In 2040, the world will have changed dramatically. We will know that we're running out of various resources and the higher global temperature will be causing droughts, floods, and other phenomena frequently. Because we are aware of this fact, we will be living more eco-friendly, will have found ways to substitute resources, and will be using them more effectively. The climate crisis will be the world's top priority and our politicians are willing to take steps towards a better future at a much higher pace. People will actually want to have children again as they know that the world they are born in is a safe and good place. The highest good won't be profit anymore but protecting the beauty of our world.

The City is based on liberating structures that are not only visible in the City’s built environment but also within the relationships between people, organisations and institutions. At the heart of the City is a sprawling park. This landscape is a hive of activity. Crafted between the trees is sheltered learning space. A University Professor is delivering a talk on the opportunities and threats of artificial intelligence. The learners are working together with the Professor to decide how they share and use this knowledge. Nearby, people have gathered in the outdoor community cinema space watching an animated fictional film about an Autistic child who goes on an adventure to a new City. By the side of the river, a bandstand is housing musical performances from newcomers to the City - the sounds filter through the surroundings. From the park, nature flows through the City - connecting and running through the districts that create the City’s ecosystem. Elsewhere, on a piece of wasteland, politicians and civil service staff are sat in a circle on seats fashioned from the tyres and breeze blocks that have been dumped on the land. They are discussing what to do with the land. Some residents feel it needs to be used for new, affordable, well-insulated housing with solar panels and heat pumps. Others feel it should be a communal allotment for the existing residents. An architect is listening and drawing sketches of these ideas. They are working out ways to combine them. Further down the pathway, a playground has been built using recycled materials. Each piece of equipment needs at least two children to participate in it to make it work; it has been designed to foster collaboration through play. In a prominent square in the City is the City Hall. Large bi-folding doors open its ground floor space to the public, seamlessly connecting the pavement into its interior. Within this space are various seating areas and information displays about what is happening in the city and how people can be involved. The information is in text and audio, with technology translating into a variety of languages used by the City’s population. Civil service professionals are talking 1-2-1 with residents in the space, using the information in the space and portable digital tools to help them navigate the various processes and services that will help them address the challenges they are facing. Appointments are not needed in this space and the opening hours extend beyond usual office hours. In the square outside a demonstration led by young people is taking place. They are protesting against surveillance methods proposed by the City’s administration. Speakers have been invited to use the public platform stage in the square to present their perspectives. Above, the windows of the City Hall are open so the ideas and concerns can flow into the building. A number of politicians have come out from the City Hall and are talking with the young people who are a part of the demonstration. Shoppers stop to listen to the talks as they go about their daily business, and some decide to sit down and talk to other residents. Nearby, a water fountain and public lavatories provide the means for people to stay a little longer than they’d imagined. Across the river, a woman using a wheelchair takes the lift down to the metro station. As she is buying her travel ticket, she is offered a reduced fair for participating in a short survey about plans for revising the metro service. Outside, a digital display is showcasing recent actions taken by the local administration based on engagement with residents and local news from different communities. The display uses minimal text, communicating largely through visuals. There is an option to scan an icon to hear the updates as audio descriptions or as a fuller text report in a variety of languages. Similar displays, voting mechanisms and incentives are incorporated throughout the City’s public transport system. In a corner of the City are a set of unused industrial buildings, reminders of the City’s past. Within them a group of residents are experimenting with how they can be repurposed or temporarily used to meet the needs of the City’s people. In one building, a temporary art gallery has been set up with work from independent artists. Outside, on a picnic table with parasol, a human library activity is taking place exploring migration. It is disrupted momentarily by a resident who feels the activity is excluding them and their stories. A Convenor intervenes and talks to the person about this. As you look at the industrial buildings, you realise that they gradually move from the ad-hoc into more longer-term usages. A formerly ‘pop-up’ clothes swap shop now has a permanent residence, a community café that uses locally produced food is open at regular times and an education space has been decorated by local residents. Gradually, the buildings are coming back to life and people are working together to find solutions. This vision for the future is not out of reach. The ideas in it are already starting to happen around us. We need to mainstream them and embed them into our cities. The future is now.

Equity and social justice: universal wage means legislation that makes it part of a wealth of wealth directed towards hunger eradication programmes and healthy living environments for populations in need of infrastructure. Economies with free competition and lower capital concentration.

Dear future self, We are currently living in times of great civil unrest. We see the atrocities committed around the world driven by a quest for more power, resources, productivity, success at the cost of another. Inequity is rampant and we are all victims of this as we live lives hoping for financial and physical freedom near the end of it. Dear future self, I hope you are living in a time post a transformation, with a new world order. I hope you are living in a time where transparency is rampant in political decision making and equity truely thrives. I hope you are living in a time where historically marginalised groups can represent themselves when policies and corporate decisions affect them (both positively and negatively). I hope you are living in a time where we are aware of and taking care of both the negative and positive externalities of our human actions on nature, where circularity is the norm and that we are truely regenerative - leaving a place thriving further than how we found it. I hope you are living in a time where the knowledge of traditional custodians of the land is prioritised, and a mind-body-spirit-place connection is restored. I hope technology is leveraged for the collective good, rather than a tool to build wealth for a few. I hope community has replaced the individualism that currently seeks to divide and conquer us. And I hope that colonialism in a macro scale, a micro scale, and in our minds is abolished and that we have learned from history's mistakes not to repeat its narratives.

In the future i see Sustainable practises becoming more commonplace, redefining our interaction with the environment. Renewable energy, eco-friendly transportation, green areas, sustainable agriculture, and trash reduction are all projected in the future. I see the world being better and cleaner. That future would be nice as the roads would be clean and have no trash.

I want a greener future: —Cities other than heat bells:fewer cars, more space for people, parks, trees, green roofs, etc. —to ensure that we truly meet our climate goals and thus minimise the impact of climate change; —Protecting species that we stop our way of life for animals and plants and no longer contribute to the massive extinction of species —a policy that involves people more and does not give part of society the feeling that they have nothing to say and don’t count —a green, more liveable future for me also includes access to GUTER education for all, that everyone is addressed and you learn things that are useful to one even in times of AI (I believe that one example here is Finland) —build a prudent approach to AI, internet, digitalisation --> benefits, but also take into account the disadvantages and risks (e.g. climate damage, possible job losses, etc.), better communicate and educate people —good health care for all

Dear future me, Our world of 2023 must seem very strange to you from your point of view in 2054. You live in a society where equality is the primary value of humanity. Land assets are now shared fairly among all. The limited resources of nature are finally managed globally to ensure their sustainability. You must look at us with respect and gratitude for mobilizing us en masse to change our societies and obtain international cooperation that ensures sustainable well-being for humanity. Of course the richest had to accept to reduce their lifestyle, the transition was painful for all of us who were used to accumulating material goods. But many inspired men and women were able to animate and accompany this revolutionary movement. Thank them. I wish you to keep in mind how much your egalitarian society has required sacrifices. Fight to keep it!

life in 2040 I am hoping for better changes and improvement in our government because our government is slowly ruining our country with corruption in the departments, there must be improvements, especially in health living, public clinics are providing poor service also the health workers behavior is the worst they need to treat patient well with respect and stop undermining the poor because they also need to be treated with care. Social justice must be well-implemented, be improved more especially on crime, the crime rate is very high in South Africa and we no longer feel safe walking around whether in daylight or at night, something should be done about the youth that turn into criminals instead of studying or doing something legit to make a living. car hijacking, money heists, fraud, corruption, and gadget robbery are the most dominating crimes that need a permanent change. I would describe the future as a life of improvement especially in education (fees and safe space that has no discrimination, racism, and equality). In governance, I am looking at a future that has improved facilities and leadership skills. better working environments, and job creation that will minimize crime, there shouldn't be a thing of hiring people because they are friends, relatives, or some sort of connection. everyone should be given a chance to work and use their qualifications without age restriction.

The combination of individuals together can hardly ever become one, but they can create one. One language, city, music, dance, one Europe. People all have the desire to appear, to join, to create. In 2040, the public: public space, the being together of people, digital space allows these activities, asking people to be vivid, collected. To be the moving matter in the public space of continuity, of something bigger than ourselves. The world shows herself to us in public space, and we ourselves are elements of that world, appearing for the others. In the public realm we recharge our home spheres with the dynamity of others, strangers, the freedom of movement and the space for chance. This public vibrancy, the public heart, or hestia, is the fire around which the community is built. In our private domain we can depart that public world of appearances and comfort ourselves with the warmth, the fire, hestia around which our private lives are built, of our personal controllable surroundings. I imagine a future where the public and private realm are distinct but balanced and in which the public is providing us with a feeling of collectiveness, togetherness, in which we all contribute to sustain that collective. (Hestia, the Greek goddess of the heart and fire, was both the foundation of domestic life, the fireplace, the heart of the house and the public fire, the heart of the city. In earlier times fire was essential to establish a society or community. In my vision Hestia denotes the underlying similarity of the public and the private while maintaining the distinction of the two.)

Transitional period of technocracy that takes away jobs and incomes, social cohesion is breaking down, inequality and collapse 2075 solarpunk future, symbiosy, regenerative economy where green, local, low-consumption economy is at the center - the unconditional basic income, focus on manual skills, craftsmanship and the making, collective and community-centric,

Following a longer dialogue in the sense of a dialogical aesthetic in the Antrhopociene (the working title of my artistic research) with ChatGPT, the following vision emerged: In 2040, Europe has undergone a profound transformation and has become a model of regeneration, spirituality, peace and an integral world vision integrating European and non-European indigenous wisdoms. This vision shows how civil society processes and the public interest economy are involved in this transformation process: 1. Participatory communities: European cities and regions have developed a culture of active participation and participation. Citizens shape local decisions and projects, leading to vibrant and committed communities. 2. Public service enterprises: Europe has experienced a blooming period of companies in the public interest. In addition to profit-making, these companies actively promote social and environmental responsibility and promote fair working conditions. 3. Education for sustainability: The education system in Europe emphasises the importance of sustainability, ethics and social engagement. Schools and universities encourage students to work for environmental protection, peace and the common good. 4. Ecological neighbourhoods: European cities have become ecological neighbourhoods where sustainable construction and renewable energy are promoted. People live in green communities and share resources. 5. Cultural diversity and integration: Europe has experienced a cultural renaissance characterised by the integration of diverse cultural influences. Artists and creators from different backgrounds enrich the cultural landscape. 6. Intergenerational dialogue: Society promotes intergenerational dialogue and respects the knowledge and experience of older people. Communities are characterised by a sense of attachment between the young and the old. 7. Health and prevention: Europe has focused on preventive medicine and holistic healthcare. People pay attention to their physical and mental health and use natural curative methods. 8. Global cooperation: Europe is actively working with countries and regions around the world to address global challenges. Together, they are committed to peace, environmental protection and social justice. 9. Regenerative agriculture: European agriculture has embraced regenerative practices that restore soils and promote biodiversity. Farmers use organic farming methods. 10. Indigenous wisdoms and common good: Europe has integrated indigenous wisdoms from different cultures and uses them as a source of inspiration for community projects, environmental protection and social justice. These wisdoms emphasise the importance of the balance in nature and the common good. Civil society processes and the public interest economy have played a crucial role in shaping and promoting this holistic vision for Europe in 2040. They have shaped a society based on values such as cooperation, sustainability, social justice and respect for nature. Europe lives in line with the spiritual dimensions of life and honours the diversity of indigenous wisdoms that contribute to regeneration, peace and harmony.

In 2040, Europe thrives as a model of sustainability. Clean energy powers our lives, urban green spaces abound, and circular economy practices eliminate waste. Environmental education is paramount, fostering a society dedicated to preserving Europe's natural beauty while embracing progress