Paths to our Futures: Reflections from Pioneers

An article about possible paths to our futures, imaginized by my podcast guests during the past year.

I want to thank all the people who participated in Imaginize World in 2024, our first year of operation. Each person contributed memorable experiences and beliefs sharing how they imagine the future could evolve.

Links to the person’s page on my website Imaginize.World go to audio podcasts, videos, transcripts and more information about the person.

Here also is a link to Imaginize.World channel on YouTube.

I also want to thank the subscribers to my channel. I truly appreciate your support. If you haven't yet subscribed, please do. Check out the trailer.

WHY WE NEED TO IMAGINIZE

Chen Stanley Qiufan: First imagine, Then Create

By imagining the future through science fiction, we can step in, make change, and actively play a role in shaping our reality. In other words, with every future we wish to create, we must first learn to imagine it.

Mandar Apte: If Imagination Starts Within, It Can Change the World

Purpose should not come from the intellect. It should come from the heart, and that requires you to re-calibrate it every day and not take it for granted.…You can actually imagine big, you can make a difference, you can change the world, but it needs to start within.

Wole Talabi: Imagine Why You’re Sacrificing, Necessary for Resistance

One way a society stagnates is when its people stop imagining things....Imagination is necessary for resistance because resistance requires sacrifice. And if you can’t imagine what you’re sacrificing for, then it will never seem worth it”.

EMBRACING THE UNKNOWN

David Weinberger: Unanticipate, Making More Possible

Making what you’ve done, what you’ve learned as widely as available to people without knowing, being able to predict or anticipate what they’re going to do with it

Sugata Mitra: Emergence of Learning Faced with Unknown

Emergence is when things happen with no ostensible creator or designer…Learning will happen whenever you have a group of unsupervised children confronted with the unknown.

Cortney Harding: Lost in Transition

So, we’re at a place where the last thing has kind of ended. The next thing hasn’t quite taken off. … weird middle space that feels very uncomfortable … what’s the next path forward? That’s where things get interesting again.

Chris Luebkeman : Navigating a Loss, to a New and Different World

The next generation will be quite good at navigating what we would consider to be loss. And they will not see it as loss. They’ll see it as a new and different world.

Bill Fischer: Unsure Transition, Unable to Predict the Unknown

We’re having more disruptions in our future than we’ve had in the past. And those disruptions take us into the unknown. …. We might not even be able to make that transition. That’s very different than the uncertain. You can’t predict the unknown because we’ve never been there before.

WHAT'S MISSING TODAY

Chen Stanley Qiufan: Sense of Purpose

We’re losing our purpose, or we replace our personal purpose with the corporate or national purpose. I think it feels like the biggest crisis, mentality crisis and spiritual crisis here, is about the purpose of living.

Vanessa Nakate: Sense of Urgency in Climate Education

Topics on climate change didn’t show us that this was a crisis. They didn’t empower us to do something. That is what is missing when it comes to students. If only we have more activists in this spaces speaking to students and motivating them to do something.

Nirere Sadrach: Accountability Through Brand Audits

We go into this community, collect the waste, and bring all the waste together, and start noting each brand on each item. We approach these corporations, show them that, "hey, what you’re doing here is wrong. Look at this. We are finding your brands, your products contributing to a mess in our environment, and this is what you should be doing."

RECOGNIZING THE PROBLEMS

Omonuk: Different but Interconnected Struggles

We need to unite different struggles, whether it’s climate justice, racial justice, or social justice. The stories are always the same, whether it’s someone from Latin America, Asia, or an island state. Always the story of the cries of oppression, the cries of big companies exploiting.

Vanessa Nakate: Blind to the Whole Ecosystem

You find that people who say, “But our countries are not burning or extracting fossil fuels like countries in the global north.” “Why are we the ones suffering? Why is it our communities that are having weather patterns disrupted?” I really believe that what happens in one place doesn’t just affect that place, it affects other parts of the world because we are a connected ecosystem.

Joyce Kimutai- Causation is Needed for Climate Litigation

What is central to climate litigation is actually evidence on causation. You want to stand before a court and say, “This is the evidence that says this is linked to this.” You want to understand the particular activity that the defendant has done is linked to what the plaintiffs have and what the case has been brought forward is on.

Pieter Franken: Citizen Science Overcoming the "Impossible" Scale of Data

You say, “Hey, we can’t do that, but why don’t we use people collectively? We’re all part of this society, collectively we can do something that otherwise would not be possible.” And that’s really I think the crux of citizen science. It really is interesting there, where the scale is beyond what normal scientists or governments can do in terms of data collection.

HOW WE’LL CHANGE THE FUTURE

Rita McGrath: Magic of Permissionless Organizations

Part of the challenge is how do you provide enough structure and coherence that the organization operates well as a whole, but gives people the freedom to really let their humanity and ingenuity flourish, and be capable of responding to changing circumstances. I think that’s the magic.

Alex Prate: Revolutionize Energy With Local Independence

Energy hubs will need tools, methodologies, blueprints to operate. And that’s what we are doing leveraging the distributed governance of a DAO. It starts sharing energy production with communities, stakeholders and different people inside local environments, purchasing and sharing the energy together.

Joachim Stroh: Go Far, Go Slow

An African proverb says, “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” When you get into the territory of wicked problems hard to resolve in isolation, this is where you need to connect and coordinate activities around a wider network. This is where the strength of the DAO comes in.

Mark Gröb: XR Doers Solving Real Business Problems

When we talk about VR or XR technology, and business problems, the importance of design is key. The XR doers – people who are the boots on the ground – know best because they understand the pain points, the logical process to solve that problem, and any safety or regulatory concerns. Integrating all that into design is key.

Cortney Harding: Using AI to Find Your Zone of Genius

That’s the ideal vision: all the stuff you don’t want to do you outsource to AI, and then spend all your time in your zone of genius, whatever your zone of genius is. So, for me, it’s doing my expenses, summaries and reporting. If I can have an AI do that, and then just quick check it, boom, done. Then I can spend time doing what I’m actually good at.

HARD CHOICES

Chen Stanley Qiufan: Sacrifice or Keep What's Mine?

We are still trapped in this national state framework of thinking, because we have our own interest, we have our people, different classes. Even if we build a basic understanding, that climate change is doing harm to the people, what is the plan, what is the action? It requires sacrifice on economy, recruitment, human labors, tradings. It’s all part of globalization. You have to sacrifice a piece of, “My share.” And this is where all the conflicts came from.

Robin Vincent-Smith: Who Made the Mess?

I think young people have always, since the inception of time, brought change to the world and the way we think. Perhaps it’s more observable these days because of social media...But it’s our responsibility. We’re the ones that made the mess. I would love for our generation to take more responsibility, allowing the young generation to have a childhood free of worry and strife.

Debbie Urbanski: Prioritize Individual Freedom or the Planet?

There has to be some kind of uber something forcing everything to prioritize the climate. So, that would require giving up a lot of individual freedom, and choice. It’s a tough call. It counts on what we find most important. Is it individual freedom or is it preserving the planet?

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Please share your thoughts in the comments.

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