Nehaveigur

It’s easy to think of the ways in which things may go badly, but a less familiar exercise is to imagine ways in which they may go well. For the United States in particular, the range of outcomes that’s possible to imagine is wider than for other nations, both on the dark and the bright side.

I have previously shared my expectations for America in 2050. If all of those expectations are met it’ll mean that there hasn’t been any catastrophic breakdown of the country. What I wasn’t doing in that post was imagining what a better or a great future may look like that’s not just an extrapolation of current trends. Here is my wish list:

• Lifestyle diversity. We will explore new ways of living together. We will join and build tightly-knit communities and spend more time with people that aren’t our work colleagues or our family.
• Prosperity that allows for levity. We will continue to experience material abundance but will learn how to avoid the meaninglessness, humiliations and long hours that come with many jobs. Both kids and adults will have plenty of time to play and goof around without having to worry about messing up their chances in life. There’ll still be competition between individuals, businesses and even nations, but the intensity of that competition will be such that it allows for plenty of levity.
• Meaning. “Bullshit jobs” will be done by AI. Instead, we spend our working lives on things that we consider meaningful. This may include teaching, caring for others, research or building things. Dedicating ourselves to large, long-term projects that aren’t for profit would be part of this. Examples from the past include the cathedrals of Europe, built over generations and by hundreds of people, or the Apollo project. Space exploration is far from exhausted as an inspiration for future large-scale projects. We wouldn’t waste our spare time binge watching series and spend more time on meaningful pleasures like spending time with each other.
• More nature. We’ll have improved on our technologies to such an extent that there’s an abundance of energy and raw materials. At the same time, the amount of land, water and air we set aside for permanent conservation will far exceed current levels. Edward O. Wilson’s proposal to protect half of Earth’s surface is a worthy goal. This also implies long-term management of global warming.
• Better organizations. Eliminating bureaucracy in all organizations, whether governmental or private, is one of the great promises of AI. This would free us to ask, what do I need to do to get this done, rather than who do I have to convince to get this done. I’m certain that there are ways of organizing corporations and other organizations that are superior in productivity and in how pleasant they are to be part of than what we have now, but that haven’t been tried yet.
• Improving democracy. Just as we’re far from having the best possible private organizations, we’re also far from having arrived at the best ways of organizing government.  Improving democracy would be great but isn’t necessary for the other items on my wish list. Neither have I considered how we would go from our current form of government to another while avoiding the suffering that comes with revolutions. A step-by-step, evolutionary process is likely preferable and more likely to succeed.

Here is someone else’s utopia set further in the future.