Forces to 2050

20
Forces to
50

Welcome to a playful experiment to imagine what might happen next. Use this tool to quickly remix the ideas of 50 Australian deep-tech startup founders into stories that might just happen between now and 2050.

Imagine a Future

Select your starting conditions and generate a story from a world that may exist one day.
Try different combinations.

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Here is your future force story

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The map behind the generator

At Tech23, Australia's deep-tech conference, fifty founders came together to imagine their companies in the context of possible future forces. Below is the map they created. They are not saying "This is the future!" but more wondering "What if these events happened? And what would it mean for my company?" Are their opportunities to exploit that we could be ready for? Are their headwinds we need to avoid? None of us can predict the future, but there is value in imagining it. This is the material used in the tool above for Chat-GPT to imagine a future. Explore the map below.

Map of forces
Themes
themes

Company example
stories

1/5: Meet Sunita, a farmer from India. The global supply chain disruption in the late 2030s hit her hard, with the price of fertilizers and seeds soaring due to export restrictions. But then came Fusion Energy in 2040. #HistoryThread

2/5: Fusion Energy, inexpensive and abundant, transformed rural life. Sunita could afford an electric tractor and machines that reduced her dependence on increasingly expensive agricultural inputs. Farm productivity soared. #LifeRerouted

3/5: Sunita responded to the technology shift with resilience and innovation. She started a cooperative of Fusion-Farmers who used surplus energy to power local industries, creating jobs and boosting local economies. #HarnessingChange

4/5: The fusion-farming movement that Sunita pioneered spread across the developing world, moving economies away from being solely dependent on complex, vulnerable global supply chains. Self-sustaining local economies became the norm. #ShiftingParadigms

5/5: In a world with 9.7 billion people, Fusion Energy and local economic resilience have become critical. The technology has not only revolutionized energy production but also helped communities adapt to a complex, ever-changing world. #BrightHorizons

Revolution in Recycling: Jane's Journey from Ordinary to Extraordinary

An example Future Force story

Meet Jane, an ordinary woman living in 2050, whose life was drastically changed by the advent of Enzymatic Recycling. With patented enzymes able to break down plastics into their original components, waste management took a radical turn. Her small town was one of the pioneers in adopting this revolutionary technology, turning waste into wealth.

Jane, an environmental activist and small business owner, saw an opportunity amid the tensions between big corporations and individuals. She started a community-led Enzymatic Recycling plant, challenging the dominance of large conglomerates, and rallying her town's people for the cause.

This shift to local, sustainable recycling led to an undeniable change in Jane's day-to-day life. Her small business became a hub of activity. She exchanged her quiet routine for dynamic days filled with community interaction, environmental education, and, of course, recycling.

Jane responded to this change with relentless optimism, reinventing herself and her business in the face of adversity. She was a beacon of resilience, proving that individuals have the power to effect change, and that global concerns can be addressed effectively at a local level.

The world, after Jane's response, began to appreciate the power of individuals and small communities. Jane's story resonated globally, encouraging the rise of local recycling hubs, easing geopolitical tension, and prompting a reevaluation of global governance structures. The world was, undeniably, a better place.

FAQs

Will the future described in my story come true?

Unlikely, but you can't invent a future without first trying to imagine it.

Where did the seed ideas come from?

Fifty deep-tech startup founders from fields such as quantum computing and biotech gathered together to imagine what might happen in the next few decades to 2050. They put some milestones down for the technologies that they understood for when they believed some technology forces would start to have a real impact on the world. These were imagined alongside trends observed geopolitics and social contexts and these were collected on the map above. Your story is built from these starting points.

How are the stories generated?

The inputs you select are fed into a prompt which is then fed into OpenAI's GPT-4 algorithm. It is possible that the result is wildly unlikely, especially if you select crazy combinations. It is also possible that the outcome will not be anchored in known science although all the technology inputs are anchoed in science being investigated today.

How should I use this tool?

Try different stories to find a world you want to understand more or play a part in building. Use the tool to open your mind to non-linear and exponential possibilities that occur when forces collide in a high velocity world. Ask yourself questions like: What job might I have in the future? What company can I start? What should I study at university? What experience should I get? What might be happening around my company or project in the years to come?