f we were logical, the future would be bleak, indeed. But we are more than logical. We are human beings, and we have faith, and we have hope, and we can work.
-Jacques Yves Cousteau
We live in frightening times which—if we think logically—are indeed bleak. Climate change is real and existentially daunting. The COVID-19 pandemic has not only disrupted every aspect of our lives but demonstrated how disastrous it can be to privilege efficiency over resilience—be it infrastructure, supply chains, labor markets, or health systems. At the same time, we’re at what feels like the precipice of rapid, dramatic change. Yes, we are facing a changing climate and questions about the basic resilience of our globalized system. We are also in the midst of an exponential technology revolution, an uncertain and complex energy transition, a changing workplace that is more focused on skills than education, and societal distrust and fragmentation – all while the democratic and governance institutions we’ve long taken for granted are under unprecedented pressure.
World in 2050 (W2050) was originally founded 10 years ago with the intention of creating a productive workspace for hope. The idea was simple; convene a variety of experts from a wide swath of sectors—entrepreneurs, corporate executives, policymakers, academics, and civil servants—who would otherwise never have had the chance to meet. Present them with related problems with long-term consequences to consider and let them share their experiences and ideas. Through this sharing, W2050’s convenings resulted in something new: hybrid ideational innovations, which left our expert participants with a sense of hope. Something new they could bring back to their colleagues for discussion and use to solve problems that before were just a bit more daunting. That hope is an extremely important, precious thing.
World in 2050, Relaunched.
I’ve worked with W2050’s founder, Ana Rold, for several years. Just before the pandemic changed everything, we had what we thought was an exciting roadmap for the future of W2050 and its sibling organization, Diplomatic Courier. Everything about our model had to change just to survive in a world where traditional convenings were impossible. While the 18 months or so following March 2020 were harrowing, those months also gave us a kind of opportunity to think about the major disruptive trends influencing our world and what W2050’s role should be in meeting those challenges.
We were fortunate to work with some great partners—and uncommon partnerships have been and remain at the core of W2050—to finetune a new approach to publication series and virtual convenings so we could continue to bring together diverse voices and expertise to generate new insights. At the same time, we took a step back to really think through what W2050 could do to help generate positive change.
W2050 has long worked through thematic clusters of change we call megatrends. For us, these are transitions which are either on the verge of fundamentally changing our world or are in the process of doing so. Over the past 18 months, we learned (with some help from partners) to think about these transitions through the three horizons model. In the three horizons model, we think about three discrete points—a type of legacy system as it exists today, where a given transition appears to be taking us over the next several decades, and what the often-harmful disruptions could look like on the way. Three horizons author Bill Sharpe talks about developing a “future consciousness” through this framework of thinking about the future. At W2050, we look at the potential futures that our megatrends indicate and think about how not only to arrive at the best of those possible futures, but at how to help those futures “arrive well” by making the transitory period as smooth and just as possible.
While our exact articulation of megatrends has shifted over the years, through our convenings and uncommon partnerships we’ve amassed an impressive archive of thought leadership. This content has served as the basis for publications and reports in the past. We are formalizing this process and accelerating:
- how we use this existing content and make it accessible to change makers,
- how we create new content through partnerships and convenings, and
- how we create new thought leadership in-house and through commission.
Over the next five weeks, we will be publishing a series of articles discussing each of our five megatrends in more detail. We will also explain more about how W2050 is positioned to be a force for positive change within each cluster.
Our World in 2050, Reimagined.
One theme that kept coming up for us over the past 18 months has been the now somewhat-tired Winston Churchill quote, “Never let a good crisis go to waste.” In our five volume “After the Pandemic” series—which you can find here—our expert contributors identified ways the pandemic not only created new problems, but how it even more devastatingly accelerated systemic problems that have been with us a long time. Paradoxically, that acceleration is also a cause for hope. What in many cases had been largely invisible (to most of us) systemic problems were now on full display, and we suddenly had the sense of urgency needed to address them.
More than anything, W2050 wants to identify the sometimes not obvious crises embedded within the megatrend transitions shaping our future and find ways to address them before (when possible) they reach the kind of magnitude Churchill was talking about. We get there by recognizing that voices from all segments of society will have different lenses from which to speak, and those different perspectives can give us a whole other view. We want to continue bringing together experts from different sectors who wouldn’t typically get to share their perspectives and synthesize something new. We also want to look to the margins and amplify perspectives that are too often systemically overlooked—whether they are too young, too poor, too rural, or too-anything-else.
For us, the world as it will exist in 2050 should be something we look at by borrowing the astronautical experience of the overview effect. Looked at from space, the Earth is a tiny blue dot, teeming with life but also small and alone, rocketing through a void. Our world’s inhabitants, then, are crewmembers on rocket ship Earth. At W2050, we believe that to help the future arrive well, we must internalize this idea that we are all crewmates who have a shared future—and we can keep our rocket ship in the best possible shape by working together and caring for the well-being of the whole of the crew.
The world in 2050 is 28 years away, just a little over one generation. Arriving there as well as possible is a daunting task and logic—looking at our systemic dysfunctions today—suggests it probably can’t be done. At W2050, we’re choosing to hope that better is possible, and to do the work to help make it so. Over the next few weeks, we will be publishing a series of articles discussing five key megatrends that will shape our future, and how we intend to put in the work to help that future arrive well.
We hope you’ll come along for the ride.
a global affairs media network
How World in 2050 Aims to Help the Future Arrive Well
Image via Adobe Stock.
January 26, 2022
The world is at the precipice of rapid, dramatic change that will completely shift what life on Earth looks like, for better or worse. Future-focused think tank World in 2050 is relaunching with a new look and mandate—help the future arrive well, writes new W2050 Executive Director Shane Szarkowski.
I
f we were logical, the future would be bleak, indeed. But we are more than logical. We are human beings, and we have faith, and we have hope, and we can work.
-Jacques Yves Cousteau
We live in frightening times which—if we think logically—are indeed bleak. Climate change is real and existentially daunting. The COVID-19 pandemic has not only disrupted every aspect of our lives but demonstrated how disastrous it can be to privilege efficiency over resilience—be it infrastructure, supply chains, labor markets, or health systems. At the same time, we’re at what feels like the precipice of rapid, dramatic change. Yes, we are facing a changing climate and questions about the basic resilience of our globalized system. We are also in the midst of an exponential technology revolution, an uncertain and complex energy transition, a changing workplace that is more focused on skills than education, and societal distrust and fragmentation – all while the democratic and governance institutions we’ve long taken for granted are under unprecedented pressure.
World in 2050 (W2050) was originally founded 10 years ago with the intention of creating a productive workspace for hope. The idea was simple; convene a variety of experts from a wide swath of sectors—entrepreneurs, corporate executives, policymakers, academics, and civil servants—who would otherwise never have had the chance to meet. Present them with related problems with long-term consequences to consider and let them share their experiences and ideas. Through this sharing, W2050’s convenings resulted in something new: hybrid ideational innovations, which left our expert participants with a sense of hope. Something new they could bring back to their colleagues for discussion and use to solve problems that before were just a bit more daunting. That hope is an extremely important, precious thing.
World in 2050, Relaunched.
I’ve worked with W2050’s founder, Ana Rold, for several years. Just before the pandemic changed everything, we had what we thought was an exciting roadmap for the future of W2050 and its sibling organization, Diplomatic Courier. Everything about our model had to change just to survive in a world where traditional convenings were impossible. While the 18 months or so following March 2020 were harrowing, those months also gave us a kind of opportunity to think about the major disruptive trends influencing our world and what W2050’s role should be in meeting those challenges.
We were fortunate to work with some great partners—and uncommon partnerships have been and remain at the core of W2050—to finetune a new approach to publication series and virtual convenings so we could continue to bring together diverse voices and expertise to generate new insights. At the same time, we took a step back to really think through what W2050 could do to help generate positive change.
W2050 has long worked through thematic clusters of change we call megatrends. For us, these are transitions which are either on the verge of fundamentally changing our world or are in the process of doing so. Over the past 18 months, we learned (with some help from partners) to think about these transitions through the three horizons model. In the three horizons model, we think about three discrete points—a type of legacy system as it exists today, where a given transition appears to be taking us over the next several decades, and what the often-harmful disruptions could look like on the way. Three horizons author Bill Sharpe talks about developing a “future consciousness” through this framework of thinking about the future. At W2050, we look at the potential futures that our megatrends indicate and think about how not only to arrive at the best of those possible futures, but at how to help those futures “arrive well” by making the transitory period as smooth and just as possible.
While our exact articulation of megatrends has shifted over the years, through our convenings and uncommon partnerships we’ve amassed an impressive archive of thought leadership. This content has served as the basis for publications and reports in the past. We are formalizing this process and accelerating:
- how we use this existing content and make it accessible to change makers,
- how we create new content through partnerships and convenings, and
- how we create new thought leadership in-house and through commission.
Over the next five weeks, we will be publishing a series of articles discussing each of our five megatrends in more detail. We will also explain more about how W2050 is positioned to be a force for positive change within each cluster.
Our World in 2050, Reimagined.
One theme that kept coming up for us over the past 18 months has been the now somewhat-tired Winston Churchill quote, “Never let a good crisis go to waste.” In our five volume “After the Pandemic” series—which you can find here—our expert contributors identified ways the pandemic not only created new problems, but how it even more devastatingly accelerated systemic problems that have been with us a long time. Paradoxically, that acceleration is also a cause for hope. What in many cases had been largely invisible (to most of us) systemic problems were now on full display, and we suddenly had the sense of urgency needed to address them.
More than anything, W2050 wants to identify the sometimes not obvious crises embedded within the megatrend transitions shaping our future and find ways to address them before (when possible) they reach the kind of magnitude Churchill was talking about. We get there by recognizing that voices from all segments of society will have different lenses from which to speak, and those different perspectives can give us a whole other view. We want to continue bringing together experts from different sectors who wouldn’t typically get to share their perspectives and synthesize something new. We also want to look to the margins and amplify perspectives that are too often systemically overlooked—whether they are too young, too poor, too rural, or too-anything-else.
For us, the world as it will exist in 2050 should be something we look at by borrowing the astronautical experience of the overview effect. Looked at from space, the Earth is a tiny blue dot, teeming with life but also small and alone, rocketing through a void. Our world’s inhabitants, then, are crewmembers on rocket ship Earth. At W2050, we believe that to help the future arrive well, we must internalize this idea that we are all crewmates who have a shared future—and we can keep our rocket ship in the best possible shape by working together and caring for the well-being of the whole of the crew.
The world in 2050 is 28 years away, just a little over one generation. Arriving there as well as possible is a daunting task and logic—looking at our systemic dysfunctions today—suggests it probably can’t be done. At W2050, we’re choosing to hope that better is possible, and to do the work to help make it so. Over the next few weeks, we will be publishing a series of articles discussing five key megatrends that will shape our future, and how we intend to put in the work to help that future arrive well.
We hope you’ll come along for the ride.
