Create the future
Balance the negative news media
Everything you do is wrong! You will never succeed! What a failure you are!
If someone said ”you are worthless” to you once an hour, every waking hour, how would it affect you? It would probably wear down your self-confidence, and make you feel pretty lousy.
Now think of the news media that you and everyone else consume. How do the constant negative headlines affect your perception of reality?
This is an important reason why a majority of people in most countries are pessimistic about the future. They think the news represents what is really going on in the world.
It is not that the news is fake, it’s just that it’s unbalanced. News media shows one part of reality, but leave out a big chunk. The chunk of all the things that are getting better.
We can change negative news media
“If you don’t read the newspaper, you’re uninformed. If you do read the newspaper, you’re misinformed.”
So what to do?
Our answer: Fact-based optimistic news.
If everyone consumed daily fact-based optimistic news they would have a more balanced view of the world, and many would be more optimistic about the future.
And that would do wonders for the world. Because like Kevin Kelly says:
“In the long run, the future is decided by the optimists.”
The future is created by optimists
Optimists have more ideas. They create more out of the ideas. When they run into problems they don’t give up as easily as pessimists. If they fail, they are more likely to try again with a new idea.
Optimists envision the future they want, and then they get into action trying to create that future.
We are optimists because we look at facts and see great progress in the past. We now have the tools to not only solve all of humanity’s remaining big problems, but also create whatever positive future we want.
Make the future come sooner
When people talk about the future it sounds like it will happen automatically. But it’s not. We decide what future we want. We decide – then we create.
Our mission is to make the future come sooner. All the great things we see in our future, we want them to happen as soon as possible. The best way to achieve that is to create more optimists, the builders of the future.
Change negative media
If we can balance the negative media and change people’s media consumption, the world is going to see millions and maybe billions of new optimists. That means millions and billions of new creators, creatives, dreamers and doers.
The world is going to improve at a pace we’ve never seen before.
Fact-based optimistic news
What we mean by optimism is having a positive view of people and a conviction that we can and should solve the problems we face. That means we can not stop at the description of the problem, we must focus on opportunities and solutions.
The optimist’s edge
It is in the opportunities and solutions that the fact-based optimist has an edge over everyone else.
If someone consumes too much news media and thinks the world is getting worse and new technology as mostly dangerous, you of course won’t see many opportunities.
The fact-based optimist instead sees the world as it is, with problems but also great progress, and new technologies that can vastly improve the lives of everyone on this planet. With a mindset like this, you will see a million opportunities.
With this basic understanding of the world, you can view any field or area and find the opportunities hidden in the prevailing pessimism.
Betting on progress, human ingenuity and structured curiosity almost always come with positive returns.
When the pessimists see a downward trend, that in reality is an upward trend, the fact-based optimist has an undeniable edge: The Optimist’s Edge.
The future we want to come sooner
One of the superpowers of optimists is that they can envision the future. Dreaming of a better world. Another superpower is that they then try to make that dream into reality.
Here is our dream of the future. A future many people already work to achieve, but that we want to come sooner. And nothing happens by itself. Progress is not automatic.
We have to create this future.
But first, we must imagine it.
Imagine
Imagine a peaceful world, where every person has the right to think and speak freely, with plenty of food for everyone, clean energy in abundance, everyone connected and with super fast access to free education, knowledge and computation.
Imagine a world where everyone can understand each other’s languages, live long and healthy lives, travel all of the world and into space, and turn ideas into reality with free tools and ample access to capital.
This is a dream world, but a dream we can make real. We are already heading in this direction. Nothing in this dream is not already going on. But to make it real we’ll have to speed up progress and warp the curve of humanity.
Here are some of the technologies and developments we want to come sooner to make this dream come true.
Every human being living in a democracy
Democracy is humanity’s greatest invention. It protects human dignity and, like nothing else, sets ideas free. It is ideas turned into action that move the human race forward. Democracy is not “just” voting, it’s a system with institutions that guarantee and protect human rights.
A fully democratic world would mean a peaceful world, since democracies never go to war against each other.
Every human being living in democracy would completely transform humanity. Not without problems, but without the big problems that have haunted us for our entire existence: Hunger, poverty and oppression.
Next step for democracy: More power to every single person
In a world where everyone has access to free knowledge and freely can communicate their ideas, we can decentralize power. Instead of in central authorities, power will lie in networks, like blockchains, controlled by everyone involved. This means more power to every single person.
Connect everyone
Now in 2021 about half the world’s population has access to the internet. Even in rich countries internet connection is spotty in many rural areas, but with large satellite constellations, broadband internet will be available on every single part of the globe. The Internet is the best tool we have to spread ideas, and nothing speeds up progress like more ideas.
Clean, cheap and superabundant energy
With solar, wind, batteries, smart grids, connected homes and things, next-generation nuclear power – both fusion and fission – energy can become clean, cheap and abundant for every single person. The overflow of energy will be almost free and can create a revolution similar to what the internet has done for free information.
Electrify all transportation
With clean, cheap and superabundant energy and low-cost but highly effective batteries, we can electrify all transportation. That will save millions of lives lost to pollution, slow down climate change and also make travel much more affordable. Everyone will afford to travel wherever on Earth they want.
Fixing climate change
We are solving climate change in what is probably humanity’s largest combined project ever. Millions of people with billions of ideas are innovating us out of this problem. It is exponential technological progress in energy, food, manufacturing, construction, transportation and many other sectors that will fix climate change.
Creating a sustainable Earth for all living things
Several species are making a comeback and we can make sure no animals go extinct. But that is just the beginning. We can create an Earth that is entirely sustainable for everyone. Humans, animals and all other living things can both coexist and thrive together.
All vehicles will be self-driving, very fast, affordable and super safe
Computers will drive all our vehicles on land, in the air and on the seas. With surround vision and lightning-fast reactions they will be super safe and save millions of lives now lost in traffic accidents. That will also make it possible for them to go really fast, making it easier to live outside of cities. Without the high cost of human drivers (and the cost of fossil fuels) transportation will become much more affordable.
Program our genes to get rid of diseases and create better versions of life
With CRISPR, editing genes has become easier and cheaper. We can now program every organism that has genes. Using this tool we can eliminate all gene-related illnesses and create better versions of all living things. Like plants that absorb CO2 super effectively and human eyes with sight better than a hawk.
Reaching longevity escape velocity
We can reach the point where you have lived one year of your life, but extended your life-span by 13 months or more. The reason we age is an increasing loss of information in the epigenome. It instructs new cells to its function, but when errors occur in this process our hair starts to turn gray. If we can restore the information in the epigenome, we can stop – and reverse – aging.
Deep learning will automate and speed up the programming of software
It used to be that humans programmed computers, but with deep learning computers themselves will know how to code and write software. Programming will be automatic and can turbocharge progress.
Artificial general intelligence will make humanity smarter
With artificial general intelligence computers can learn any intellectual task that a human being can. That means we will speed up science and research and learn new things at a speed we’ve never been close to before. Making the future come much sooner.
Connecting our brains directly to all the world’s information
The internet is making all information free and available to everyone. But taking this information in is slowed down by reading, listening to, or watching information. Sharing information is slowed down by speech or typing text. With a brain-machine-interface we connect our brains and receive and send information at the same speed as the brain functions.
Understanding all languages with universal translation
Already services like Google Translate makes any language on Earth understandable to everyone, but it is still not perfect. It will be though, and that will remove a big barrier for connecting with people, learning about other cultures and sharing ideas.
Billions of people living in space
The next big step in humanity’s evolution is populating space. The Moon, Mars, other moons and planets, and space stations. This will increase the diversity of the human race, accelerate progress and give every human being more choice in where and how to live their lives.
Mine asteroids for valuable minerals
Our solar system is chock full of valuable minerals on billions of asteroids. We need to mine some of that to populate space, but we can also move heavy industry and mining off Earth. We are already involved in this with the Warp Space Program supporting Beyond Atlas, the world’s first private mission to an asteroid.
Many more human beings
We should strive to be many billions more, both on Earth and in space. With clean energy and transportation, an abundance of food and industry production with no emissions, there are no barriers to us becoming many more human beings. More humans mean more ideas and more progress, faster creating better lives for everyone.
An abundance of cheap and nutritious food almost out of thin air
Protein can be made almost out of thin air – carbon dioxide, oxygen and nitrogen. We can use that protein to create food without using a lot of lands or raising livestock. We will be able to produce food in abundance and completely sustainable, that is highly nutritious, accessible, and affordable to all.
More capital available to everyone
Money and finance are being decentralized – with blockchains and crowdfunding – giving more people access to capital to fund startups and other projects.
A digital twin world will be a new platform for creativity
Augmented reality glasses and other devices will scan the physical world and create a digital copy. From space, satellites with high-resolution cameras will do the same and create a digital twin Earth. Our physical reality will have a digital layer that will become a new platform for humanity to express its creativity.
Nanofactories let us build with molecular-level precision
Building from the molecular level and up will create never before seen precision and efficiency, making it possible to create sustainable products.
Technologies converging is where it happens
Progress really gets turbocharged when technologies converge.
Genomics is making it possible to program genes like software code. Add to that deep learning and artificial general intelligence, and we have the possibility to quickly learn how to program all living things.
With a digital copy of the entire world we can run experiments using artificial intelligence, without having to mess up the real world if something goes wrong.
It’s out of these convergences that the big surprises will occur. New technologies that we didn’t even imagine.
That is why everything in this list will not happen in this way, or at all. Something better will happen that overtakes it. But we can’t know now what those things are, so we should move forward as fast as possible to create this future.
Wisdom of Crowds
Humanity had a really slow start. For several hundred of thousands of years it was mostly one step forward, one step back. But about a hundred thousand years ago humanity started accelerating. Our first giant leap.
The reason was that enough people lived close enough together for ideas to spread between humans. For the first time knowledge started accumulating. New knowledge could be added to old knowledge.
Progress wasn’t fast, but we started taking two steps forward and only one step back.
With the introduction and spread of democracy humanity took another giant leap and for the first time human living standard started to improve rapidly. Democracy means an explosion of ideas since, of course, in a democracy you have a right to think and freely express those opinions.
With the internet we have a way to connect all humans, spread ideas more easily than ever before, and a place to accumulate our combined knowledge.
We are at a historic moment
The internet means we are at the beginning of the third great acceleration of humanity.
The biggest difference now that you and I as individuals have more say in the future of humanity than ever. Our ideas can spread like never before.
The future is created by optimists
Optimists have more ideas, because they are more open to ideas from others. They are also more likely to do something with those ideas, to create something.
Combining the wisdom of crowds with a community of fact-based optimistic people will be the strongest force for progress ever.
Being fact-based is important to understand reality. If your view is too pessimistic, you won’t even see the opportunities, which of course makes it impossible to grab them.
Being optimistic is equally important, because we need to dream and envision the future we want. Optimism is needed to not let pessimism take over and paralyze us. Successful projects are a product of fantasy.
The future will happen, of that we can be certain. But what future? That is not automatic.
It’s up to us to decide what future we want – and then create it.
Mathias Sundin
with contributions from Magnus Aschan, Rich Spuller, the Warp News Premium Supporters, Warp Institute community and Warp Volunteers Per Söderström, Robin Djerv, Thomas Wahlgren, Sadira Beekha, Martin Olsson and Tomas Ahlström.
5️⃣ Here are five things you can do to be part of creating this future
- Send this article to a friend, or two.
- Apply to become a Warp Volunteer.
- Contact news media (email, Twitter, Facebook) and ask them in a polite way to find and report more optimistic news.
- Sign up for our free weekly newsletter to make sure your news diet is balanced.
- Become a Warp News Premium Supporter.
“This is Earth. Not the eternal and only home of mankind, but only a starting point of an infinite adventure.
All you need to do is make the decision.
It is yours to make.”
Isaac Asimov, The End of Eternity, 1955
