In Defense of the Future

In his poem “The Second Coming,” W. B. Yeats wrote:

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; 

Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world.

It certainly feels like reality rather than poetry: It’s the third month of COVID-19, and the spread is expected to widen. There’s a polarizing quest for power in the U.S. with many questions arising in terms of billionaires in politics, inequality, and real, authentic leadership. Then there’s the climate crisis we have to address, or it will compound everything else. 

What once appeared unimaginable or occurring comfortably in the future has come really close, really fast. That’s what has always drawn me to scenarios: as powerful thought experiments they help us feel and imagine the good, the bad, and the ugly, before it arrives on our doorstep. Most importantly, by holding the future we desire in mind, we can move proactively to start creating it now. 

As our world is crying out for us to consider where we’re going and what we can do about it, the House team and I have created a six-part series of scenarios: “The World in 2030”, with support from our partners at Indeed Innovation. Part one, “Big City Life”, is out today and explores how urban life could evolve in the coming years. Scroll down to look at it.

Which part of the scenario makes you feel that it’s too late, there’s no use in trying? 

Maybe more importantly, which part moves you enough to contemplate doing something differently? 

I would really love to know. 

The danger lies in viewing these kinds of future scenarios as inevitable, in assuming that they will merely happen to us, and that we have no agency. I would argue that instead, they are immensely powerful because they offer us a way to visualize the impact of our choices and behavior. They give us a reference point to consider what will happen if we simply continue on our current trajectory without changing anything—and what might happen if we do. 

One of the best examples that I always like to share is how the residents of the Cape Town region (full disclosure: I am one!) successfully avoided “Day Zero.” The 2015-2018 drought—the worst on record—led to the very likely scenario that municipal taps were about to run dry. Avoiding that meant that everyone had to do their part, e.g. only doing laundry once a week, showering for two minutes once a day; and not flushing the toilet every single time. Was Day Zero a real threat? Yes. Did we, by working together, change that future? Yes.  

On the one hand we need to accept, give in, and surrender to The Great Wave of changes that are already in motion. But rather than passively letting the waves roll over us, we must also find ways to use the elemental power that’s been “loosed” to imagine and shape the future we want.

I hope you’ll use “The World in 2030” scenarios to do just that. 

- Marizanne Knoesen

HOUSE NEWS 

Last week, we gathered in our virtual Living Room for a Lecture on the Coronavirus and Future of Pandemics with special pathogens expert Dr. Syra Madad, featured in the Netflix docu-series Pandemic, Dr. Lisa Koonin, who was called back to service at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Yuli Yang, a journalist from Wuhan who started an initiative for those living under quarantine with #GoWuhan.

Key learnings and voices are captured in Tim Leberecht's latest piece on why the coronavirus crisis is a test for humanity. 

How can technology become humanity's vanguard? In time with this year's South By Southwest, we are inviting special guests who will share the stories that follow the “techlash”—the ones that make us fall in love with tech again. 

On Thursday, March 19, 7:00-7:55 pm we will be hosting our next online Living Room Lecture, a conversation and team battle (spoiler alert!) on synthetic biology, med tech, and fantastic futures with special guests, hosted by Monika Jiang and Tim Leberecht. 

Living Room Lectures are exclusively open to members of our community. But we always have a limited amount of public seats available, please email us to sign up.

Tomorrow, we'll be kicking off the Chambers of Beautiful Business, a series of pop-up playgrounds in 19 cities around the globe—starting in Munich. Inspired by Socratic ways, co-host and House Resident Yvonne B. Eckert is inviting to a night of exploring and embodying the question of "What do we need to pass polarization?" I hear there are a few last spots for the yet undecided.

Along with this global tour we're launching: My Drop in the Ocean, an initiative that invites our community and all Chambers attendees to make climate action more fun and social, and to convince ourselves that even the smallest action can be profound—because it gives us hope. Follow along: @houseofbeautifulbusiness_drop

SPECIAL: CHAMBERS OF BEAUTIFUL BUSINESS 

Tides | Chamber of Beautiful Business, London

Saturday, May 2. Co-hosted by Lizzie Shupak and Peter Mandeno. 

Speaking of the ocean: this is an invitation to attune with the water through words, images, and sound, and by doing so, be drawn closer to yourself, nature, and the world. Low tide is where we will begin. Save your spot

WHAT THE HOUSE READS

• In Defense of Ideas: Tim believes the calls for "impact" have gone too far and makes the case for ideas that don't go anywhere, defending their "inherent uselessness."  
• Fluctuating stocks, rising oil prices, hopeful investors: how the coronavirus is bringing the global economy to a hold. 
• The faces of a new wave: young people are forming labor unions out of their dorm rooms, shaking up the gig economy's innocent promise.
• The cost of a global remote workforce: this scenario might sound likely, yet the question to environmental sustainability remains unanswered
• Exponential everything: Exponential View by Azeem Azhar, shout-out to our weekly trusted source of what to know, and how to challenge your thinking on everything between COVID-19, robot bosses, and Lady Gaga’s boyfriend. 
• The Uninhabitable Earth by David Wallace-Wells. As my colleague Marizanne put it, watch what’s coming, inevitably. 

Brace yourself,

Monika and the House of Beautiful Business team 

P.S. Any questions? Email us anytime. 

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Monika Jiang is the head of content and community at The Business Romantic Society and a co-curator of the House of Beautiful Business.

The House can be found on Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, and Instagram, and in Lisbon, Portugal from October 31– November 3, 2020. Please apply for House Residency here.