Friends,

The past two months have been quite a whirlwind. Democracy 2076 has brought me from LA to DC and even to Wales. I’ve had the chance to talk about portrayals of governance with folks in the entertainment industry and discuss the future of democracy with folks who work on the Hill. Through it all, we remain optimistic and determined that through a multi-pronged approach that is co-created by the people most impacted by our democratic institutions, we will build the essential infrastructure needed for a democracy that is effective, responsive, and representative. For just a sampling of what we’ve been up to, see below: 

Shaping the Broader Conversation towards the Future

A few weeks ago, I had the honor to travel to Wales as the US delegate to help input on the Wales protocol––a series of proposals to guide governments and stakeholders as they promote and implement the United Nations’ Declaration for Future Generations, a set of principles and directives to ensure that the actions and policies of current generations consider the needs and rights of future generations, which will be coming out of the UN’s Summit of the Future in September. I was humbled to be one of eight organizations from across the globe to present  their work as an example of best practices in strategic foresight and futures thinking, and to provide feedback on the protocol to our conveners as well as on the declaration itself to the member states who joined us. 

My time in Wales gave Democracy 2076 the opportunity to build relationships with practitioners from across the world––from Israel to Kenya to Australia to the UK––and learn more about how these tools are being used in other contexts to support their advocacy. It was also helpful validation that our strategic foresight methodology is important and useful on both a national and multilateral scale. We look forward to seeing how this type of future thinking and planning will shape international diplomacy and governance, and hope to continue to play a role in shaping these essential conversations. 

Our time in Wales is just one way we are growing the pool of people who are doing this type of future-oriented work and encouraging their commitment to bold, long-term ideas. Essential to our success is producing a model that is replicable for various organizations and networks, so that our impact extends exponentially to resource the movement. That was why we produced this guide (PW: Amend2076) to help with implementation of our process and have been working with several partners to help them run processes of their own.

We recently partnered with the POXVOX Foundation to conveneexperts and advocates in Congressional reform and folks working on the Hill to share their visions for a more effective, responsive, and representative legislative body. Twenty-five individuals––with expertise ranging from technology to space exploration to the modernization of Congress––gathered together at the US Capitol to propose innovations and insights for the future of the US Congress, which we will use to inform our convening in June. 

These are a few of many examples of how our incredible partners are drawing on our expertise and the methodology we developed and we look forward to helping launch additional replications in the coming months. If you are interested in reproducing this process with your own organization or network, or know someone who would be, please respond to this email! 

Research Shows Alex Garland’s Civil War Normalizes Political Violence

Two months ago, we launched Imagining 2076 to investigate how depictions of democracy and the future in film and television impact audience attitudes towards government and civic engagement. Already, our work is producing results that will help illustrate how our media expands and informs the imagination of its viewers.

In partnership with Harmony Labs, a non-profit media research organization, we investigated how pseudo-fictional worlds that dramatized widespread political disorder impacted the likelihood of that disorder actually happening. Our research found that the political violence depicted in the trailer for Alex Garland’s recent film Civil War actually normalized the use of political violence for all audiences––even people who tend to value order, authority, and community.

This is obviously only one small study in a larger body of ongoing research we are conducting into how film and television impact audience attitudes and civic engagement. It does, however, beg the question not if we should continue to tell important, difficult stories about our political futures, but how we present such powerful imagery in our media.

Results from this research and other studies like it will better equip us to promote pro-democracy and pro-topian content within our film and television ecosystem by giving us key insights into what content impacts civic attitudes and civic engagement and how. If you have ideas for additional pieces of media that would be worthwhile researching (films, TV shows, etc.) please let us know here. We are still actively seeking funding to ensure this research is as expansive and rigorous as we need it to be so that it is maximally useful for us and our partners. Specifically, we want to expand this research to know: 1) the barriers to producing protopian media content, 2) current market demand and trends in protopian content, and 3) how shifts in storytelling about our political system correlate with declining trust in democracy and optimism for the future. 

Making A Constitution for 2076 a Reality

And finally, we are well underway organizing to reconvene organizers, scholars, issue-based experts and futurists with local, national and global perspectives in June to co-create our longer-term strategy to bring about the amendments identified in our December convening of A Constitution for 2076. By bringing people together across our ecosystem to identify connections and gaps––and figure out how to utilize the former and close the latter––we will take the crucial next steps in planning for how we achieve our core proposed categories of amendments (universal basic income/guaranteed rights, re-structuring elections, and structural changes to Congress) over the next 50 years.You’ll hear more about the impact and ideas generated by this convening after we gather. 

We have known since our launch almost a year ago that this work would span more than one election cycle or even one lifetime. In other words, we knew we were in this for the long haul. And yet, the pace of progress and growing breadth of conversation about futures-oriented thinking have shown us the urgency and appetite for this type of work. We are incredibly excited for what is to come and to continue to turn towards the future in partnership with all of you.

In gratitude,
Aditi