2010 Ten-Year Forecast
The Future is a High-Resolution Game
This next decade will be one where we become both the gamers and the creators of the game itself. The goals of the game are clear: Happiness—what we really want out of life; Resilience—a way to respond better, adapt more quickly, and find steadiness amidst perturbation; and Legacy—crafting a world worth leaving for the next generation, the next hundred years of play. But the rules are less obvious. Do we follow the old rules of the past century, and compete to grow? Or do we create new rules for a new era? This is a game where we, the players, must choose the rules. Never before has humanity been able to encounter the future in such detail, to measure the forces of change at such vast scales and yet still fill in the details with such fine grain. This year’s Ten-Year Forecast is your guide to the game—a detailed look at the forces affecting gameplay and a framework for you to create your own future.
2010 Map of the Decade: This year’s Map of the Decade serves as our gamescape, a high-resolution grid. It is structured by the five big forces we must confront in order to win: Carbon, Water, Power, Cities, and Identity. These lay the tracks for the worlds we will build together over the next decade. For each force, we can take four alternative paths, explore four alternative scenarios: Growth, Constraint, Collapse, and Transformation. In a decade of challenge, the map is a guide to the gameplay as well as a gameboard itself.
2010 Forecasts and Scenarios: These five forecasts dive deeper into the five big forces: Carbon, Water, Power, Cities, and Identity. Each forecast includes four alternative Scenario cards that examine how each forecast would play out in a world of Growth, Constraint, Collapse, and Transformation.
