Impossible Futures and the Ethics of Hopelessness
In trying to support community futures and well-being, futurists, social impact designers, and technologists may promise progress but actually create futures that communities don’t want and don’t own. This talk examines how a futures design approach rooted in optimism, hope, and agency, frequently fails to reflect the lived realities and spiritual traditions of those it claims to serve. Through the lens of Black Liberation theology and other decolonial practices, it explores how hopelessness in literally impossible futures can be the site of active movement, not motivated by success and winning, which is impossible, but something much deeper.
