Institute For The Future

14 Dreams for the Future of California

 

If you imagine living in California 10 years from now, what does your life look like? Has California boomed, been forced to cut back, reinvented itself, or faced natural disasters? What dreams or solutions will help create a better future for California?

Last month, we asked the world these questions. IFTF's California Dreams is a new competition with an urgent challenge to recruit dreams from the public. Why do we care? Because California is in crisis. Because pioneers with brilliant ideas live here. Because dreaming the future can change the future.

Here are some of the dreams entered so far, in no particular order:

1. Lifelong University of California - meeting educational needs in a rich, mobile, adaptive experience.

2. Artists creating films that portray positive futures for humanity.

3. Water Tribes living in the Isles of California after a dramatic sea-level rise.

4. Schools being overthrown by a rise in the popularity of online homeschooling and self-education.

5. People living in a sustainable way, recycling everything and wasting nothing.

6. California becomes a global center, with solar panels for everyone and a culture of both data and storytelling.

7. A giant algal mat filtering toxins from restored waterways in Los Angeles.

8. The Orpheus Project - an international venue that blends the arts, medicine, and technology.

9. California established as a self-sufficient republic, with electric vehicles and increased collaboration.

10. Community gardens and an underground economy arise in response to crippling water shortages and poverty.

11. A California where creativity, compassion and conservation are our highest ideals. Instead of buying; we make. Instead of taking; we give.

12. Abundance of resources gives people freedom to use efficient and pollution free energy sources and nature-inspired designs in technology and architecture.

13. Children gathering in groups to walk, learn, and make together.

14. Augmented reality and data entrepreneurship lead to citizen reporting on the health of their environments.

Check out all the dreams and vote for your favorites, or enter your own dream! You can also tweet your favorite dream with the hashtag #FutureofCA.

May those who dream most vibrantly win. In the end, we all win if we plant a seed for the new California dream.