we’re days(!) away(!) from naming the first topic we’ll explore in our futures flywheel — the topic that will take us through discover, incubate, and deliver on our path to cultivating better futures. it all starts with research (see here if you missed our process deep dive), but before we could get there, it was in the hands of a very special group of community members: our SuperCurators.
We’ve talked about trends as constellations — made up of different behaviors, values, and cultural anomalies that indicate a meaningful shift is on the horizon; that a coherent story is emerging.
And that’s just what the SuperCurators were tasked with looking for. As they made sense of the signals that have been scanned, shared, and batted around within the Discord, they brought their pattern recognition skills to bear, identifying and shedding light on these clusters as potential areas for exploration and evaluating them through the lens of our Future Criteria.
In a fast & furious process (described not-inaccurately as “sustainable harvesting meets The Hunger Games”), we went from 1,500+ signals shared in RADAR HQ to 40 constellations, and then 22, and ultimately, to our top 10. Next week, we’ll go from 10 to 1 in a final decision informed by both community and expert input, but in the meantime, we couldn’t wait to share the Top 10 with all of you!
So without further ado…
(and in no particular order!)
Constellation #1 / A Playful Future
What it is: Facing turmoil ranging from the personal to the planetary, we’re turning to play as a salve at both scales; embracing play as a mode of engagement that’s both an approach to life & an approach to problem solving.
Why we like it: Play has range! It’s playing out in a host of spaces big and small, earnest and off-the-wall. It’s a big landscape to explore, with imagined future solutions that feel tactical and tangible for RADAR.
Watchouts: While this territory is pretty low-risk & high-reward, it’s also likely to be well-trodden territory — raising the bar for our thinking & making to break through.
Constellation #2 / A Post-Identity Future
What it is: When it comes to identity, exploration & experimentation have become the new norm. New tools & technologies (see: pseudonymity, avatars) are empowering us to choose fluidity over fixity, transforming identity into the output of ongoing research in our own personal R&D labs.
Why we like it: Exploring the idea of ‘identity in multitudes’ creates inroads for innovation culturally, societally, and technologically. It also represents a meaningful intersection between human behavior & web3 implications — an exciting crossover for RADAR. And does it let us explore the multiverse? Um, yeah.
Watchouts: Similar to A Playful Future, this is low-risk and high-reward; but we’ll have to put a particularly unique. RADAR x web3 spin on it to stand out.
Constellation #3 / A Post-Individual Future
What it is: Thanks to a confluence of forces, we’re realizing that rugged individualism is less than aspirational — trading it in for a collectivist ethos. From co-creation and fractional ownership, to communal care and the evolution of fan communities, we’re increasingly looking for ways to live life in multiplayer mode.
Why we like it: Reflective of RADAR’s ethos and the spirit of web3, this feels like a natural story to explore. And besides, it’s rich with cultural backdrop and case studies to explore across a diverse array of categories.
Watchouts: Because this space is particularly bent toward web3, there are both pluses and minuses as we look to draw a broader web2 audience into our work. While we’ve recently learned to love pigeons, this does have a slight pigeonholing risk.
Constellation #4 / A Future In Sync
What it is: Thanks to fractured narratives, disjointed memories, and a scattered relationship with time & place, we’ve fallen out of sync: with each other, with ourselves, and with the world around us. Realizing that none of it feels good, we’re seeking solid ground in the form of the collective and reaching back to our roots (see: nature, ancestral wisdom) for inspiration.
Why we like it: Stemming from one of our most signal-rich threads, this one allows us to explore a problem-solution space that works on a variety of levels — telling an individual story, a community story, and a natural world story at once.
Watchouts: A worthy mission from a problem-solving perspective, but a particularly heady topic that may be a bit of a nebulous undertaking for the research squad.
Constellation #5 / A Future for Feeling
What it is: In a world turned numb and nihilist (for pretty good reason), we’re craving catharsis: from tuning out of the world to tuning into ourselves to full-on embracing the tacky and absurd, we have one objective: to feel something, anything, again.
Why we like it: This is another one that was born of some of our richest-in-signal conversations. And we have a hunch that’s because it’s just FUN. Sure, it comes from a dark place…but that darkness is rich in its own right.
Watchouts: Going all-in on off-the-wall has pros and cons; while it’s tackling ‘better future’ in its own way, we’re not sure what it says about RADAR from a values perspective as we set the tone out of the gate.
Constellation #6 / (A Future Where) I Am Cyborg
What it is: What if humanity, but better...amplified...augmented by the best of technology — that’s what this one’s all about. From second-brain technology, to creative convergence, to ambient & integrated innovations and beyond, there’s all sorts of fun (and a little bit of fear) to be had if we embrace our cyborg selves.
Why we like it: This one feels particularly “futurey” in a techno-optimistic way that would position us on the cutting edge. It’s also a story that can easily be explored from all sides — utopic and dystopic.
Watchouts: But the above is a double edged sword: quite high-tech, this is a potentially tricky (and somewhat narrow) ask from an Incubate Phase perspective (and could also get fairly technical from a research perspective).
Constellation #7 / A Slower, Softer Future
What it is: The systems of before are beyond broken, and we’ve all finally realized it. Old, hard-edged, and fast-paced forms of ambition and aspiration are flying out the door in favor of a softer, slower world: one that’s more cooperative than capitalist; one that’s about thriving, not just surviving; and one that’s made comfortable (& dare we say cozy) for the many, not just an elite few.
Why we like it: As a community that’s invested in exploring alternative ways of working that prioritize cooperation and community over cold competition, this one hits close to home.
Watchouts: Another in the low-risk, high-reward camp, requiring a special RADAR spin to break through.
Constellation #8 / A Future with Fewer Shortcuts
What it is: From a bland world of copy-and-paste design to our detrimental desire for on-demand everything, we’ve grown tired of convenience culture. It can’t be our answer to everything; and it certainly can’t be the solution to our biggest problems. There’s no silver bullet; sometimes, the long road is the best road. Urgency is often important; but most of the time, slowness is important too. We think it’s time our “culture of the perpetual present” realized it, and started living at a more natural, more human pace.
Why we like it: It’s an oddball! We’re exploring a trend, but using it as a foil to what we actually want to explore.
Watchouts: Like we said, this one’s a bit of an oddball. Exploring the trend as a headwind to innovate against makes it a less straightforward than the others.
Constellation #9 / Meaning-Makers of the Future
What it is: Faced with a deluge of information and a crisis of trust, we’re seeking new sources of truth and meaning. Out with the algorithm and in with human curation & authentic expertise; down with traditional structures & sources, it’s time we explore alternatives (individual, institutional, corporate, and otherwise) that can make hard pills easier to swallow.
Why we like it: Much like Slower/Softer, this one hits close to home as a trend that RADAR in and of itself serves as a case-study for. But beyond that, it opens the aperture into a whole host of spaces and solutions.
Watchouts: We’ve pulled a lot of threads together for this one, and frankly we’re into it. But in doing so, it might mean a more puzzling process for the research squad.
Constellation #10 / A Future Where Our Data Is Our Choice
What it is: Done with sacrificing our data at the altar of an invisible hand, we imagine a future where the algorithm isn’t the end all; where our personal history isn’t a tradeable commodity; and where our data is, quite simply, ours. Today, we’re hacking our way around these problems; what solutions might tomorrow bring?
Why we like it: Here again we’re leaning into both RADAR’s values and the ethos of web3, making it a natural source of exploration. It’s also an undeniable problem in the world, begging inventive and even unexpected solutions.
Watchouts: While solving a massive problem, this one likely faces the biggest variety of potential blockers, societally and technologically, making its reality as a future feel a bit more distant.
Whew, that’s all of them.
As you read this, the RADAR community is live sharing their thoughts in our #Top-10 threads, ranking the constellations as part of a community-wide survey, and making their cases for those they’re most excited about.
From there, our SuperCurators — armed with this insight, along with a few expert outside opinions — will make their final review, vote using our futures rubric, and fight to the death have a friendly and robust discussion to align on our path forward. More to come next week!
We know that was a lot, so if you’re still here, we’ll keep the Community updates brief.
While we were collectively determining our first report, we also:
Passed our Proposal to start building the Futures Protocol and putting a bot in the server to collect our #signals! It passed with 100% yes and 15% turnout of the RADAR Community.
Launched our ‘Signals Thread Explorer’; an easier way for members to jump into conversations and navigate archived threads (and for non-members to catch the FOMO bug!)
‘Borrowed’ Metalabel’s co-(mmunity) tweet bot to power RADAR’s Twitter!
Met other RADAR members in two timezone-friendly speed dating events!
Started ideating on our Seasonal and SuperCurator NFTs (IYKYK) 👀