3
By the time we reached the Millennium, I’m afraid, we had come to see society as a theme park, a place for entertaining and distracting us. We all knew there were ‘issues’ – but as many liked to say, ‘pursuing happiness’ seemed like the best idea at the time.
4
What’s it like to be human in 2050? It depends on your age, your point of view. Perhaps you’re a teenager now, or in your 20’s, your 30’s, 50’s, or 70‘s. If we can see the world at all, we all see it differently. We’ve been through a lot – lost a lot, gained a lot, but we do have our futures back.
5
So, if you’re 77 years old now – what have you seen along the way? You traveled all over the world when you were young, bot trying to create new systems, just solving a problem or two. And with an appetite for emergencies: There were crises everywhere!
42
HUMAN FUTURES
6
In the Terrible 2030s there was nothing but fear. There were Water wars, Sunspot wars, earthquakes that lasted 10-days. Things fell apart all around us. Throughout the Fearsome 40s, in our watchtower Cities, you thought you’d never get here. Somehow we did. We survived.
7
We still have sunsets, skies with strange light, big waves, bad weather, mountain lakes, some stars at night. . . Sitting there, you ask yourself: Have we learned anything?
8
I see some of you are 55 years old today. Born March 1st in 1996. We gave you permission to reinvent yourself – to be ‘citizens of somewhere / citizens of everywhere’ But by the time you hit your 20’s, the world turned upside down. There was a Big Collapse – and you had to do something, so you built it back.
