Exponentially Human Twenty Twenty-Seven

Exponentially Human Twenty Twenty-Seven began as a piece of fiction, but it is becoming increasingly real.

The fiction relates to an imaginary event in 2027. The way it is becoming real is through planning a genuine event inspired by the fictional one.

The fictional description includes a conference and celebratory party. To make my fictional conference more varied and credible I invited some of my future-aware friends (involved in relevant initiatives) to imagine themselves as speakers. I asked them to imagine the future they hoped for in ten years time, and then to write the invitation blurb about a session they’d present at the 2027 conference. I even set the date (16th -18th September 2027).

As I read the invitations to their sessions I found myself looking forward to attending - and thinking who else I’d like to have as speakers by then, and how their initiatives might have grown and helped to shape the world.

Increasingly we started to talk about Exponentially Human Twenty Twenty-Seven (XHuman 2027) as if it was real.

When I talked to other people about it they liked the idea of the event, and the general direction things seemed to be going in our version of 2027. In conversation I’d find people “joining in the game” of imagining they were with me in 2027. We could look back in disbelief at some of the ideas we’d taken for granted in 2017 and celebrate our freedom from outdated mindsets that had trapped us then.

I was intrigued by the way that looking at 2017 from the future perspective of XHuman 2027 freed people’s thinking, and I started inviting them to put the date in their diaries.

The idea behind planning the event is a mixture of light playfulness and heavy seriousness. It is important to free ourselves to play with ideas, to take a long view and seriously apply our creativity to it.

If we know what we’d like to be considering at our conference in ten years time, and what we’ll be celebrating at our party, then it will help us to head towards that version of the future.

The future doesn’t just arrive, fully formed, from ten years ahead. The choices of direction that we make now do influence what version of the future we finally arrive at. That’s why I’m planning my celebration, and getting people involved. I choose to be going in the direction of a future where we’ll be celebrating Exponentially Human in 2027.