HYPE — The Hundred Year Plan for the Earth
Flip-side of the Doomsday Clock. A design solution to save the world.
In his “Why Medium” welcome email to new Medium members, CEO Ev Williams wrote that each of us “has a chance to influence others, plant a seed, perhaps even start a movement.”
That made me think of a little (big) vision I wrote around the turn of the century: HYPE: The Hundred Year Plan for the Earth.
I envisioned HYPE as a front end interface, dynamic data repository, and social/environmental/educational action portal to a worldwide movement which would present and promote the organic growth of a shared symbol representing progress towards the manifestation of a vision for life on earth.
I shared the idea back then with some friends and colleagues but in that pre-social media world, I didn’t see a pathway that would warrant launching my life to a such a big blue orb-it.
It’s always a bit embarrassing to look back on an old proposal and regard it as naive because 1) I it didn’t work back then and 2) How could I ever have thought it could have worked? But I appreciate Ev’s inspirational call and I’ve read enough motivational writing to know that no vision can be manifested without action, so I’m taking the small step of sharing an updated version of that simple idea on the long shot hope that it might serve as a pebble in a pond, a comet catalyst to evolution, or a simple inspirational poke to encourage somebody who might be holding onto an even better idea to put it out into the world where it might have a better chance of growing than if kept in a head, heart or hard drive.
So with that, here’s an updated version of
HYPE: The Hundred Year Plan for the Earth
No large scale project or effort will succeed without a plan.
A movie requires a script
A building requires a blueprint.
A trip to Mars requires a Program.
Lots of people lament the state of the world.
Lots of people labor to “make the world a better place.”
Lots of people argue about what that means and how to do it best.
But what’s the plan?
In 2015, the United Nations identified the following 17 Global Goals for Sustainable Development:
No Poverty
Zero Hunger
Good Health and Well Being
Quality Education
Gender Equality
Clean Water and Sanitation
Affordable and Clean Energy
Decent Work and Economic Growth
Industry Innovation and Infrastructure
Reduced Inequalities
Sustainable Cities and Communities
Responsible Consumption and Production
Climate Action
Life Below Water
Life on Land
Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions
Partnerships for the Goals
The UN created a snazzy web and media campaign to promote this vision with the goal of achieving it by 2030. Needless to say the election of 2016 pushed the ambitious “mission accomplished” date back a few generations, but let’s not despair. Think of it as Waze recalculating the route. Global Goals is a well designed, well articulated communication: This is what we need to do, here are some targets, look at these success stories, check out these activities.
It’s pretty and nice, but where’s the HYPE?
To understand what that means, let’s look at a simple campaign that everybody can relate to: A school fundraiser.
A school needs money for lots of stuff.
The school doesn’t just say “we need money for lots of stuff.” They give the kids and their parents something to do — like sell cards with student artwork or chocolate bars — and they put up on a wall in a high traffic area a giant thermometer poster that serves as a reminder and motivator to keep on giving.
Everybody in the school understands the graphic and they understand that if they chip in, somebody in the office will break out the red marker, color in the thermometer and the school will be closer to iPads and a nurse. The interactive thermometer poster works because you can see where you are and you know where you’re going.
HYPE is like that giant thermometer poster — but the goal isn’t new clarinets or a pizza party — and it’s not a poster on the wall, but a highly visible online evolving dynamic interactive graphic with a call to action that shows up everywhere.
Here’s how it might work:
Milestones towards the Global Goals would be set at 5 or 10 year intervals and the accomplishments of industry, NGOs, environmental groups, schools, youth groups, summer camps, religious groups, and individuals will be aggregated within an intuitive visual feedback interface revealing progress towards the goals and providing links to action and information.
I would model the design on a tree. The HYPE Tree:
Here is an acorn.
There is a majestic oak.
This will become that if the following conditions are met.
Today the tree is a fragile sapling. Every corporate action, non-profit campaign, petition, school program, and individual effort grows the visual interface.
Each of the 17 goals will grow into a branch with corresponding roots.
Actions deepen roots, bulk up the trunk, and grow the branches.
Specific actions are mapped to domains of the tree.
Posting a poem on Medium grows 10 cells in a root.
A multi-billion dollar socially responsible corporate-government initiative grows 8 feet and 1,000 blossoms on a branch.
Participating companies, organizations, schools, camps, and individuals fill out their online forms, submit their achievements, and corresponding creative content — data, artwork, writing, videos — which will be integrated into the interface and ultimately archived as rings of the tree.
A tree can grow quite large in 100 years.
If every kid on earth knew there was a plan, maybe they would be more inclined to find their place in it.
Maybe one day they would grow to become a CEO who would care.
A kid born today could be in that position in 20 years.
Not an impossible idea in an interconnected world.
Some years there’s a drought.
Some years a branch gets hacked off.
That’s nature.
But a vision and a goal and buy-in on a massive scale might bring a central focus to the missions, assignments, campaigns, and simple actions which all feed into the common interface.
Whereas the Doomsday Clock reminds us that we are doomed — and depresses us because there’s nothing we can do about it, the HYPE Tree calls us to action and reminds us that it’s up to us to water it, feed it, make sure it’s getting sunlight and prune it when necessary.
HYPE is a vision. A mantra. An actionable plan with a deadline.
The Hundred Year Plan for the Earth will serve to unify and energize a community of world-changers by enabling them to get a sense of how their individual and local efforts impact the global effort and, in so doing will help to generate HYPE and excitement amongst active and potential participants in global healing and evolution.
I’m a writer
and an artist
and a teacher
Not a marketing guy
or a politician
or a team builder
or a technology startup guy
What’s the point of spending time finding the words to describe a utopian project that is highly unlikely to ever come to fruition?
Maybe it’s all about the hype.
Maybe it’s all about the hope.
Maybe it’s just my attempt to help.
Maybe if everybody just put in a little time and effort hyping, hoping and helping, we wouldn’t need one hundred years to heal the earth.
