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Stories for the future of Europe

Join us in exploring the possibilities of the future! Share your future perspectives, discover other people’s visions, and engage in a dialogue on what Europe and the world may look like in the future. We collect, share and distribute your visions in our stories database.

Share your visions of the future!

Your ideas matter – shape the future you want! Share your visions of tomorrow and join us in creating a narrative that inspires citizens, policymakers, and foresight experts. Together, we can co-create the future.

Write your future story and answer a few questions

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Take a look at the #ourfutures dashboard for some numbers

Your story, and those of others, are presented to EU policymakers

Stories - find your inspiration!

Stories do shape futures. Dive into the video tutorials to explore how future narratives are born. Further below, browse trough a series of inspiring, thought-provoking stories around challenges and opportunities of our futures.

Share your visions of the future!

Share your visions of the future!

Get inspiration from the Storiesfrom2050 project
Inside the first self-sustainable city on Mars - by ABIBOO studio
Inside the first self-sustainable city on Mars - by ABIBOO studio
Construction of the city of Nüwa could start in 2054 and will see 250,000 people live inside the rock of a steep cliff. Freeze my body, melt me in 80 years, and send me to Mars. Architecture studio ABIBOO has revealed its plans to create the first self-sustainable city on the Red Planet, which is set to be ready for residents in 2100. The city will be called Nüwa and will be located at Tempe Mensa on one of the Martian cliffs. Its position inside a rock on the steep cliff will protect its residents from radiation and meteorites (cool!) while still giving them
Play the videos to learn how future narratives are born and how they can be rewritten
Play the videos to learn how to use the OurFutures dashboard for analysis or workshops

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#OurFutures stories by EU citizens
lepsza moja ojczyzna Rzeczypospolita Polska
lepsza moja ojczyzna Rzeczypospolita Polska
-lots of forest in which it absorbs co2 and releases o2 -no unemployment -highest prosperity -great intelligence of the people -sensible laws and security -no communism -facilitated transportation in all municipalities -building of CPK in Poland -no inflation -no green deal -no illegal immigrants -exclusion of israel from eurovision -refugees have a camp and cannot leave it if of their own free will they want to return to their homeland they can -children in schools are taught very understandable , traditional , true history and the profession they want to work for.
EAST AND WEST UNITED, AN EURASIAN SUPERPOWER
EAST AND WEST UNITED, AN EURASIAN SUPERPOWER
I imagine an Eurasian continent united. I believe the destiny of Europe is to join with the eastern powers in a connected continent. I imagine being able to move on bullet trains between Rome and Beijing without even have to hand a passport. I wish a large market connecting EU, Russia and China where european goods are the luxury for chinese middle class. I wish European history books teaching eurasian history will be used in European schools.
Emotional threats and psychological abuse: prevention and conviction
Emotional threats and psychological abuse: prevention and conviction
I dream about a future were narcissistic abuse, psychological and emotional abuse and threats and emotional domestic violence are punished with jail. Emotional abuse is not considered a crime, like murder, but it can harm people, and their self-esteem. I dream about a future where bullies at high school are brought to reformatory and encouraged to change their behaviors... A future in which people are not subject to cyberbullies' threats of death or misery, because they published a stupid post on social media. I dream about a future were a woman who is emotionally or financially abused by her partner can have him removed from their home without having to provide "proof" of physical abuse or having to deal with unfair justice. I dream about a future where sexual coercion is punished, together with rape. Human dignity needs to be protected and safeguarded by strong laws. Being harmed emotionally can be quite damaging as like as being harmed physically. The scars would not be as visible, but they can have consequences as well. I dream about a future where people with dissociative social disorders are reeducated in order to be re-inserted in the society. After my volontary work experience and after having seen people suffering from this, I dream about a future where emotional wellbeing is a top priority in all European countries.
Mehr fürs Leben lernen
Mehr fürs Leben lernen
In a digitalized school system, our children learn more than just the standard school subjects of the past. They have subjects and courses such as "nature conservation", "democratic life", "self-awareness" and "tolerance studies". They no longer just learn what they are told, but learn to transfer existing knowledge and think ahead. There are no grades, no admission restrictions. And children and young people are supported according to their individual strengths and weaknesses.
The life that I could dream.
The life that I could dream.
Hi, my name is Davit I am from Armenia and I see myself in future as an established, and one of the influential people of my country. Now me with my friend going to establish a business and gradually develop it and after success of that one start another till we reach a point that I want to see myself in future. Regular life is not for me I don't imagine myself being 40 year old man and still going to 9 to 5 job and have no perspectives and opportunity to grow. I see myself as a wealthy man and will do everything to give my parents and my family everything that they will need. I know that in the way of all that I would going to have a lot of difficulties and there would be situations that was be easy to give up but I know that it was not about me and I will do my best to please first of all myself and second to my family. I want to have all my childhood dream come true and make a good future for people that couldn't do it by theirselves.
Fără boli
Fără boli
No more sick people 🥰
Crime and Incompetence
Crime and Incompetence
"This seems... excessive." The officer was not exactly wrong. Even though there were no guns flashing and no armored offiers apart from four out at the entrance, the place crawled with police. Outside, inside. Ground floor, upper floor, every floor. It was all very calm and collected, the receptionist even going so far as to flirt very obviously with one of the briefcase guys. Those were the guys half of the people filling the lobby were there for, mostly for protetion. It seemed unneessary here, nobody making a fuzz, but caution was in the job description. "The list says fourteen arrests, so we need the manpower to be there for twice as much, you know that." The officer nodded, not complaining, and clearly not having complained, but simply having felt like commenting on the view. All in all, it was a small facility, a small bust, but it mattered. Like picking flowers, you pick them one at a time, not all at once. This was just one small operation, true, but there were hundreds like them, and more tried to spring up every year. One small bust, one small step. Even with the place filled to the brim, the sound of the two people in expensive clothes being escorted down the stairs could be heard rather clearly. The old cops always said that you could tell by the sound of the shoes what was in someone's heart and mind. Impractical, expensive, probably designer shoes made a distinct sound, like a slow tap dance. The police in the lobby could all jump at the same time and all anyone would hear was a muffled thud from their more practical, soft shoes. More practical, and definitely cheaper. "Alexei Bergman?" The one on the left, a tall man writhing gently against the handcuffs, nodded and made a slight growling sound. "Alexei Bergman, do you understand the charges that you are currently being apprehended for?" He said nothing, scowling instead, trying to stand straight and use his imposing height to tower over the officers, but the cuffs rattled against his back, and he clearly did not like that. "Do you understand the charges, Alexei Bergman?" He still said nothing. "Fine." Making a small click as it snapped open, the tablet unfolded otherwise quietly, going from a palm-sized lump to a full-size screen, easy to read from. The arrest papers popped up immediately. "Let's see. Okay. Alexei Bergman, you are charged with 18 cases of abuse of customer trust. These include deliberate obstruction of complaints, delays caused by deliberately insufficient contracts for shipment, misrepresenting goods in stock, and deliberate failure to provide proper product information. Do you have any comments to these charges at this moment?" He snarled some obscenities in a language he thought nobody would catch. As insult to injury, the officer leading him told him to shut up in the exact same language, and the man glared at the officer. But being still in cuffs, he was not as intimidating as he thought. "And you, I assume, are Rose Shenner?" Unlike her male counterpart, the older woman also being guided through the crowd in cuffs looked to be on the brink of panic. She nodded, stammering some incoherent excuses about her guilt or innocence. It was the standard ball of yarn. Nobody took it too serious. "Rose Shenner, you are under arrest for... oh my." There was a small mark on the arrest papers, one of those that came once or twice in the typical career of a Customer Enforcement officer. It made it abundantly clear why there had been a little extra attention on the arrest. "Rose Shenner, you are under arrest for the proliferation of payment and identification systems of an obstructive nature." The rather terse and clinical description of her warrant was not exactly the fanfare that the event deserved. "Ladies and gentlemen, it seems we have one of the key players of the Flash Direct Payment affair in our presence!" Several of the officers turned to look at the woman. She looked like a regular high level employee, not the evil mastermind one might expect. FDP had been on every channel, every newsfeed, for over a year, charged with providing slow, unreliable payment systems across Europe and much of the world in general. Charges ran from strangling transaction speeds in order to extort businesses, to forcing governments and businesses to use FDP as their main, often only, way of payments. It had been hated widely, but they had greased the right palms to get in the way of everyone trying to do business. And for a time, they had profitted greatly from it! "What in the world is this?" It was the same officer as before. He was young, clearly on his first major bust, looking fidgety and unsure what to do with himself. Everybody was like that at some point. Everyone came from somewhere. "We have a whole bunch of them, all gathered, and nobody did anything until now?" He seemed fairly observant, probably even smart. Customer Enforcement was starting to attract much better recruits. But he was clearly not experienced. He would become that, one day. By then, he would probably look back at this day with very different eyes. "Yeah, they've started grouping up. They're getting scared, running to hide among their own kind. Before the Customer Enforcement Act of 2037, they were everywhere. It was just how business was run back then, one big, chaotic mess of people trying to sell anything to anyone in any way possible. Nobody enforced stability or reliability beyond the worst kinds of scams, so people just accepted that anything they bought could get stuck in transit or not match the order or whatever, or that a broken computer in some distant country could mean they had no access to their bank, or even their medical records or voting cards. Enforcing efficient, competent business practices was seen as overreach." The young man looked puzzled for a moment. He was maybe in his late twenties, so he had grown up almost alongside the fight to secure a stable business culture across the continent. He probably did not even remember the mess that had been allowed to flood the place before. "So if a business kept screwing up everything, or forced people to jump through hoop after hoop to buy or do anything..." "Nothing to stop them. Being bad at your job was just another human right, no matter what it did to people or the economy or whatnot. I am old enough to still remember government identification programs that could only run on a single phone, and when that phone was lost or broken, people basically lost their identity for days or weeks, unable to do anything or pay for anything, including getting another phone to fix the damned problem! I damn near lost my apartment at one point because I couldn't use my phone to identify myself, and the company behind it had made damn sure that there was no other way to identify yourself than through them. And the amount of stuff I have had to get refunded is ridiculous. It was like shopping in a supermarket during an earthquake." One by one, the remaining arrests came down the stairs. Most had their heads down, a few were snapping angrily at the officers arresting them. "An economy, not to mention a democracy, is built on trust. Hell, the word credit comes from the word credo, meaning I believe or have faith in something. But both the immoral and the incompetent abuse people's trust for a quick buck. So trust requires enforcement." Another officer had taken over the reading of warrants. It had a powerful aura to it, perhaps even a bit too powerful. There were still those who barked at the enforcement of competence for any business or large organization, people who wanted to just use whatever was at hand and wing it, making their way by hoping any problems landed in someone else's lap. It was a tradeoff, like so much was. The continent, and indeed the world, was getting denser, more closely packed, and there was less and less room for bumbling idiots trying to play business tycoons at the expense of everyone else. Less room for people who focused on getting on top, rather than making things work. "Now, we are that enforcement."
Happy
Happy
No lies to our children seems to be the most proficient way in making the future more reliable . This rule is easily achievable. Everyone will cooperate. And please save iranian women.
Decizia tuturor
Decizia tuturor
I believe that social equity and gender equality is a particularly important issue for the whole society in which we live. In the future, women should have a say that carries as much weight as the men's word does today. In the future, young women who want to be involved in both civil society and politics are no longer seen as second-best, often discouraged and given a seat at the decision-making table just to achieve certain quotas. In the future, opportunities are equal for both women and men, and merit is recognized for both.
Hopes.
Hopes.
In 2040 i will be in my mid-50s with children in their late teenage years. I hope they will see a world that is still worthy to live in and have dreams about. I hope the state of the world will be one where people understood that it is of utmost importance to look after our planet as well as each other - because otherwise the ground of our own existence will be destroyed. I hope that populism & nationalism will be overcome and people understand that we are all together in this. There is no space for divisive "me & you" and "us & them" - it's about finding a common ground. Compromises that work for everyone. Do I think that this future is likely to happen? No. Do I hope it will? Yes, until the very end I will.
60% for nature
60% for nature
60% of our reserved for nature, an official law accepted in 2030, when climate change was at its worst. And 40% for 'human' use. Humans used to claim all land, for housing, roads, agriculture, while leaving little pieces to create some 'green'.....We where fighting for land, everybody wanted their piece. Understandably, as this was the way we looked at living and owning stuff. This happily changed. We had to, because in 2028 climate change was at its worst. We started to realise that we are not 'supreme' as a spieces, but part of the beautiful natural world that is around us. It was quite a struggle to pass this initiative, but as Bhutan, a little country in the Himalaya area, had already successfully integrated such an initiative in the early 20ths, we knew it was possible. And saw the results of more connected and happy people.
A future where we all share responsibility for the common good
A future where we all share responsibility for the common good
Humanity has resolved all conflicts, abolished wars, and opted to live in peace together. To achieve this, nations and powerful people have decided to put their personal interests aside to favour the collective good of all humanity, nature and the planet. Resources are managed so as to be distributed equitably to all, and their exploitation is done for reasonable consumption and no longer for pure financial interest. The divergent points of view underlying conflicts and wars are now discussed in a space where each of the parties concerned has the right to express themselves, where listening is respectful, and where the common interest prevails. Education is accessible and free for all children, art, respect for differences and critical thinking are taught. Diversity among the population is considered an asset and encouraged, no one wants to go back to the privileges granted to some only on the basis of their gender, race, sexual tendency, or any other particular sign. Technology is developed with respect for human, individual and collective rights, and when it becomes a common good, the technology no longer belongs to a private firm which makes profits from it but belongs to the community.
Stories

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