Being an Optimistic Futurist
Last weekend, I finished reading Octavia Butler’s dystopian sci-fi classic Parable of the Sower. The book was published in 1993 and is set in The United States in the year 2025. The country is on the verge of collapse; ravaged by extreme weather, lawlessness and economic despair. The world she describes is frighteningly on point for our times, down to (and I am not kidding you) the description of a demagogue president whose slogan is “Make America Great Again.”
Then on Monday, the latest IPCC report on global warming was released. Hundreds of scientists are warning that if we don’t limit global warming to 1.5°C, we will begin to suffer major climate catastrophes by 2030.
As I write this, a cat four hurricane barrels toward the panhandle of Florida. This ‘extremely dangerous’ storm is the most powerful hurricane to hit northern Florida since we began recording hurricane history.
I could go on and go. It is so easy these days to pile up the evidence of the coming apocalypse. Cable news, social media, even casual conversations seem to be dominated by stories of how bad our future is going to be.
Against this backdrop, telling people you are an optimistic futurist can certainly seem naïve. Those of us who believe we can create a better tomorrow do not see the world through rose-tinted glasses. We are realists who understand the challenges but also believe that our only hope is to imagine a future where we have tackled the big problems and worked together to find solutions that create sustainable abundance for all.
We can find those solutions if we possess the courage and the will. Even the IPCC’s dire warning came with a glimmer of optimism. The report’s authors suggest that “Limiting warming to 1.5°C is possible within the laws of chemistry and physics but doing so would require unprecedented changes.”
Believing in the possibility of change, even unprecedented change, is the core of any optimistic futurist’s faith. We realize that creating the change we need will require enormous dedication, hard work, and sacrifice. But we also believe that it is our nature to embrace hard challenges and to change.
All of which brings me back to that fantastic work of fiction by Octavia Butler. In the midst of a crumbling society, the book’s hero is committed to creating a new world. She establishes a new religion based on the belief that change is the most potent force in the universe. As an optimistic futurist, that is a philosophy I can embrace.
All that you touch
You change
All that you Change
Changes you.
The only lasting truth
Is Change.
EARTHSEED: THE BOOKS OF THE LIVING
From The Parable of the Sower, Octavia Butler