Page 6 - The Celestia Project

IMAGINE A HOPEFUL FUTURE. The world’s pressing

environmental issues have been solved. Ecosystems are stabilizing.
Fresh water is clean and bountiful. The marriage of ethical
technology and good intentions have allowed us to make a major
course correction. Life is good. This is premise of The Celestia Project.
Divided into 11 chapters, our epic story looks at how an idealized
“green” future could become reality. “Unveiled” month by month
over the next year, each chapter will include notes and analysis about
past and current technology and social trends, products and insights.

Utopia: Inspiration, not Aspiration nor do we travel regularly to the moon or eat our food in the form

Making predictions about the future is risky (some might say of paste—at least not yet.
foolhardy). Nothing is certain. On the other hand, guessing future
trends isn’t as random as predicting the weather. As author Jeremy As we progress through the year, we’ll be looking at many ideas
Rifkin points out in his book The End of Work, futurists at the
turn of the century—mostly science ction writers—“correctly about what an idealized sustainable lifestyle of the future might
predicted electric clothes washers and dryers, vacuum cleaners, air
conditioners, refrigerators, garbage disposals, even electric razors.” look like. As the book, Visions of Utopia, astutely notes, utopian

Of course, futurists also got a lot of other stuff wrong. dreams since the time of Ovid (43 B.C.) tend to depict similar
We don’t travel around the planet in pneumatic tubes or ying cars,
ideals: “rivers of milk and nectar shall ow, that the wolf shall dwell
Release Dates
with the lamb, and spears be beaten into ploughshares. [...] There
The team of anthropologists, scientists and environmental
experts expects to release regular reports on their shall be neither hate nor envy nor hunger nor thirst. There shall be
Celestia findings, as follows:
APRIL 2014: Food Security much leisure and few lawyers. There shall be no private property,
MAY 2014: Living in Harmony with Nature
JUNE 2014: Transportation and Density and there shall be communal
JULY 2014: Technology and Building Science
AUGUST 2014: Energy Use and Conservation camaraderie...” And of course,
SEPTEMBER 2014: Fresh Water Abundance
OCTOBER 2014: Products: Sourcing of Raw Materials there will be lots of consensual
NOVEMBER 2014: Resilience: Durability and Fire Resistance
DECEMBER 2014: Healthy Lifestyles and Indoor Air Quality no-strings-attached-sex and no
JANUARY 2015: Financial Freedom
FEBRUARY 2015: Community Living war. Fun will be had by all.

On the other hand, one

person’s utopia is another

person’s dystopia. We like our

utopias at a distance, or at least

in small doses. Many of us

would balk at the strict rules of

behavior, commerce and social

relationships required to live

in one.

Consider the popularity Digital Dreams. In this
of theme parks such as Walt engineering-based vision of
Disney World. Millions ock the future, nanobots prepare
to visit this “magic kingdom” our food, and human beings

of nostalgia and fantasy. But become more machine than
the kingdom maintains its “organic,” living forever.

brand image with strict rules about employee behavior and

relentless attention to cleanliness and order. Perhaps Disney

found the secret formula for utopian success: Give them a

fantasy, but don’t make them live (or work) in it for very long.

Visitors know they can leave the narrowly de ned world of the

park, and return to the ambiguities and struggles that constitute

“real” life.