January 11th to 13th 2023 : Design for the next Billion Seconds¶
Reflection
“Designing for the next billion seconds” 2023 started with a bang with a seminar by Andres Colmares from the Billion Seconds Institute. We talked about Speculative Futures as a tool for engineering the multitudes of futures we’ll coexist in, and specifically the power of storytelling in shaping those futures. The first time I came across this idea was reading Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari who explained this so well; the essence is this: We’re in a constant battle of Stories. Where we go as a species depends heavily on who tells the most compelling tale, as well as how much that narrative gets reinforced. And stories can be told in so many different ways, from speeches to objects and art.
Entirely coincidentally my resolution for the year was “Tell better stories”. I’m finding out it’s hefty task.
Deciding the story we want to tell, ie the future we want to bring is not that easy. It depends on us shedding and rewriting layers of dysfunctional embedded stories. So the best idea could be to look to the best storyteller so far… Nature. Across deep time landscapes have been rewritten. Evolution is perhaps the most epic story out there.
Letter to self
Assignment: “Write a first draft of a letter sent by your future self in the 2050’s“
