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This year I commissioned a season of articles for @BBC_Future about the long-view of humanity, called Deep Civilisation, which has reached more than 3m people. Thank you to everyone who contributed, and to all those who read & shared! Go deep, dive in below👇👇
First up was an essay I wrote about how short-termism is shaping our society, inspired by my daughter and her future bbc.com/future/story/2…
Next the excellent @TomChatfield wrote about the long-view of technology, and how its evolution is entwined with our own bbc.com/future/story/2…
The most popular piece was about the collapse of civilisation by @LukaKemp. Interesting to me was that it was widely shared by both sides of the political spectrum. Seems preventing the demise of everything we hold dear is a bipartisan issue bbc.com/future/story/2…
I first met @romankrznaric at a dinner organised by @LongTimeProject when he spoke about the idea of tempus nullius - nobody's time - to describe how we are 'colonising' the future. He wrote about this concept, and reinventing democracy for the long-term bbc.com/future/story/2…
Perhaps the most consequential events in the history of the Earth are catastrophes, argued @SethBaum. It's not just the present-day loss of life - it's about how these events ripple into the future bbc.com/future/story/2…
The evolutionary origins of religion was the subject of this terrific two-parter from @BrandonAmbro, edited by @d_a_robson bbc.com/future/story/2…
This piece about 'post-nature' by @CSERCambridge's Lauren Holt really expanded my mind. It paints a future populated by manipulated creatures and the merging of human+organism that is unsettling, weird... and sometimes beautiful. bbc.com/future/story/2…
. @saltsea & @beatricepem wrote about the value of art & culture to help society think longer-term. They've been a great inspiration to me. Check out their @LongTimeProject bbc.com/future/story/2…
How do you build something to last 10,000 years? There's perhaps no-one more qualified to answer that than @longnow's @zander who is doing just that bbc.com/future/story/2…
Humanity has tried to define rules for right or wrong for millennia. @Simon_Beard embraced the heady task of summarising thousands of years of ethics into one, rich essay bbc.com/future/story/2…
A simple rule for thinking about the future: what has endured already is more likely to persist and shape tomorrow than what is new and shiny. I think about this a lot when I read tech news bbc.com/future/story/2…
Walking trees, flying toads, and other surprising routes that life could take millions of years from now. @MTatalovic explored the outer limits of evolution. bbc.com/future/story/2…
Nobody understands intelligence better than @d_a_robson (he wrote the book on it!) In this fantastic piece, he raises the possibility that our IQs could be about to decline bbc.com/future/story/2…
I really enjoyed meeting @anderssandberg up at @FHIOxford earlier this year, which led to this piece about the extreme obstacles we face in the very verrrrrrry far future. Like 'end of the Solar System' far future bbc.com/future/story/2…
Finally, it was a great experience (and steep learning curve) to film this session for the BBC News channels at the @hayfestival this year, exploring the political rights of future generations, feat @LindaGeddes @sophiehowe @romankrznaric & Martin Rees bbc.com/future/story/2…
Thanks for reading!
+ here is one of the final pieces in the Deep Civilisation series just published today. @sumit explores the future of faith - what new religions could emerge and more bbc.com/future/story/2…
