More Visions
The following is an excerpt from a new book by James G. Speth, America the Possible: Manifesto for a New Economy (Yale University Press, 2012). Speth envisions a future America in which citizens have created a sustainable and desirable society, and lived up to our present challenges. The vision is focused on America, but the lessons are relevant...
In a standard test of reasoning, you are given a candle, a box of thumbtacks, and a book of matches. Your task is to attach the candle to the wall so that it does not drip onto the table below.
I thought about how to melt the wax and use it to stick the candle to the wall. What would you do?
This challenge is designed to reveal functional...
She double-checks the name of the essay final exam—Global Environmental History 302—complete with her student ID number and the date, 23 May 2052. Deciding to use voice and gesture interface for input and edit, she is ready. She thinks OK, Jiera, just keep it organized. You studied for hours and you need to keep up those honors grades. Think...
This is an edited transcript of part of a talk given by Donella Meadows at the 1994 meeting of the International Society for Ecological Economics in San José, Costa Rica, and recorded by Peter Griesinger. Meadows, cofounder of the Balaton Group, passed away in 2001, but she has inspired a generation to hold onto, build, and share their visions of...
I’ll let you be in my dream if I can be in yours.
—Bob Dylan
Mandela City, 2084
The world today, a century after George Orwell’s nightmare year, stands as living refutation of the apocalyptic premonitions that once haunted dreams of the future. This dispatch from our awakened future surveys the contemporary moment, scenes in the unfolding drama we...
Editor's Note: This article is part of a regular section in Solutions in which the author is challenged to envision a future society in which all of the right changes have been made.
By 2055, the 92-year-old man lay ill and dying, but fairly comfortable, in his bed. He had a choice to make: should he go to the hospital, where superb medical care...
The old security, defined by the Cold War, was based on containment of communism. It was almost always described in military terms—the size of the defense budget, the range of nuclear missiles, the numbers of planes, ships, and tanks. And during that period, that definition made some sense.
But even during the Cold War, those with a broader...
Editor's Note: This article is part of a regular section in Solutions in which the author is challenged to envision a future society in which all the right changes have been made.
"What if the crisis of 2008 represents something much more fundamental than a deep recession? What if it’s telling us that the whole growth model we created over the...
Suppose we could move gloriously and quietly along in our own comfortable car compartment some 20 feet high between the trees, yet with no engine running, no fossil fuel use, no greenhouse gas emissions, and no need to watch the road (Figure 1). Or, we could zip along in channels dug just below ground level and topped with translucent covers. No...
In 1987 when the United Nations’ Brundtland Report, Our Common Future, appeared to worldwide fanfare, its slogan of “sustainable development” reassured environmentalists, who focused on the term “sustainable,” while pleasing business interests, who understood “development” to mean continued material growth. It seemed we could have it all. But many...
