The next million years of design: Crafting a legacy with strategic foresight

What is the role of longtermism in strategic foresight?‍

Foresight is a methodology focused on gathering and processing information to anticipate future environments. While individuals might think about the future in an informal or unconscious way, foresight within organizations involves a structured and systematic approach. These foresight methodologies help businesses anticipate change and develop strategies that endure. But what is the correct timescale - a year? How about a million?

What if we are just the beginning of Homo sapiens? Would you design your products and services differently if they needed to last for the next million years? William MacAskill introduced the concept of longtermism in his book "What We Owe the Future." He emphasizes that if we survive as long as a typical mammal species—about a million years—we are still in the early stages of our evolution. When we look towards our tribal ancestors and their lost wisdom, we realize that you and I are the ancestors, part of the same misty dawn of humankind.

"Longtermism: the idea that positively influencing the longterm future is a key moral priority of our time." -William MacAskill

So, how does this relate to today's decision-making? 

• What if the digital archives we accumulate today are seen as evidence of a society obsessed with trivialities, leading future generations to question our priorities? 
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• What if the digital footprints we leave behind become the only clues for future Homo sapiens to decipher our civilization, causing them to wonder if we value connection or chaos? 
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• What if future Homo sapiens view our ethical frameworks for consumption as a failed experiment, prompting them to redefine intelligence and morality?

What shapes a future legacy?‍

Traditional macro-environmental analysis—scanning political, economic, societal, legal, technological, and environmental drivers—provides an overview of current trends. We might ask: What seems to be happening? What will we do? 

Recognizing unseen patterns is equally crucial, enabling companies to picture future phenomena and create enduring solutions comprehensively. However, analysis alone isn't enough; we need a long-term vision of the world we want to inhabit and strategies to get there.

We are now on the verge of setting the direction for various scenarios. Megatrends such as climate change, digitalization, urbanization, etc., are not developing in any direction by themselves—it literally is you and me making the decisions that make the world fall apart or stand tall. 

What kind of future will we design?‍

On this Futures Day, I invite all of us, especially those designing business models, customer experiences, products and services, and technologies, to co-create the next essential part of our story. 

As ancestors, we are responsible for shaping the vision for AI, technology, cities, well-being, and what it will mean to be human. We designed and built the AI agents and digital services. 

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Digitalist and Tulevaisuuspäivä Futures Day are hosting a Futures Day after-party together at Last Drop Bar on Friday, March 7, at 4 PM. Come and discuss with people interested in futures thinking. Please note that the event is at your own expense.

'Auri' Annina Antinranta is a futures artist specializing in environmental advocacy, a strategic service designer, and a co-founder of Finland’s National Futures Day. She makes future visions concrete through various art methods and designs sustainable services for companies and organizations at Digitalist

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