Life, life support and the afterlives of (im)possible worlds

Abstract

Stories, scenarios and situations. They can be tools, techniques, or ways of testing assumptions. How to bring to life the stories of worlds around us? How can scenarios help us prepare for their externalities, for everything other than a scenario? Incessant adaptation to uncertain situations and the inexplicable present is becoming an essential survival skill for most contemporary humans, whether by choice or necessity. Tumbling from one urgency to another, acting with incomplete information, engaging with wicked problems and dealing with unintended consequences is just as much a personal and social circumstance as it is the purview of governments or institutions. How to develop capacities to cope with increasingly complex uncertainties in our daily life and in the worlds we inhabit? How to enhance our sense of agency amid chaotic external circumstances or internal transitions? How to bring futures to life for individuals and collectives dealing with problems caused by chronic (un)certainty?

Some suggestions we propose include ways of examining and diagnosing the most critical uncertainties. Along with scenario building, future prehearsals, and RADMIN interventions we might resort to strategic unplanning, VUCA therapy or targeted situational awareness to reduce acute symptoms. The time-honoured techniques of running away, hiding, and giving up are also presented as viable options. In situations of global instability (such as a war or pandemic), we may need to apply palliative, rehabiliatory or emergency approaches to becoming comfortable with uncertainty. When circumstances become too hostile, we might need a sanctuary (or sanatorium) for alternative futures, the unattainable, the unwanted and endangered futures that can not exist in the present. A seedbank. A refugia. A nursery for propositions to germinate. Sometimes, bringing futures to life (or back to life) can benefit from a position of remove. Sometimes, our possible futures may need a refuge from the world. Sometimes, they may need another world.