Our Futures - The Game

Imagine The Future: Exploring Innovation Through 'Our Futures'

‘Our Futures’ is a game to imagine new ways to involve people in thinking about the future. It was created by Nesta, together with John Sweeney and Jose Ramos, to address 21st century problems and push thinkers to come out with new and innovative ideas in order to solve humanity’s biggest challenges.  

The Arctic Fox

Want an example? Take it from the instruction booklet: “I hereby call this meeting of the Interspecies Council of the Future (ICF) to order,” said the Arctic fox. It is summer 2030, and thousands of species are threatened by the ongoing and impending impacts of global climate change. [...] Through the ICF, species are represented by a specific artificial intelligence (AI) that aggregates and analyzes historical and real-time data forging a perspective shaped by a combination of cognitive biology and computational narration. [...] ICF members, from spotted owls to narwhals and tiger beetles to polar bears, participate fully in a variety of in-person (via holographic projection) and online engagements with people all over the world. Together they deliberate on the most pressing environmental questions of our age, from de-extinction initiatives to geoengineering. The ICF supports international decision-making by creating a platform for interspecies dialogue. This incredible vision of the future was inspired by combining three elements of the game: a 21st century challenge (biodiversity loss); a chosen technology to address the issue (AI); and a specific approach to it (in this case the use of a solution that would work through deliberation).  

Our Futures

You can find the game here: Our Futures. The game is also open-sourced on GitHub!  

Nesta

Kudos to Nesta for creating such a powerful tool to force our minds around the obstacles that humanity is facing, imagining the solutions that will empower future generations. Nesta is an innovation foundation. Formerly known as the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts, it was established in 1998 and today is an independent charity here in the Uk.