on agency & what it gives us
The future depicted here is one where European citizens reclaim agency through introspection. As prevailing narratives of perpetual economic growth and technological fixes falter, more and more individuals believe that changing the world begins with personal transformation.
INWARDS - N O R M A L S
agency through introspection at a community level — what does this narrative look like through a post-individual lens, but still leveraging introspection and inside-out thinking
If you have ever found yourself hoping for the future, yet, at times, it feels too big or too impossible; I hope you can carve out some space to dream in your own way and keep building on those dreams. Keep imagining what could be, even if you don’t know how it makes sense yet.
Morgan Harper Nichols • A Necessary Imagination
the most important thing you can do to transform the world is to act. Taking action is a practice of hope. Experience and meaning are derived from doing.
Kelly Hayes • Let This Radicalize You
Hope locates itself in the premises that we don’t know what will happen and that in the spaciousness of uncertainty is room to act. When you recognize uncertainty, you recognize that you may be able to influence the outcomes—you alone or you in concert with a few dozen or several million others. Hope is an embrace of the unknown and the unknowable,
... See moreRebecca Solnit • Hope in the Dark: Untold Histories, Wild Possibilities
Considering that the main objective of foresight is to decrease the element of future surprise by increasing anticipation, the use of foresight mitigates and therefore reduces the anxiety experienced caused by uncertainty. In other words, the use of foresight leads to better impulse control, learning, and decision making.
Seth T. Harrell • Affective Foresight
The power of agency is, in practice, the power to build: to direct our intelligence toward the work of understanding the world and adapting it to our needs. It’s how we impose a purposeful order on nature’s chaos.
Gena Gorlin • Death is the default
Humanity needs Gen Z’s ideas and dreams to shape the future, which means giving them a seat at the table
Sarah DaVanzo • Gen Z’s Curiosity Fingerprint for the Future
“Active Hope is about becoming active participants in bringing about what we hope for. Active Hope is a practice. It points us toward a way of life that enriches rather than depletes our world.”
Medium • Welcome to Terranascient Futures Studies & Foresight
What underpins them both is an enduring sense of agency: If you mentally view yourself as younger—if you believe you have a few pivots left—you still see yourself as useful; if you believe that aging itself is valuable, an added good, then you also see yourself as useful