Artifacts

Creative expression can help us to envision possibilities for the long-term future of human civilization. You are invited to participate in an ongoing project for building projections of our future.

We have developed a set of 10 unique and self-consistent scenarios of Earth and the solar system 1000 years from now. The scenarios all describe a broad range of political, economic, social, and technological possibilities, and they are based on the assumption that physical features of human technology co-evolve with basic human needs. 

Imagine that you are a time traveler returning from a visit to one of these 10 future scenarios. You bring back an object—a souvenir or “artifact”—that you can share with your family and friends. The goal of this project is to make such artifacts!

Creating “artifacts from the future” can help to bring these worlds to life, by imagining physical objects that might be found in each scenario. An artifact from one of these future scenarios could be anything at all, including visual art, music, song lyrics, jewelry, clothing, writing—and even mundane objects like a formal letter from a municipality or a corporate audit report! We invite you to immerse yourself in one of these 10 scenarios and then create an artifact that expresses any emotions you would like to convey (not necessarily excitement!) about any aspect of life as a human in any slice of the scenario you choose.

If you would like to participate or learn more:

1. Read the short description of each scenario at futures.bmsis.org.
   
   

2. Select one scenario that interests you the most (this may not necessarily be the one you hope for or the one you would enjoy living in).
   
   

3. Immerse yourself in the world of your selected scenario as inspiration for your planned contribution. You may also wish to consult the the detailed worldbuilding pipeline document available on each scenario page to learn additional information about your selected scenario.Contact jacob@bmsis.org with any questions.
   
   

4. Create an artifact from your selected future scenario. The artifact should prompt reflection of any experience or emotion in the scenario that you would like to spotlight. Such artifacts need to be provocative and connect to present-day audiences without any further knowledge of the future context from which they were obtained. Deciding what features of the scenario to embed in your artifact, and how to do so, is directly relevant to the kind of reflection you want to prompt! (Phase I deadline: August 31, 2025)
   
   

5. Submit a digital version of your artifact using this form.
   
   

6. The collection of artifacts will be showcased online as an invitation for others to explore the implications of these scenarios.

Note: You do not need to read the worldbuilding pipeline in its entirety, but instead you can use the document as a guide for learning more about a particular scenario as needed. Your artifact should be consistent with the myth/archetype of the scenario. You are welcome to embellish other details (placenames, important people, etc.) as long as they do not contradict anything in the worldbuilding pipeline.