biotechnologies to enhance the possibilities of their body, they tend to see themselves as superior to those without access to such modifications. In many intellectual circles, the idea that “normal” people do not deserve to be called humans anymore is spreading. A few idealists are still fighting against this notion, but overall, fewer and fewer people are actively opposed to the idea, that eradicating the poorest creatures, might be the best solution to global warming and pollution. – After all, everybody agrees that overpopulation is bad for everyone! You need to be pragmatic in the face of danger, don’t you?
When members of the elite think about the past, they are divided between a sense of pity for all the limitations of their ancestors, and a sense of nostalgia for some things that have disappeared. In particular, they miss the possibility to travel the world to enjoy exotic cultures and gorgeous landscapes. Leaving the safe bubbles, which they have established to protect themselves from a hostile environment, has become too dangerous now; and anyway, they consider that the purity that once constituted the beauty of the world has long been corrupted. As the last guardians of moral and reason, they see it as their duty to guide the evolution of the human race by improving its best parts and correcting its flaws.
The rest of the world population has little to say in this process. In most cases, they are too busy fighting for their survival to understand what is going on in the upper circles. Their access to the Internet and other communication means is strictly controlled by the elite to limit the risk of an organized uprising. Moreover, the use of fuel has been restricted to limit greenhouse emissions. In view of the scarcity of transportation alternatives, moving goods across large distances has become difficult, which contributes to the spread of famines. Free movement and global networking are dreams of the past.
