A booster against Existential Angst
By Lou de Kerhuelvez, Foresight Institute
Don’t give up, humans. A better world is possible, and it’s on us to build it — Drop by drop.
Each month Foresight Institute drops a podcast episode and NFT artwork inspiring hope for the future, bounties to motivate positive action, and a digest of what is currently happening in the Existential Hope space.
Given currently looming existential risks e.g. nuclear war, manufactured pandemic, rogue AI system, ecosystem collapse — it’s legitimate to doubt whether we’ll make it through the century (or even the decade…).
But this is why we need to build immunity against despair, now more than ever. With the fate of our world on the line, we can’t afford to succumb to a fatalism that will prevent us from taking necessary action.
There are paths through humanity’s existential challenges. The Existential Hope project aims to share them, and create community to take those together.
The Existential Hope Drop — your monthly dose of visionary optimism.
With the Existential Hope drop, Foresight injects a monthly dose of positive visions, and opportunities for taking action. The drop is three-fold:
1/ A podcast episode where we interview a visionary person to dig into the deep content with, and discuss the science and technology that can accelerate humanity towards desirable outcomes. We choose scientists and technologists who work at the very edge of innovation, and can see what may lie beyond. The first episode featured Christine Peterson on longevity, and the most recent an interview of Chiara Marletto on the possibilities of physics. We talk to those who can give us an idea of what the possible paths may look like. They lay those out for us, tell us about the obstacles in the way, and how we may overcome them. They tell us the beautiful stories of what could be, if we put the work in. And we listen.
2/ A gallery to decentralize and facilitate funding cutting-edge science. Each month we drop an NFT art piece to share a positive imagined vision for the future — like this cryopreserved dog that has been revived. Think about it — what it would mean for humanity if we managed to resuscitate a living creature? If that gets you a tiny bit excited (or makes you consider cryopreservation for yourself), it means it worked, at least a little bit. But that’s not all. The NFTs are a direct funding mechanism towards scientific research to accelerate those visions.
3/ Since we can’t create what we can’t imagine, Foresight puts bounties out on Gitcoin to be claimed by the most visionary, audacious storytellers out there. Xhope bounties are critical questions with a prize for the most visionary answer: What’s the most important crypto tool we can use to defend against Existential Risks? What’s the most important dynamic for our long-term future? What would be a day in the life when cryopreservation worked ? Imagine a world where no one was worried about survival anymore? Take a look at the bounty board for the full list of prompts.
Getting involved
We’re just taking off. Embark with us on a mission towards better futures. That path is not an easy one: the obstacles along the way are many, and hard. But the more of us aboard, the likelier we are to make it. You can make a difference — really. The goal of the Xhope project is to share a few ways how.
- Receive our monthly Xhope report — a digest of current jobs, latest opportunities and projects of the Existential Hope space
- Follow us on Twitter or Instagram or both
- Visit existentialhope.com for a sneak peek of beautiful futures to come, and contribute
The Existential Hope project
The Hope Drop is but one of many content pieces you can expect on existentialhope.com.
Many projects are dedicated to identifying the threats to human existence but very few offer guidance on what to aim for instead.
Science and Technology are rapidly developing, creating unfathomable opportunities for our future. The goal of this project is to map the space of both potential risks and possibilities which lie before us, with the hope that such knowledge empowers coordination towards flourishing futures.
We create content that helps visualize positive futures, and list resources and organizations to help onboard and coordinate a global community across future-positive organizations and projects.
Why Foresight?
For the last 35 years, Foresight Institute has been supporting the beneficial development of high-impact technology to make great futures more likely. We focus on science and technology that is too early-stage or interdisciplinary for legacy institutions to support. Foresight exists as a hub of people, projects and organizations steering towards better futures.
To join a thriving global community around advancing bio, nano, neurotech, computing and space technologies for futures of existential hope, apply to our Discord.
Become a supporting member to set bounties, fund fellows, and co-design the program with us. All info on our website.
