Institute For The Future

The future is a high-resolution game. Never before has humanity been able to explore the emerging landscape in such detail, to measure the forces of change at such vast scales, and to fill in the details with such fine grain. But this high-resolution grid is not complete. It challenges us to envision and build the future we want. As both gamers and creators of the game, we will fill in the grid over the coming decade.

This year's Ten-Year Forecast Map of the Decade

• The Carbon Economy
• The Water Ecology
• Adaptive Power
• Cities in Transition
• Molecular Identity

Then, it invites us to engage in a strategic contest with the future, using the grid as a gameboard. Each cell is a scenario where we could win or lose. Taken together, the cells add up to four over-arching alternative scenarios:

• Growth: One Step Ahead of Disaster
• Constraint: Sustainable Paths in a Low-Capital World
• Collapse: Local Disaster, Regional Conflicts
• Transformation: Superstructed Systems

The map highlights these scenarios and the signals that already point to each of them today. It also suggests ways to "play the game"—to engage your team, your organization, or your community in exploring strategies for resilience, legacy, and happiness over the next ten years.