Future swarming with The Idea Hive

Welcome to 20 years from now. Believe it or not, newspapers are still being created and you are holding the January 12, 2031 edition of The New California Times in your hands…

On January 12th, we hosted an evening of light-hearted activities around a vision of the SF Bay Area’s future. Some 40 creative visionaries of all ages and interests gathered at Hub Berkeley to meet one another, play, and stretch their imaginations toward the future.

(click through for more pictures from the evening)

We started the evening with a movement exercise to shake up connections between words and action, to create room for new neural pathways, and ready ourselves for fun on a dark winter evening.

Next, we split into smaller groups to author five sections of the January 12, 2031 edition of The New California Times, in under 2 hours, with cut up magazines, glue sticks, markers, post-its, and our imagination as our tools.

In general, the younger participants in our workshop were more apocalyptic minded; others focused on attainable initiatives to move the Bay Area forward. Much discussion on what form the “paper” would take: virtual? customized video? directly beamed in? Depending on which article you read, the future will be an egalitarian paradise or a hellhole of tech gone wild, where human values are ascendant and…we have a lot of the same problems as today:

Global: Tesla Air Launches Electric Fleet
Education: Kids Design Their Own Curriculum Starting at Age 8
Fashion: Spray-on Clothes Reveal All
Technology: Consumers Seek Refuge from Increasing Electronic Interference
Science: Ozone Reversal Approaching Dangerous Levels
Global: India’s Standard of Living Surpasses U.S.; Now Highest in World
Politics: Universality Party Leaders Pledge to Govern From 5 Dimensions
Business: Back to Basics: Bartering Is Here To Stay
Innovation: “Never Forget Again” Brain Back-up System “Change Your hat, change your mind”
Ads: “Mindfulness in a minute” neural re-patterning, Dermal nutritional patches, Cat cloning

No one knows what’s in our future. But last Wednesday, we affirmed that there are plenty of creative visionary people who care, and who will continue their work now with an eye to creating a better future. What’s in your headline of 2031?

Check out the photos of the evening (below) and we look forward to seeing you at our next event!