A fictional dialog between a grandfather and a grandson in the year 2070.
I wrote this around new years eve 2019/20. A Covid-19 crisis was not imaginable by then – yet the story even offers some ideas for corona related challenges.
The text is my contribution to a collaborative book project called 50YH.

Something bigger than us

I am Lupin. I was born 2054 in the eastern Atlantic region once called Germany. 

It is the 31 of December 2069.
At our community’s agora people were contemplating and celebrating the end of the decade and the last 50 years. 

I went to my grandfather and asked:

“Pop, why is it that we celebrate the last 50 years?“

“Sit down, have a coffee” he said. “And write down what we are talking about now!” 

“But…” I started to protest.

“But me no buts, son! This might be the only chance I get to save my memories for my great-grandchildren.”  

Grandfather keeps telling me and my siblings that a culture of remembrance is key to overcoming problems of the past and that we need to make sure we don’t make the mistakes of our fathers again.

“Really Pop?”

“I told you many times that knowing about the systems of the past and their flaws, enables us to dream about what can be achieved next. To learn. To evolve. To succeed on the path to an even brighter future. So don’t spoil that chance for your grandchildren… and write!”

Dramatically he took a long deep breath and changed into his storyteller position.

“2019 felt like waking up from a long loved dream – realizing the illusion could not hide the decay forever”

Pop told me about his 30s. And the promises of a capitalist market economy.

“From my grandparent’s to my generation we were thought to believe in the wonders of capital markets and that all our dreams would be fulfilled if we only grow our individual wealth in a competitive system.” 

I could not believe how humankind could have lived in a world that segregated, competitive and egoistic as grandfather told me things like:

“Sure, we had a lot of stuff, but under the surface humans were plundering earths resources for selfish reasons like profit and particular interests. In effect nature was dying. A split between poor and rich population was growing in an accelerated way.

People were fighting each other in a competition for jobs… not only with the goal to make their living and to satisfy their basic needs. No son, people needed more money to pay their personal and their states debts inherited by the systems and the greed of their ancestors… 

Or They needed more money to constantly buy new shiny products; to fulfill their pseudo-desires inoculated by advertisement and media or even worse … just to show status. 

Economies were acting as if the planet was endless and there would be no limit to growth… Although there had already been warnings about the limits of growth since the late 1970’s…

Companies were producing goods at lowest price levels, ditching taxes in some countries and hiding their profits in tax-oasises to leverage their competitive advantage.

Corporations were exploiting some country’s common good and productive force while holding governments with the idea of economic reforms as hostages with the threat to relocate their business to other countries.

Millions of refugees left their homes due to conflicts, climate change or economical forlornness.

Around 2020 automation and robots palpably reduced the possibility for the lower educated humans to have a gainful occupation. 

Groups afraid of losing their privileges around the globe drifted towards conservativism.

Boy, I saw the flowers of the European culture of remembrance and the idea of unity, which I experienced as a european during my childhood, wither.” 

Pop saw the achievements of humankind since the days of the enlightenment being squandered – so he said – and the scourge of nationalism, that drew so much blood from humankind, returning with force.

“We were so in love with our capitalist-utopia that we didn’t see its sepsis.”

I was shocked.

“You were aware of those things and the consequences and just watched?” I asked him.

He couldn’t help to cry some tears while he admitted that even though he was one of the lucky people who were educated enough to understand the implications of his fortune, he was too convenient and afraid of losing his privileges if things would change.  

Furthermore, to him, citizens with ideals had no power in their democracies …  “It were the corporations, multinationals and lobbies that made the rules. We simple people were powerless. At that time I swallowed the bitter taste of egoism, fled into a day to day short term thinking and continued my assimilated carrier…”

I could feel that he still felt guilty.

I didn’t completely get some of the concepts my grandfather talked about. Like nations, boarders, consumerism, taxes, employment. Since these are no components of our current system.

I don’t know when these lines will be read. And I don’t know by whom. 

So here is a little introduction to 2069:

Nowadays we live in a world where everyone is free to move and live wherever he or she wants. Boarders and nations which prohibited that movement in the times of my grandfather are gone.

In 2069 we produce just what we need and where we need it. 

Today humans live a life of sufficiency, saving and cultivating mother earths resources for generations to come while consumerism, capital markets and the idea of growth had people strive for more and deplete resources in times of my grandfather.

In 2069, we spend our days with what we are good at and what contributes to our communities, having the possibility to learn and grow in new directions whenever we like. 

In 2019 professional occupation, taxes, debt, educational inequality or the simple fight for survival had people caught up in labor they didn’t like or that was bad for their health.

In 2069, we run decentralized infrastructure of supply and share globally interconnected  systems of knowledge exchange and learning. Living in an ecosystem of communities – open, resilient and evolving. 

Nations and states with their huge apparatus, governing structures and large scale infrastructure were vulnerable and therefore over-protectionist with their knowledge and competitive in the hunt for resources.

In 2069 communities around the world share and circulate resources radically. 

Having shared standards for raw-material, equal rights and quota for the use of resources and the rate of emitting pollution – at least from what is left of pollution – we reduced human-made pollution to a minimum. 

2019s technologies were aimed at mass-production and market dominance – often harmful for the environment and its ability to regenerate.

Dear reader, can you imagine my confusion?

“Pop, that’s … just strange. Nowadays everything is different. What changed?

What made you guys, industries, nations, humanity move?”

He lifted his shoulders. For a second his eyes faded into a void. A smile danced around his lips. 

It seemed as if he was proud of something.

Relearn to dream

Than he answered “a story! And the desire to live up to it” 

When he saw my questioning look he continued:

“It started with a ubiquitous sense of urgency. An awareness created by protests and riots around the world, mostly started by kids who wouldn’t accept that we were destroying the conditions of the possibility of their survival. When I saw hundred thousands of kids protest around Brandenburger Tor I was deeply touched. A collective sense of individual responsibility evolved – public figures spoke up in the media. Telling that we need to change. Some spoke about abdication. 

And then a collective story, of a better version of the future spread around the globe through different channels – a story told over and over again.

A vision of a future that made life of the generations to come better not worse than ours. 

This story created „desire“ – The desire to leave something behind that is bigger and more important than oneself. People started thinking this is not abdication… this a is longterm win for everyone.”

“Wait” I said “you are going to fast – please go step by step.”

He sighed and said: “Son, we are talking about 50 years. Sooo much has happened during that time. And everything was parallel and intertwined. But you are right, let’s start from the beginning…

In 2019 we saw a lot of uprising all over the world, Hong Kong stood up against the oppression of Greater China, Lebanese people chased their government away to fight corruption and the global Fridays for future movement brought millions of kids and parents to the streets fighting against the climate crisis. So there was awareness that there was something going wrong. Can you see a similarity in these examples?”

I couldn’t follow.

He continued:

„These movements were „against“ existing systems. What was missing was the “towards” the “for” something. I am not saying that there were no ideas. They were somewhere in all of these movements and there were tons of plans and principles around, like Climate agreements, Gross National Happiness, World Happines Index, Sustainable Development Goals and furthermore. But the ideas were either unspoken and unconsolidated, unambitious, drawn of particular interest, too complex to grasp for many or just not attractive. There was just no shared vision of how a better life could look like. 

So, tell me, how can things change when there is no idea about a better alternative?”

I didn’t know what to say.

“Right, they can’t. People stick to what works, if they haven’t got the ability to dream the “how it should be”. 

I was taught “not to dream” in school – to go with facts. Dreamer was more of an insult – I heard it often as a teenager… from teachers, parents, even from friends. 

Other people simply had no energy left to dream while they were fighting for survival.

It was a desillusioned time… Movies were just about dystopia. Meteors, natural catastrophes, extinction, Apocalypse… How could we not get depressed with all these narratives around us.

Thank god there were still some dreaming abilities left in humankind. Some youtubians started a movement called the “utoPics-Challenge” – describing their dreams for a positive version of the future and then nominating 2 others to do so. Like a snowball system. Popstars followed the example and soon dreaming and speaking out fiction of the future got en vogue.

And then – bam – around 2022 a global phenomenon emerged – no one really knows who uploaded it. A global online petition appeared.  

The “petition for the rights of being(s) in the planetary community”. 

It compiled the main ideas and wishes of the zeitgeist.

To some it felt like reading a fantasy book! Stating things like: everyone has a right to healthy food and fresh water, housing, mobility, self-expression and self-realization. 

It drew the picture of a better life. It was sheer utopia. The initial statement went like this:

‘Imagine if you could spend your days on planet earth doing what you want, eat what you want, move where you want, say, learn, love whom and what you want – and your neighbor and your neighbors-neighbors could do so too while mother earth flourishes and shines. 

Imagine this state was sustained by systems and infrastructure we use, shepherd and cherish as commons – free, accessible, integrated.

Imagine we would share, distribute and circulate the planets resources equally and fairly with the planetary community – safeguarding our planets regenerative ability.

Humans around the globe demand this state of being to be implemented in the next 20 years! 

For every human being on earth! 

Humans, as one humanity, demand that leaders stop acting in particular interest. 

We demand that leaders put their agenda in service of this higher goal.

We demand our leaders to act and decide with the acknowledgment of a planetary reality. 

It is time now to transcend to a new, none-biological, evolutionary state: 

It is time to become more than just the nature dominating homo sapiens. 

It is time to become the culture creating and nursing homo culturalis.’

This petition circulated as a blockchain-document and was reedited by millions.

A real grassroot, networked piece of global co-creation. Translated in every language on earth. 

Illustrated and iconic. A representative number of humans for the first time formulated what they wished for in the future. The final petition was signed by billions of people.”

“Wow” – I interrupted – “This must have been the most complex dream circle ever! 

And then everything changed and humanity was saved?”

Collecting the building blocks

“Not at all, son! A planetary human community for the first time in history defined how they want to live together – but we had no single clue what we needed to do to make this become a reality.

So along the 2020’s already existing and evolving solutions popped up in the spot-light.

Around 2023 energy production and consumption finally started to become smart.

Can you imagine, we are bombarded by Gigawatts of sunlight constantly and in 2019 we were still mainly relying on fossils we tediously dig out of the ground… so stupid…

The binding of H2 in LOHC, developed in 2017 in Germany, was a key-technology.

With it simple, efficient hydrogen fuel cells and storage tanks became affordable.

The first to use it in the private sector were innovative landlords that already used solar, wind or geothermic energy solutions. They equipped their houses with fuel cells – storing energy and generating heat – making their real estate more resilient and independent from large scale infrastructure.

Around 2027 the first “fully automated multi-climate zone food farm” was developed by a group of of-grid enthusiasts in Sweden. They invested in it themselves and started living from the goods they produced. They could even grow things like coffee and avocados… in Sweden… can you imagine…

I said: „well, yes… we all do Opa…“

He giggled.

„Right… sometimes i forget that it’s all real now…

Nevertheless… they showed that there was no need for transatlantic imports or large scale mono-crops farming.

They powered everything by local systems of renewable energies.

When they published their open-source concepts and building plans, many communities around the planet formed to start their own self-supplementation.

Your uncle and I equipped his farm with smart energy solutions and a farm bot. I had to convince him over and over again that the investment would pay of one day – how could I have known that one day we would all be provided with these solutions for free.

Around the same time new-ways of production reached maturity phase.

Groups of inventors designed multi-material 3d-printers that could print almost everything you can imagine. Like shoes, pieces for dishwashers… even microchips and platines would be possible in a near future they said.

Their goal was to only use a restricted set of raw-materials that could be reused if broken – they were pioneers of true circular economies. 

The big problem was that all over the globe waste like plastic was seen as throw away good. 

So thousands of different types of plastic were produced – many types not compatible with others if reused. Sorting of the waste-material was tedious but the groups using these printers needed no new resources. Some were even paid to take the „waste“ of others. 

These are only examples but a lot of industries became alert as a wealthy customer segment stopped buying from sweat-farms, mono-crops farmers or the established energy producers.

Sure thing, these solutions were only available to the privileged avant-gardes who had enough wealth to invest in their own land and infrastructure. Still the work that paid their investments was part of a capitalist system. Only their initiatives would not change the globe. There were still billions of consumers left without the same options but loaded with the same hunger for goods and food and energy.

But still – humans around the globe and governments were inspired by these avant-gardes and courageous individuals that showed how other realities were possible. 

The take-away was: if technologies were compiled smartly, decentralized clusters of people could prosume food, energy, heating, and an ever growing range of goods locally and sustainably and without having to buy them – and so without fueling the mass-economy system). 

In consequence without harming the planet!

So in 2030 – the foundation for a transformation was laid.

An attractive picture circulated – examples of how it could be implemented were there…”

“But…” i interrupted again “there is a big but coming up… what was missing Pop?”

First movers step up!

“Courageous policy makers! And willingness to take risk.

Governments could only think about the risk for their industries and with them their economies, jobs and tax-systems. They were just not accepting that clinging to their priviliges now would backfire later. And climate change was still not slowing down. The race for “saving the world” seemed lost. Don’t get me wrong – reforestation, vegetarianism and shared e-mobility were big things … lifestyle… in some privileged areas – but that was just not enough!

Since the 2022 petition protest movements formed under the slogan „System change now!“. Billions went to the streets. Demanding things like a “global sufficiency shift”.

Pressured by the desire of the people some governments gathered in a UN conference in 2027 to discuss the demands of the people. Soon they discovered that the main problem was that they were locked in a transnational economic system that could not be changed through national laws without putting the nations status at risk in the transnational economic context.

For the first time in human history a global legislation was really considered. Ideas like world-wide tax-standards or global development taxes were born.

Governments agreed that they would look into the topic and test them with their voters. 

But nothing happened.

People were not disappointed … no they were disillusioned. The movements became general global strikes. People knew that only if every nation would agree to lock out of the current system, industries would be forced to change. So they raised the pressure.

But – like always in life, it needs a first mover to start a movement. 

Some countries like Sweden, Norway and Bhutan started their sufficiency programs already in the 2020s. Not waiting for others. They started updating communities into self sufficient clusters piece by piece. For this they needed to raise extra taxes to fund the commons.

Their main intention was to create resilience in the supply of their citizens. Because the ongoing automation of production reduced labor-options and the wealth and buying power of the citizens shrunk. As their citizens benefited from unconditional basic supply their happiness index exploded and their cultural achievements accelerated. People would chose healthcare and social jobs or stay in academia rather then applying for business education. Social solidarity was reported to be fantastic and scientific discoveries were published in an increasing rate.

The rest of the world could only gaze! Mass exodus towards these countries was the result.

Sadly this meant: The world saw even more exilants on the move – not less.

The 30 years log-out strategy

In 2030 the so called “sufficiency states” convoked an emergency UN conference.

They had to close their boarders to save their progress from being ruined by mass-immigration. This was conflicting with their humanist values. They demanded global solidarity and also proposed a solution: the ubiquitous conversion of nations into sufficiency states.

Leaders could not close their eyes anymore – the sufficiency state model was serving the common good better then a system relying only on market economies.

Many states were ready to move now.

The 2030 treaty for the “30 years sufficiency equality program” was signed by 80 nations.

“Wait!” I had to ask “And then governments just agreed?”

“Au contraire – it was a 10 day congress reported to be one of the most exhausting multi-stakeholder processes in history – I would have loved to be there – I even applied for one of the 200 citizen-representative tickets. I think it was thanks to the strong UN General Secretary that this worked. She was a hell of a communicator and leader. The tricky thing was to develop global legislation that would reward and accelerate the development of sufficiency-providing infrastructure over a period of time without destroying the functionality of the existing and running systems. The goal was to realize sufficiency for every human on earth within 30 years.

The main paragraphs were: 

  • the establishment of a worldwide standard taxation for multinationals to fight global economic inequality and to reduce the power of the multinationals over governments
  • The exceptionless  taxation of machine labor – to fund welfare for the growing mass of unemployed and to fuel infrastructure development
  • the introduction of a worldwide 1% “resilience infrastructure” tax – distributed first to development countries. Bound to the implementation of universal basic infrastructure solutions and the funding of scientific research and engineering groups.
  • Development of a global standard for reusable raw-materials
  • The initialization of a global, nation independent democratic organ for development that would one day supersede the UN as executive and legislative entity.

2 years later the signing nations started to collect the taxes. The “global infrastructure collective” or GIC was established – a multinational research and production organisation – it belonged to the people of the signing nations and had no profit-goals.”

“Wait!” – I intervened – “It was that easy? People and companies would just accept to pay more taxes?”

A bumpy road of implementation

“No – it was a nightmare. And we almost crashed everything. 

A lot of the large corporations tried to move to the non-signing nations.

Far-right movements in the signing-nations campaigned against the changes.

But many enemies of the treaty did the maths: 

If we don’t provide every region with acceptable living conditions now our wealth will be threatened by people who have nothing to lose in 1 or 2 generations…

The treaty’s enemies’ kids were in the job race too or needed to live from welfare already. 

Most of the industries were fully automated by now. There are only a limited amount of management jobs, you know. Building a resilient welfare system was obviously without alternative.

…So the factories for infrastructure modules were build. Implementation teams were formed all over the globe to tailor solutions to the area of application.

The challenge was gigantic – it was somewhat easy in undeveloped areas. But in mega cities… man the complexity was insane…”

“But grand-dad – you talk about a timespan of 25 years now – what did all the other people do? They still had to eat and be warm and live in houses – all these programs did not pop up for them from one day to the other… and how did you guys almost crash everything?”

“It was a long and challenging transition. The 2020-2040s were very strange times. 

We were the most technically developed generation of humankind so far but the living standard of western societies was below standards in the 1960s. 

Most people got poorer during that time. They spend most of their money, from work – if they had jobs – or from welfare, on classic suppliers. Shopping food at discounters for example.

Systems ran in parallel . But less and less people had funds to consume and the access to supplying infrastructure evolved slowly.

It was a risky path we were on. The industries suffered – how could they profitably produce consumer goods if people have no funds to consume. 

On the other site automated farms were plundered. And supplies rationed further. 

For the first time since the 1950s Germans would experience scarcity.

The privileged would invest in state-independent cooperatives to build their resilience themselves – not waiting till it is the turn of their community. Like me and your uncle. Many of our friends joined to cultivate our permaculture garden – we had to learn how sharing works…

The phantom of failed communism and centrally planned economy was evoqued. But what alternatives were there? Pressure on the system was high and the ones who did not belief in altruism were moved by egoism. You have to imagine their reasoning like this: if you don’t want anyone to take away what you have – make sure they have enough so they don’t want or need to take it from you. Others were persevering because of the dream – you remember ‘something bigger than themselves’?”

“Ok I get it – you needed to keep the hopes high to get through the times of uncertainty. So tell me more about the successes that created confidence. How did this ‘sufficiency equality program’ work?”

“Rolling out infrastructure to places in need was mostly easy and had a quick impact. Imagine you live in a rural setting in central Africa and you have to chop the last bushes around your home for firewood, run miles for water and suddenly there is a solar powered elektrolyzer and a climate regulated farmhouse providing endless energy, water, food, biogas, etc. 

Suddenly you got time to learn, make art… whatever.

Clearly your motivation to travel thousands of kilometers to provide for your family decreases rapidly. With the first areas transformed into sufficiency regions the rate of emigration started dropping from 2035 on and population peeked around the same time. People around the world felt the impact and even the treaties enemies thought more positive of the transformation.

Bigger cities were harder to supply and to transform. But research facilities funded by the GIC program refined blueprints for „sustainable city“ that had been around for ages and extracted infrastructure modules that could be tailored to different city contexts. As an example automated vertical gardening modules were chummed out and distributed to all over the world, enabling the retrofitting of existing housing. Cities started producing their own food. 

During transition times farmers were subsidized to reduce crop size and increase productivity of their crops through automation. As the economical pressure on them was reduced they started to only work their land in a sustainable way. Large scale farm-bots were constantly measuring the health of the soil. Calculating planting cycles based on principles of accelerated succession and companion planting. Farmers needed to apply for infrastructure funding – then they needed to sign contracts to transfer their fields and their productivity into the common good over a specified time.

Land formerly exploited was renatured. 

Additionally the GIC produced maker-space containers and distributed them to an increasing amount of communities. With these people were able to locally produce spare parts for vertical gardens and other modules.

“Ok, it seems like mountains had to be moved. How were all these infrastructures build? Who build the solutions? How were they rewarded?” I asked.

From labor to contribution 

“First projects were issued as tenders and financed by classical contracts. But around 2035 a platform for a common task-management was developed. 

Infrastructure-development tasks were collected and put on the platform. People could pull these tasks and implement solutions using machinery and plans provided by the GIC. Their incentive was small amounts of money and increasingly social reward points. These could be exchanged into early access to new infrastructure and extra machine time for private projects at maker spaces. All over the transition time the regular money system was still running – just that people had alternatives to consumerism coming up. And bit by bit people became supplemented for free. 

As even most of basic production became decentralized, localized and on-demand, the first corporations saw that their time would be over one day.

So they made their own deestablishment plans – with their workers’ sake in mind – planing to hand over their knowledge, facilities and wealth to the commons in a regulated way.

Mobility providers handed over fleets, plants, factories and technologies to the commons.

Many of their unpublished programs were opened to the public, too. Creative online communities came together to finish the work and designs that now had no need for business models anymore.

Humans saw the rise of hyperloops, shared electric flightdrones and superlight autonomous solar planes during the start of the 2050s. Realized by volunteers and smart machinery. Nowadays, smart machinery also takes care of most of the maintenance and upkeep of our infrastructure.

As in the age of the internet knowledge became increasingly available people started to spend their time learning. And with the basic sufficiency programs people had time to share their knowledge. Online-libraries for literally everything were accessible to everyone. And like at GitHub in early times of collaborative development, communities would comment, feedback and iterate on CADs and other formats for shoes, spare parts or even microchips. These could be produced in the maker spaces. Using ever circulating material and abundant energy.

Do you see how everything started to interlock?

People didn’t need to leave their hometowns anymore but some still wanted to get to know the world. We did not commute to classic work anymore but we were super mobile. 

In 2050 the UN published the treaty for free movement – every human could take the public means of transportation – see the world and come back to their homes. The “youth world encounter program” is a result of the good experience we made with people visiting each other.

From 2050 to 2070 the first full basic sufficiency generation grew up. And we finally managed to accustom to the new way of being. We take over community tasks without expecting anything back as the community provides us with the highest freedom. Kids are schooled by volunteers and elders integrated into social communities. You are the first generation of homo culturalis, Lupin. You and your rascal friends. You guys had no real sorrows at all. You saw the last nation councils dissolve and the regional communities taking over stewardship for the land. You were 5 years old when the UN renamed itself into Planetary Commons Council and took over legislation processes that needed to be developed on a planetary level. There were no nations anymore that needed unification. The executive level was taken care of by the communities. All was managed using smart participatory online processes and principles of holarchy. Lupin, you even saw the last industry-dinosaurs die. Can you remember this old Sergej Brin symbolically ringing the last work-day bell. Opening up the doors to the google headquarters and handing over all the knowledge to students from all over the world…?”

Grandpa took a deep breath.

“And what did you do all this time Pop?” I asked.

“I dreamed a dream of something bigger then us. I dreamed my grandson would live in a better, fairer, cleaner, more connected world. Where he could prosper with all the other grandchildren of the world. And I shared this story with others…” He giggled silently, his eyes were sparkling a hidden pride. 

“And son, what did you do today?”

So I explained:

“I spend this morning at the agora with some friends. We were listening to a lecture of mister al-Khoury about “the escape from the eternal recurrence and the duty to dream on”. The lecture was part of the 50years celebrations. Then we made a nice breakfast in the community kitchen at Reuterplatz. Tony shredded his shoes in the morning so he needed a new pair. We found a base shape in the commons library, customized it and fed the printer at Körtestraße. Then we walked up there to pick up his boots. Tony fell over one of those supply-bots that recharged the printer when he threw the old boots to the circulation bin. He is so clumsy. Imagine him in your times Pop – he would have been broke all the time because of breaking things. 

Later that day I helped dad with his stupid beer bottling and brought one crate to Megan. 

Dad wanted to thank her for the chutney she made from the figs in the community gardens. 

She was sitting with all these old ladies and they sang together in a choir – I spend some time there listening – you would have loved those German folk songs. 

Then I sat for a while to chat with my research fellow Shun-Li. We tried to figure out a problem we encountered with our “energy-from-plants” experiment. 

You remember? I told you that we enrolled in the open science co-opetition..? 

With my friends from my world encounter trip? 

You don’t remember? Pop you are becoming oblivious – please go get a health check! There is a medical examination box just around the corner”

“I am not oblivious… you cheeky boy… I am just getting old and can’t keep up with all the stuff you guys do… so what about this co-opetition?” 

“We want to find solutions to build more independence from technical infrastructure by developing ways to collect electricity from plants.

Tomorrow we arranged a gathering with the whole research group in a lab in Akra. 

You know what? In the travel-booking-system was one of those new ultralight mach6 drones, that this crazy engineering guild developed. It is even 10% faster than the standard drones we used so far. 

I booked the Berlin premier-slot using one of my merit points from last year’s ocean clean up trip. 

I will be the first of my friends to use it. They will be soo jealous.”

Grandfather raised his eyebrow. And mumbled:

“Faster, higher, more famous… some things never change”

“Nevermind. You are just to old and stubborn to get that…” I continued. “In Akra we want to be the first of the groups in the co-opetition to solve the problem. Man, we will be famous in the community. And maybe one day my grandchildren will plug their phone in a tree while I tell stories of old times… 

Yeah… and now I sit here with you, old man. Listening and recording your old stories, while I should pack my stuff for tomorrow and eat. 

Aren’t you hungry Pop? Claudio always teaches kids to bake pizza on Wednesdays. We could be their guineapigs. Haha.”

Grandfather smiled and mumbled something I could not completely understand. 

It sounded like ‘something bigger than us.’

And then louder: 

“No son, I am only sitting here talking – no calories burnt so far. In my age it is important to stay in shape. Go evolve the whatever-science… and enjoy Akra. And do me a favor, write down what I told you – maybe one day you sit under this magic energy tree and your grandchildren ask you something about your grandfathers time…”

So I left grandfather sitting there in his rocking chair. His smiling face was touched by the evening sun. 

Now I am sitting in this mach6 drone and fly over the New Years globe. 

Colorful laser-shows in the skies are celebrating a new decade. 

And I reflect on the lifespan of my grandfather. And where the decisions of his generation lead us.

We are depending on technologies – some might say we depend on them too much. But humans are as free as they have never been before. We have every option to make something out of our lifes. Maybe the next evolution should be reducing needs and technological dependence? Now it is our turn to take the right decisions so that our grand children will live an even better reality. We don‘t know yet which decisions this will be. But I think we should say thanks to the last generations who made it possible that we can dream on! Thanks for daring the steps into the unknown. Thanks for sticking to the vision even when it felt hopeless. It was worth it…

This essay is inspired by my emotional experience of the deep time ritual “The Seventh Generation” from the book Coming back to life by Joanna Macy and Molly Brown. 

The steps of the exercise helped me to outline the chapters of the essay and to finally structure my vision of the future and my utopia concepts that I carry around with me since years.

The exercise can be found on www.workthatreconnects.org.

Thanks to my co-author Johannes Comeau-Milke for editing, feedbacking and tweaking the style of the text. And for always exchanging dreams of the future with me and motivating me to start realizing them!