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Love the Future:
A Global Campaign.
2025 Update
It's time to rebrand the future and look beyond fear, doom and dystopia.
Presented by Gerd Leonhard, Futurist, Author, Keynote Speaker, CEO of The Futures Agency (Zurich, Switzerland), Founder of The Good Future Project
Because the future is better than we think, and because we are the ones designing it!
In 1975, New York was crime-ridden and nearly bankrupt. It wasn't a tourist destination. Two courageous women created the "I Love New York" campaign. Overnight, NYC became a hot tourist destination. Ten years later, "I Love L.A." transformed Los Angeles from smog-filled to vibrant.
Today, many people are afraid of the Future, paralysed by a constant stream of bad news about the climate emergency, the rise of super-intelligent machines (AGI) and the coming technological unemployment, genetic engineering of humans, the rise of autocrats and populists… and much more.
Yet I believe that the future is better than we think! To quote one of my favourite futurists, Kevin Kelly: "We should be optimistic not because we have less problems but because we have more capacity to solve them"

"As you see the future, so you act, as you act so you become" Barbara Marx-Hubbard
Your mindset contains your future.
This is a key realisation based on my work as a speaker, futurist and adviser in the past 25 years. If we believe that our efforts are fruitless and our work is meaningless, that humans are basically not good, that we can't seem to get anything right, and that global collaboration isn't going to happen… than this is what we will create.
Specifically, millennials and GenY cohorts around the world have a pretty dark view of the future - almost 70% of European couples between 25 and 40 years old say they will not have children because the future is lousy.
We urgently need to change this narrative, and go beyond the fear-hyping of social media, the dystopia of Hollywood films and Netflix videos, and the doom-scrolling of Tik-Tok, Facebook or Youtube.
This graph shows why many of us are worried about the future, today…
While we are making truly amazing scientific and technological progress…
Age of Abundance
Exponential technologies are enabling us to progress from scarcity to abundance, whether it is in media and entertainment, energy, healthcare, financial services, transportation or education.
Artificial Intelligence
AI is "Data and information turned into knowledge". Like the Internet itself, AI is now a general purpose technology, rapidly changing every industry - and our societies and economies.
Climate Technologies
We are in the midst of a huge global boom in climate technologies - adding Millions of new jobs in the next 15 years. We certainly have all the science and tech - but do we have the telos?
The 4 Revolutions
These are happening simultaneously: Geopolitical (multipolarity) Digital (AI), Green / Sustainability, Purpose / Human, driving huge exponential progress and solving long-standing challenges
Research on, and driven by AI
AI is where are most of the power, money and energy is going. We are heading towards General Artificial Intelligence. OpenAI is building 'Digital Humans'. This could be 'heaven or it could be hell'.
New Skills and New Jobs
While we will see substantial automation of routine, commodity tasks due to AI, but we may also see the emergence of entirely new jobs and a renewed focus on human-only skills, and… UBI explorations!
…we seem stuck in the past as far global collaboration or wise leadership is concerned
AI-fuelled dehumanisation
Why think ourselves if ChatGPT or Gemini has all the answers? As companies start to use AI agents to outsource routine tasks and slow-down with new hirings, how will people secure their first job?
Lack of global collaboration
Collaboration is declining, fuelled by 'MAGA' politics. This is evident in climate change mitigation and climate emergency action. Without the Global South aboard we won't be able to limit global warming.
New security threats
AI and other exponential technologies such as genetic engineering, quantum computing or synthetic biology could be heaven if used wisely, or hell - if used with evil intentions
Democracy under tech-fire
Trust in other people has declined, trust in media has declined, and a loneliness epidemic is near. Autocrats and totalitarian regimes are on the rise.
Happiness is declining
Unhappy and fearful is becoming the new normal, and our social ties are weakening. We spend more time with our screens then with other humans.
Total uncertainty
Geopolitical changes are taking from a unipolar world (the pax Americana) to a multipolar world. The latest changes in the U.S. are causing global turmoil.
As you see the future so you act, and as you act so you become
Today, 70% of young people feel humanity is doomed. Never has the future seemed so uncertain. This needs to change because "as you see the future, so you act, and as you act so you become" BarbaraMarx Hubbard.
Watch my 2022 film 'Twice upon a time"
It's time to flip the Narrative!
Stories Shape Reality
We hear and see more negative stories than ever before: social media and AI-slop prefers negative headlines 10:1.
Fear and Desperation
'The End of the World as we know it' has become a daily occurrence. Fear sells.
AI+ SocialMedia Doom
We live in a dystopian news and media reality. Negative stories dominate and create anxious mindsets.
To overcome dystopian storytelling, we need to rebrand the future as something we can shape, envision and turn into reality.
“The Future exists first in IMAGINATION, then in WILL, then in REALITY” (Barbara Marx Hubbard)
Context: The paradigm shifts driving our future (hat-tip to Peter Leyden)

01:15:07

YouTube

The 12 paradigm shifts that are changing our world: Peter Leyden and Gerd Leonhard

This is the archived livestream recording featuring futurists Gerd Leonhard and Peter Leyden March 8 2023, see https://www.linkedin.com/video/event/urn:li:ugcPost:7029820925021691904/ You can now download the slides via https://www.futuristgerd.com/2023/02/join-gerd-leonhard-peter-leyden/ and an edit with Gerd's talk only is now available in high res via https://youtu.be/9z8s5ByTNVs UPDATED: We've just released a cleaner version of this session, here: https://youtu.be/fqcZvKLInUI and a high

Campaign Components (apart from the hub / website)
Short-form films & videos
2-3 minute videos on specific Good Future topics, such as AI and Work, Climate Change etc
30-45 second 'commercials' on the Good Future; hard-hitting, humorous, cutting edge (see Lincoln Project, Apple ads etc)
Online Live Events
Regular live stream events with great speakers and guests, building a global audience
Gerd's previous campaign announcement videos
2025 is a fighting year: Good Future or Bust.
It's our choice: A good future or a bad future