Speculative Futures Prompt: Describe or narrate a scenario about a festival found a few years into a future in which a profound historical evolution has occurred. Your description should address issues related to equality and elicit feelings of amusement.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Transcript:
Welcome everyone to the One Festival opening celebration. I am your MC Olivia “Live and Let Live” Tarasewicz. For the first time in human history we are able to live without the scars of intergenerational trauma and I would like to take a moment to reflect on our journey that led us to this magnificent point in our human evolution.

What started as a global protest for peace and equality has led to a world wide healing and forgiveness movement. Five years ago in 2024, protests sprang up across the globe. People of all races, creeds, and ages decided that they’ve had enough with the way things were. They demanded that all people have access to food, water, shelter, and clothing. They demanded freedom, peace and security. And they demanded a regeneration of the Earth, its ecosystems and protection of all life on Earth. Huge swaths of people were not only ready for change, but demanding it!

Around the same time as the global protests, pharmaceutical chemists discovered a way to isolate and then synthesize the molecules found in psychedelic compounds that induce feelings of oneness with the universe along with feelings of empathy and forgiveness. Amazingly this new compound had no long term negative effects and did not impede one’s ability to function in the world. It simply restored what we now call the “compassionate brain” to its former state, before it was damaged by intergenerational and lifetime trauma. 

Activists got a hold of this new compound named “One with You” and coordinated the release of it to all of humanity by adding it to bottled drinks such as water, beer, and Coke. Slowly but surely every human being on the Earth ingested this concoction which revolutionized their way of thinking. We no longer see our fellow humans as “the other” but as one with us. When we look at those who have hurt us, those who have wronged us, those who have damaged us, we feel nothing but compassion. With this compassion we are able to forgive and ask for forgiveness. 

As it turns out politicians, military leaders, billionaires, tech bros, and religious fanatics were somewhat resistant to “One with You” so activists worked with plane mechanics and pilots to release the compound in the air pressure systems of all personal jets. This aerosol version of “One with You” was more effective in healing the brains and hearts of those whose lives relied so heavily on division and hate. And now for the first time ever in human history, we are living in societies free of discrimination, prejudice, racism, and sexism. We are finally able to move towards peace and reconciliation. 

But the reset of our traumatized brains is not enough for us to create a new utopia. The slate of our hearts and minds have been cleaned but now we must work together to design and build a new path forward. Politicians, military leaders, billionaires, tech bros, and religious fanatics need new purposes on this Earth. Not only that but we all must learn how to communicate in such a way that is fair and equitable. We must learn to cooperate on global issues. We must learn how to not retraumatize ourselves or others. 

One Festival is hosted simultaneously around the world every September so we can plan and build both local and global societies that work for everyone. We have started to dismantle the oppressive structures that hinder our development as a species and have started creating new ways of thinking and being. It is not easy to live in peace and harmony with each other and the Earth but we are finally at a point in our history where we agree that it must be done and we are all responsible to make it so. So as we kick off One Love Festival 2029 keep your hearts, minds, and ears open as the seeds we plant today will bear the fruit of our dreams tomorrow. Thank you!

Reflection

The following quote from this week’s reading really struck a chord with me:

“It is hard to say what today’s dreams are; it seems they have been downgraded to hopes—hope that we will not allow ourselves to become extinct, hope that we can feed the starving, hope that there will be room for us all on this tiny planet. There are no more visions. We don’t know how to fix the planet and ensure our survival. We are just hopeful.” (p. 1, Dunne & Raby, 2013)

Ten years later, the situation has not improved. Some days it feels like as a collective species all we can hope for is survival. But dreaming of the future and allowing oneself the space to speculate without worrying too much about “the how” does bring a feeling of peace and possibility. Usually I am the realist at the table reminding the dreamers the limitations of the real world. It was quite enjoyable to let go of my practical side this week and freely think of imaginative ideas of the ways things could be.

I chose a hopeful prompt for my assignment because I a10m tired of doomsday scenarios, which is ironic because I do love dystopian fiction novels and shows. But there seems to an endless supply of these bleak future narratives and a very limited amount of hopeful futures being presented to us in media and the arts. I also walked the line with my narrative between what could be possible and total fantasy but I truly believe that healing our collective trauma is necessary if we are to ever evolve to the next step of our humanity.

Tools Used

For this assignment I used:

-a free online text-to-speech generator: https://ttsmaker.com

-free version of Canva for the posters: https://www.canva.com

-Camtasia to edit the narration: https://www.techsmith.com/camtasia.html

-free file converter to convert from mp4 to mp3 (Word Press wouldn’t allow me to upload an mp4 file): https://www.freeconvert.com

References

Dunne, A., & Raby, F. (2013). Speculative everything: Design, fiction, and social dreaming. The MIT Press.