The Good Future Project

The Good Future is entirely possible – we just need to make the right decisions today!

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  • Now we know for sure that big tech peddles despair, we must protect ourselves

    Now we know for sure that big tech peddles despair, we must protect ourselves

    Now that the inquest into the awful death of Molly Russell in 2017 has delivered its findings, we have a new reality to adjust to. The teenager died from an act of self-harm, “while suffering depression and the negative effects of online content”. Her father described how she had entered “the bleakest of worlds”: online content on self-harm and suicide was delivered in waves by Instagram and Pinterest, just leaving it to the algorithm. “Looks like you’ve previously shown an interest in despair: try this infinitely replenishing stream of fresh despair.”

    Social media platforms deliberately target users with content, seeking attention and therefore advertising revenue: we knew that. This content can be extremely damaging: we knew that, too. But surely now that we’ve struggled, falteringly, towards the conclusion that it can be deadly, there can be no more complacency. These are corporations like any other, and it’s time to build on the consensus that they cause harm by regulating, as we would if they were producing toxic waste and pumping it into paddling pools.



    Read in The Guardian

  • Saudi Arabia set to host Asian Winter Games at Neom “in the heart of the desert”

    Saudi Arabia set to host Asian Winter Games at Neom “in the heart of the desert”

    Saudi Arabia has announced that it has won the right to host the 2029 Asian Winter Games at its Trojena resort, which is being designed by Zaha Hadid Architects, UNStudio, Aedas, LAVA and Bureau Proberts as part of the Neom development.

    The 2029 Asian Winter Games will be hosted at a 60-square-kilometre skiing and outdoor activity resort that is set to be completed in 2026 as part of Neom, a renewable energy-powered region under development in Saudi Arabia.

    “Trojena will have a suitable infrastructure to create the winter atmosphere in the heart of the desert, to make this Winter Games an unprecedented global event,” explained Neom chief executive Nadhmi al-Nasr.



    Read More at Dezeen

  • More-than-Human Food Futures Cookbook

    More-than-Human Food Futures Cookbook

    This cookbook is available on Food Futures

    This cookbook contains eleven experimental food futures recipes that aim to provoke imagination and inspire critical thinking on how human-food practices could be different, supporting sustainable flourishing.

    From a picnic meal reimagining the human body as a resource to slug-driven food governance, the recipes capture co-creative thought experiments of 33 contributors who came together for the two-day workshop Experimental Food Design for Sustainable Futures held online in July 2020.

    Please enjoy!


    Download Cookbook Now

  • How Future Generations Will Remember Us

    How Future Generations Will Remember Us

    The romans enslaved people, enforced a rigid patriarchy, and delighted in the spectacle of prisoners being tortured at the Colosseum. Top minds of the ancient Western world—luminaries such as Aristotle, whose works are still taught in undergraduate lectures today—defended slavery as an entirely natural and proper practice. Indeed, from the dawn of the agricultural era to the 19th century, slavery was ubiquitous across the world. It’s hard to understand how our predecessors could have been so horrifically wrong.

    We have made real progress since then. Though still very far from perfect, society is in many respects considerably more humane and just than it once was. But why should anyone think this journey of moral progress is close to complete? Given humanity’s track record, we almost certainly are, like our forebears, committing grave moral mistakes at this very moment. When future generations look back on us, they might see us like we see the Romans. Contemplating our potential moral wrongdoing is a challenging exercise: It requires us to perceive and scrutinize everything that humanity does.



    Read More at The Atlantic

  • Doomscrolling – How your news feed gives you a negative worldview

    Doomscrolling – How your news feed gives you a negative worldview

    Murder, war, and famine. What we doomscroll happens every day on earth. But we must understand that the news is a report of the worst that happens every given day. That is why we must balance our worldview.

    Why we’re drawn to doomscrolling

    There is a constant flow of bad news that inexorably washes over us on social media and the big news sites, every hour, every day. It’s easy to understand why we’re drawn to doomscrolling, especially right now. We are desperately trying to make sense of a year that has been disruptive and devastating in so many different ways.

    We face many difficult problems and they deserve our attention, but we become so engrossed in what goes wrong that we completely miss what goes right.

    The consequences are substantial if we only see a skewed selection of what is happening in the world. We can not imagine the opportunities and insights when a country is at peace, the population has access to clean drinking water, food, and access to electricity. These events don’t create headlines but are very significant and occur in more and more regions around the world.

    The only way to see this development is by looking at statistics and data, for example from the UN and the World Bank.


    Read More at Warp News

  • Why a festival of ideas in Nature – Gathering of Tribes?

    Why a festival of ideas in Nature – Gathering of Tribes?

    This article was first published on Gathering of Tribes

    A question I have been asked is:
    Why is the Gathering a festival of ideas and connection in the discomfort of outdoors!? 

    Why subject ourselves to the discomforts of sun, wind, dust and camping? Why not meet like “civilised” people in a nice hotel with hot showers, flushing toilets, TV and daily room service? Why not sit in a nice climate controlled room around a big table with a projector and screen? If we are to engage with ideas, why not go easy on our bodies so we can focus on the mind stuff? Isn’t it enough to go for a walk on the beach at sunset and connect with nature there?

    Good question!

     


    Read More at Gathering of Tribes

  • The Shift To A Circular Economy: How Tech Is Shaping The Future Of Sustainable Retail

    The Shift To A Circular Economy: How Tech Is Shaping The Future Of Sustainable Retail

    This article is available on CB Insights

    Consumers are increasingly pushing for sustainable business practices in retail, driving businesses to reassess what they produce — and how. From ingredient upcycling to plastic alternatives to smart trash cans, we look at the technologies placing sustainability at the center of retail products and processes.

    The fashion industry generates over 92M metric tons of waste every year. Global food waste totals around 1.6B metric tons. It’s no secret that industries in the retail sector are some of the most wasteful and polluting in the world.

    Consumers are increasingly demanding change:

    • Fifty-two percent of textile industry experts say consumers are driving the heightened focus on sustainability in fashion, which includes more transparent supply chains, alternative materials, and secondhand shopping.
    • Similarly, 65% of consumers say they want food products that are sustainable, from alternative proteins to compostable packaging.

    Investors are pouring money into the retail space, with dollars more than doubling from 2020 to 2021. Much of this is focused on sustainability efforts, from supply chain tech to tackling food waste.


    Read more

  • Baobab Summit 2022

    Baobab Summit 2022

    The Baobab Summit is a gathering of the Mastercard Foundation Scholars Program, where our Scholars, Alumni and partners come together to connect, co-create, share, learn and reflect.

     


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  • The World Really Is Getting Better

    The World Really Is Getting Better

    Some days or decades, everything in the world seems to be getting worse. Global warming is unstoppable. Political polarization is tearing us apart. Women’s rights are backsliding in Afghanistan and, American liberals might argue, in the U.S. as well. European energy costs are skyrocketing, China is heading into recession, Ukraine is locked in existential war, and many African countries face a growing food crisis.

    The list of sorrows goes on and on. So what is there to be optimistic about?



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  • The negative cost of Net Zero

    The negative cost of Net Zero

    There is a widely held view that the cost of getting to Net Zero is going to be high.

    We are told that the sums of money required for the new kit (solar panels, batteries, wind turbines, small modular reactors, high-voltage direct current interconnects, microgrids and the like) will be larger than a typical oligarch’s Loro Piana budget. Certainly, running into the trillions of dollars.

    But is this really a large number in a sense of being either unaffordable or poor value for money? Yes, trillions are trillions. But global GDP is $85 trillion dollars. The US military costs about $2 trillion every three years. So in the context of military spending or the global economy, is trillions really a huge number?


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