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Headlines of the future

FuturesCities and Habitats
While envisioning futures where design plays a variety of roles influencing our mobility, sustainability and health behaviours, we imagined what other external patterns might prompt us to feel good and function well. Below are snippets of the culture or media landscape that might nudge our future selves to participate, to act, to get involved in the exchange of new possibilities and alternative approaches to designing for human and planetary flourishing.

Newspaper headlines of the future:

  • People stand at pedestrian crossing for days when smart traffic lights fail
  • First woman to never experience burnout from the patriarchal structure
  • Cockroaches surpass tomatoes as the sweet-sour flavour New Yorkers crave
  • The cost of longer life increased by 500% last year
  • Behaviour Design: Train your children to empty the dishwasher
  • You’ll never guess what they did this time!
  • Farmers strike against forced cultivation of high protein sorghum
  • Neuralink hacker beautifies dream adverts and adds adrenaline rush
  • Still struggling to get it right
  • Come together, right now
  • We were wrong - behavioural design and social systems as collective madness
  • We’re glad you’re still here
  • Welcome to the first neighbourhood on Mars
  • Back to basics – we do need to exercise
  • Singaporeans are the happiest workers in the world!
  • Local villages flourish thanks to better literacy
  • The world eradicates homelessness
  • Campfire gathering outside courthouse with singing and dancing people
  • Technology working in favour of well-being
  • Fashion finally redundant, we are all transparent anyway
  • Imagine when we used fossil fuels!
  • Well-being model used in 80% of workplaces, stress declines rapidly
  • Fewer accidents connected to smoking in travel pods
  • Climate refugee children reduce trauma through play
  • Generation omega uses tree-based wifi more than any other generation before
  • Last car factory shuts down
  • Strong winds, heavy rain and extreme heat

This narrative is based on a scenario collectively conceived and developed by core group participants in a Collaborative Foresight cycle. The group's voice was captured and creatively expanded by the writer.

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April 2023

Media Evolution

Media Evolution was founded in 2008 as a joint initiative between the private, academic and public sectors to promote the conditions for growth and innovation in the media industries. Over time, the idea of “media” has matured to incorporate all sorts of organisations dealing with digital development and systems change. Today Media Evolution is owned by more than 200 members.

From our book Patterns of Light and Dark

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