Very enjoyable read, Ryslaine! A thoughtful, informed take on FD 2026 grounded in plurality
Loved the expansion of the Gramsci quote, and it actually brought to mind a different quote entirely: we live in a twilight world, and there are no friends at dusk.
That’s actually from the film Tenet, which many people have dismissed as a confusing Nolan spy thriller, but really it’s about intergenerational climate-related conflict. The future is at war with the present.
It’s a more cynical quote but also reframes the Gramsci one towards more urgency in the present. My own attention is starting to shift away from foresight to insight, as the pressure of the present gets turned up through heatwaves and the like. Climate adaptation over big picture systemic thinking. I kind of wish FD 2026 involved some of that. In Arabic, the word for future literally means “that which is coming”. We may be great at discussing the next decade+, but are we ready for what’s round the corner?
FD 2026 often felt like we still have the luxury of time on our side. Even using the time horizon of 2077 felt absurd. As you say, its moments of feeling unsettled were arguably its most powerful.
On the Arabic (the I learned at school but is speak vey badly) you are absolutely right, and I love that you brought it up. Mustaqbal comes from the root q-b-l, that means to face, to receive, to go out to meet what comes toward you. and its very in line with what this article is trying to do, i didnt noticed it before you mentioned it!
On foresight vs insight, I’m curious, how do you manage to not be left with urgency but no map, reacting to what is already at the door with no sense of what is behind it?
Yes that breakdown of mustaqbal is even more faithful to its meaning! Beautiful language.
I can answer your question with an example of what I’m currently thinking about. Lately I’ve been obsessed with heat as a lens for both insight and foresight.
I like to think of places like the Mediterranean as already living a preview of a hotter future, and so we need to be having cross-cultural conversations comparing notes on how to live with more heat (which is what my Heatmaps project is dedicated to).
But heat on a non-literal level, like the semiotics of what we label as figuratively hot, is also fascinating.
So taking this one big concept and unpacking it not as separate disciplines but one big post-disciplinary conversation has unlocked a lot of ideas for me both in a “now” and a “later” sense.
Reading this, I kept circling something Doug Bierand says: mycelial change is subversion of an unsustainable status quo. And your piece made me wonder - what if that's exactly what we're doing in the in-between?
I love how you've named that composting (hands in rot) is necessary but incomplete.
It reminds me of fungi that outlive us (for e.g., the 'humungous fungus' Armillaria Ostoyae in Oregon, and countless others) who survive by creating the conditions for resilience, slow growth, and their ecosystem to thrive alongside the breakdown/ because of it.
I think sitting in the discomfort is where we get to not only rehearse different futures but actively subvert the dominant (declining, extractive, monster-built) system through persistence, AND actively create conditions for the ecosystem that sustains us to thrive (emergent, transformative system).
Monsters and Fungi Fairies co-exist. Perhaps the dominant futures of fund and fight will buckle under their own unsustainable weight, as we emerge a slow-grown strong foundation with the pieces of the old systems decaying around us.
Thank you Jess for the feedback and references! about that: ”Perhaps the dominant futures of fund and fight will buckle under their own unsustainable weight” , I wish! but I keep in mind that extractive capitalism survives by finding new frontiers. Exhaust this planet and it goes looking for others!
Trying to debunk this part it lead me to another path that was too long for this article and requires another but I want to share it with you because it’s compost related. Philosopher Myriam Bahaffou explains it as a crisis of desire, where the “conquest desire” that founds both capitalism and patriarchy is at the root of extractivism. And one of her recommendation is… composting your ego! to stop seeing yourself as a closed, self-made subject and start seeing yourself as a tissue of relations and fermentations instead. Which brings us right back to your point about ecosystems :)
Very enjoyable read, Ryslaine! A thoughtful, informed take on FD 2026 grounded in plurality
Loved the expansion of the Gramsci quote, and it actually brought to mind a different quote entirely: we live in a twilight world, and there are no friends at dusk.
That’s actually from the film Tenet, which many people have dismissed as a confusing Nolan spy thriller, but really it’s about intergenerational climate-related conflict. The future is at war with the present.
It’s a more cynical quote but also reframes the Gramsci one towards more urgency in the present. My own attention is starting to shift away from foresight to insight, as the pressure of the present gets turned up through heatwaves and the like. Climate adaptation over big picture systemic thinking. I kind of wish FD 2026 involved some of that. In Arabic, the word for future literally means “that which is coming”. We may be great at discussing the next decade+, but are we ready for what’s round the corner?
FD 2026 often felt like we still have the luxury of time on our side. Even using the time horizon of 2077 felt absurd. As you say, its moments of feeling unsettled were arguably its most powerful.
Thank you Philip, this is a gift of a comment.
On the Arabic (the I learned at school but is speak vey badly) you are absolutely right, and I love that you brought it up. Mustaqbal comes from the root q-b-l, that means to face, to receive, to go out to meet what comes toward you. and its very in line with what this article is trying to do, i didnt noticed it before you mentioned it!
On foresight vs insight, I’m curious, how do you manage to not be left with urgency but no map, reacting to what is already at the door with no sense of what is behind it?
Yes that breakdown of mustaqbal is even more faithful to its meaning! Beautiful language.
I can answer your question with an example of what I’m currently thinking about. Lately I’ve been obsessed with heat as a lens for both insight and foresight.
I like to think of places like the Mediterranean as already living a preview of a hotter future, and so we need to be having cross-cultural conversations comparing notes on how to live with more heat (which is what my Heatmaps project is dedicated to).
But heat on a non-literal level, like the semiotics of what we label as figuratively hot, is also fascinating.
So taking this one big concept and unpacking it not as separate disciplines but one big post-disciplinary conversation has unlocked a lot of ideas for me both in a “now” and a “later” sense.
This is sooo interesting! i need to share with you the reflections of philosopher Paul B Preciado on "Thermocracy": https://www.liberation.fr/idees-et-debats/opinions/vivre-ou-mourir-en-thermocratie-par-paul-b-preciado-20260627_Q74UIO25GBCINJAMLNIC2HWYBQ/ I know its in french but hopefully you can translate. looking forward to reading you on this theme!
Reading this, I kept circling something Doug Bierand says: mycelial change is subversion of an unsustainable status quo. And your piece made me wonder - what if that's exactly what we're doing in the in-between?
I love how you've named that composting (hands in rot) is necessary but incomplete.
It reminds me of fungi that outlive us (for e.g., the 'humungous fungus' Armillaria Ostoyae in Oregon, and countless others) who survive by creating the conditions for resilience, slow growth, and their ecosystem to thrive alongside the breakdown/ because of it.
I think sitting in the discomfort is where we get to not only rehearse different futures but actively subvert the dominant (declining, extractive, monster-built) system through persistence, AND actively create conditions for the ecosystem that sustains us to thrive (emergent, transformative system).
Monsters and Fungi Fairies co-exist. Perhaps the dominant futures of fund and fight will buckle under their own unsustainable weight, as we emerge a slow-grown strong foundation with the pieces of the old systems decaying around us.
Thank you Jess for the feedback and references! about that: ”Perhaps the dominant futures of fund and fight will buckle under their own unsustainable weight” , I wish! but I keep in mind that extractive capitalism survives by finding new frontiers. Exhaust this planet and it goes looking for others!
Trying to debunk this part it lead me to another path that was too long for this article and requires another but I want to share it with you because it’s compost related. Philosopher Myriam Bahaffou explains it as a crisis of desire, where the “conquest desire” that founds both capitalism and patriarchy is at the root of extractivism. And one of her recommendation is… composting your ego! to stop seeing yourself as a closed, self-made subject and start seeing yourself as a tissue of relations and fermentations instead. Which brings us right back to your point about ecosystems :)