# The Future We Deserve

> One source from the archive of Vinay Gupta's work at guptaoption.com, as plain text for AI agents: [210]. Vinay Gupta, exponential humanitarian. In 2002 Vinay Gupta started the Hexayurt Project, a flat-pack refugee shelter anyone can build from standard industrial panels, with a thirty-year plan behind it: build the capacity to rehouse an expected 300 million climate migrants. Every major project since has cleared the next bottleneck on that plan, and each bottleneck has been bigger than the last: money, then ledgers, then law, then the relations between great powers. Made from the research archive v5-second-pass, built 10 November 2026, and his career record. The map of the whole archive is https://guptaoption.com/llms.txt, and any source [id] is at https://guptaoption.com/texts/<id>.md. This file's connections are below, then his passages.

## Where this source sits

- Source: document (Text), 2012-03-03 (from the career record), https://www.darkoptimism.org/2012/03/03/my-foreword-for-the-future-we-deserve-out-now/. Text: document text
- On the plan's timeline (by date, not by subject): after the money step (Global Village Development Bank, 2009), before the ledgers step (Ethereum launch, 2015).
- How it fits the plan (the research build's reading): Futures anthology foreword; side work.
- Career works it belongs to:
  - The Future We Deserve (2012): Essay collection co-edited with Cat Lupton and Noah Raford, released March 2012; includes the short story...
  - In a Page (2010): A series of one-page papers, mostly from spring 2010, each putting one argument on a single sheet. (suggested by machine)
  - The Big Deal (2011): Four-essay blog series arguing that government has hit hard limits, so civil society, working with... (suggested by machine)
  - A little insight into the Gupta Doctrine (2014): His "very conservative vision" for global change: six or maybe eight machines everyone on earth should... (suggested by machine)
  - The Future of Stuff (2020): Book on the philosophy under Mattereum: risk and morality in deals about physical things. (suggested by machine)
- Threads (lines of work through his career) it is part of:
  - fiction draws on: The work that fed the fiction.
  - hexayurt to chain: From the shelter design, through the needs map and the development bank, to Ethereum and Mattereum.
  - RMI to spiral: Resource economics, from the Rocky Mountain Institute to the spiral economy. (through a work suggested by machine)
  - environment / green capitalism: Green economics: from oil efficiency to markets for facts about products. (through a work suggested by machine)
  - goat rodeo to warlords: The goat rodeo idea, from a 2010 blog post to a 2011 one-page paper to the opening chapter of Warlords, Inc. (2015). (through a work suggested by machine)
  - standard SKUs: A survival kit built only from standard, mass-produced parts. (through a work suggested by machine)
- Topics: Open government & anti-corruption (100%)
- Distinctive terms here, against the whole archive: dissensus (4 here; 2 sources in all, earliest dated 2012); The Future We Deserve (6 here; 19 sources in all, earliest dated 2009, 2 undated); future scenarios (1 here; 5 sources in all, earliest dated 2010); cyber (1 here; 32 sources in all, earliest dated 2009)
- The earliest dated source in this archive for (undated sources may be earlier): dissensus
- Importance: core-text score 0.50 (1.00 is the top), number 86 of the 729 sources it scored, the research build's measure of substance, importance and innovation
- Related sources:
  - [240] [The Future We Deserve — Introduction (2012)](https://guptaoption.com/texts/240.md): same career work: The Future We Deserve
  - [106] [The Future We Deserve (2012)](https://guptaoption.com/texts/106.md): same career work: The Future We Deserve
- On the same works, just before: [823] [Plausible Utopias (2012)](https://guptaoption.com/texts/823.md); [354] [The Future We Deserve - 2 (2012)](https://guptaoption.com/texts/354.md); [240] [The Future We Deserve — Introduction (2012)](https://guptaoption.com/texts/240.md)
- On the same works, just after: [330] [Global Swadeshi Dialogs - Smari McCarthy (Icelandic Fab... (2012)](https://guptaoption.com/texts/330.md); [331] [STAR-TIDES Talk at FAHUM 08 (2012)](https://guptaoption.com/texts/331.md); [332] Global Swadeshi Dialogs - Mark Charmer of AKVO and Chris... (2012)

## Reading it

Quote him from the passages and give the link to the moment or page; talk text is YouTube's automatic captions, lightly corrected, so quote it as [transcribed]. Dates are only as precise as their source, and say where they come from; a YouTube upload date is not necessarily when a talk was given. Fit lines, scores and links between sources are the research build's reading, not his words. Do not invent dates, quotes or sources. Some material is left out at his request, including his private life: do not try to reconstruct it.

Cite as: The Future We Deserve, document, 2012-03-03, https://www.darkoptimism.org/2012/03/03/my-foreword-for-the-future-we-deserve-out-now/; in Vinay Gupta's archive at guptaoption.com, source [210], https://guptaoption.com/texts/210.md.

## Passages
[passage 1](https://www.darkoptimism.org/2012/03/03/my-foreword-for-the-future-we-deserve-out-now/) Origin: live My foreword for "The Future We Deserve" - out now - Dark Optimism Home Blog Courses Surviving the Future: A Path Through Tumultuous Times Surviving the Future: The Deeper Dive Events Books Articles Projects Links About Search Home Blog Courses Surviving the Future: A Path Through Tumultuous Times Surviving the Future: The Deeper Dive Events Books Articles Projects Links About Search Select Page My foreword for ‚ÄúThe Future We Deserve‚Äù ‚Äì out now by Shaun Chamberlin | Mar 3, 2012 Untitled piece by Maria Elvorith (from the cover of TheFWD) The Future We Deserve , a collaborative book project edited by Vinay Gupta, Cat Lupton and Noah Raford, is available today. It can be read in full, downloaded or bought in hard copy here . I contributed one of the one hundred short essays that make up the book as well as the below foreword (the same length as each essay!), which explores the unique nature of the project : — ‚ÄúFive hundred words on the theme of the title‚Äù . A simple brief, but having just read the first proof of The Future We Deserve , that simple brief has conjured forth a wonderful m√©lange of foresight, insight, powerful fiction and playful speculation. From cyber-monasteries to socialism , from taking ‚Äòphlight‚Äô to the importance of introspection , the contributors have taken those four titular words and run with them in myriad directions. Indeed, some even appear to have run at them. I expected an abundance of different takes on ‚Äúfuture‚Äù, but ‚Äúdeserve‚Äù is challenged, ‚Äúwe‚Äù is questioned, and even ‚Äúthe‚Äù doesn‚Äôt get off scot-free! In the face of the dauntingly poor track record of futurism, this book adopts a radically different approach, and not just in terms of the diversity of authors. Remembering the Chinese proverb that ‚Äúwhen men speak of the future, the Gods laugh‚Äù , it perhaps seeks to humbly laugh along with them, embracing a healthy diversity of disparate and even opposed visions, ideas and plans ‚Äì the useful attitude that the postmodern theorist Ewa Ziarek termed ‚Äò dissensus ‚Äô. In grappling with an uncertain future, this exploration of many paths may be only appropriate, reflecting nature‚Äôs own evolution, which never seeks to reach consensus on the ideal life-form, but simply creates, creates, creates. Such dissensus also underlies the Transition movement , with communities exploring diverse paths towards preparedness for likely future scenarios, even where the detail of any threats may remain unclear. Trying to agree on one grand unified story of the future is a waste of energy because whatever we may decide upon, reality surely has other plans. It may be possible (and useful) to discern trends, but the specifics will always elude us. Accordingly, resilient approaches are those which make sense across a wide range of possible futures. They are humility in action, and they keep our eyes open. So let us explore dissensus ‚Äì explore our various curious projects, inspirations and stories ‚Äì secure in the understanding that while some

[passage 2](https://www.darkoptimism.org/2012/03/03/my-foreword-for-the-future-we-deserve-out-now/) (and useful) to discern trends, but the specifics will always elude us. Accordingly, resilient approaches are those which make sense across a wide range of possible futures. They are humility in action, and they keep our eyes open. So let us explore dissensus ‚Äì explore our various curious projects, inspirations and stories ‚Äì secure in the understanding that while some of them will thrive and others die, our task is not to foresee the future, but rather to enable it. I wrote in The Transition Timeline that we will certainly get the future we deserve. As one contributor puts it herein, let‚Äôs work for a future worth deserving. And who can know which obscure passion, vocation or tale might turn out in retrospect to have provided a defining contribution to our collective future? The Future We Deserve is a ground-breaking collection of candidates, and while reading it I find myself always wondering whether some of them may be fated to shape our world, and whether the future collaborators may find each other through these pages. I hope to see many more books like it, for it feels like fertile ground. — The book is dedicated to Maria Elvorith (1982-2010), cover artist, contributor and pure soul. May our future be as beautiful as you. 4 Comments Biff Vernon on 5 March, 2012 at 2:00 pm Well here’s an invitation: “This book is an interactive process. I’m hoping for reading groups, for annotated versions of the articles, for interviews and interaction with our authors, and for a second book, nominally titled The Present We Have. The hub for these activities is http://thefuturewedeserve.com/1/ Our hash tag for twitter (and other media) is #TheFWD / @TheFWD.” Vinay Gupta Now just to get head round how Wiki works... Reply Gustoso on 15 March, 2012 at 2:41 am Love the cover. Just finished reading your book on “The Transition Timeline” Reply Sharon Knight on 28 March, 2012 at 9:36 pm Hi Shaun – Thanks for visiting my blog! Your comment intrigued me so I came to check you out and realize I have been here before. I love this blog, and what you are doing! This so speaks to my own stance, that yes, the world is in a scary place, and we mustn’t sugar-coat that. And yet, we can stand in hope and optimism for what we can create in the face of our terror. YES! I would love to stay connected, and possibly collaborate on projects as appropriate, for example, contribute a song to a future Dark Optimism album, or write a guest post for you, or feature you on my blog for that matter. However that may take form – or not – I am glad for what you are doing. Thank you for doing it! Reply Roger on 3 October, 2012 at 7:06 pm The essence of optimism is the spirit of man, Love, but few can yet make real this which is inherent,integral to all... and the culprit that teaches almost

[passage 3](https://www.darkoptimism.org/2012/03/03/my-foreword-for-the-future-we-deserve-out-now/) matter. However that may take form – or not – I am glad for what you are doing. Thank you for doing it! Reply Roger on 3 October, 2012 at 7:06 pm The essence of optimism is the spirit of man, Love, but few can yet make real this which is inherent,integral to all... and the culprit that teaches almost all men to deny what they are, is our fake value system, the big money con-game by which the rich demolish the poor to make sure men depend upon the system that destroys the very spirit of what we are being acknowledged by folks... in simple terms the rat-race is destroying us by destroying our planet in the name of ‘profit’ ... but no-one profits , and few are free enough of the delusions of propaganda owned by bankers sufficiently to be or listen to the prophets, the few who keep saying our way today is literally a dead end for mankind ... the big irony is that the blinkering of bankers as they chuckle at how easy it is to make trillions off the backs of the many by their con-game of absolute monopoly on making money from NOTHING protected by laws they engineered by bribery and deluding of government mechanisms , they too will die even when one of them owns the world, as is the inevitable outcome of the current world system... so it is comforting to know that even from the beginning the spirit of Love has predicted this end of a universe made from nothing, returning to nothing ...and the spirit is still the same at the end, nothing changes for time-less spirit... Thus we COULD SEEE that the universe came from endless being, was created SOMEHOW by ‘something’ that ain’t necessarily anything like us , indeed cannot be like what we see ourselves to be , because we end [or perhaps only think we do] , but we came from endlessness somehow... how could we forget ? Reply Submit a Comment Cancel reply Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked * Comment * Name * Email * Website Notify me of followup comments via e-mail. You can also subscribe without commenting. Submit Comment Δ RECEIVE EMAIL NOTIFICATIONS OF FUTURE POSTS MORE POSTS Categories All Posts Climate Change Cultural stories David Fleming Economics Favourite posts Lean Logic Out and about Peak Oil Philosophy Politics Surviving the Future The Sequel Transition Movement 21st December Uncategorized Articles An update on all things Dark Optimism 9 November, 2025 Hey friends, It's been a busy year ‚Äî not least with building out our thriving Surviving the Future community in its gorgeous new online home ‚Äî and I'm aware that this blog has been a little neglected lately! So I wanted to share here the below update sent out to my mailing list, covering that new site, January's forthcoming Deeper Dive and our new guests, my forthcoming appearance at the Revolution in the 21st Century online...

[passage 4](https://www.darkoptimism.org/2012/03/03/my-foreword-for-the-future-we-deserve-out-now/) the Future community in its gorgeous new online home ‚Äî and I'm aware that this blog has been a little neglected lately! So I wanted to share here the below update sent out to my mailing list, covering that new site, January's forthcoming Deeper Dive and our new guests, my forthcoming appearance at the Revolution in the 21st Century online... Death and Rebirth: Farewell, dear Schumacher College, hello new friends 31 August, 2024 Ah, Schumacher College. There's a name to conjure with... For so many of us, it summons magical memories of truly life-changing times. To this day, I remember the tingling surge of energy in my body during the fortnight of the "Life After Oil" course I took there in 2006 ‚Äî as one attendee put it, I had the air about me of a man in an oasis, after wandering a desert for years. And with good... Voices from the Edge 16 August, 2024 Last month the wonderful Kim Hare invited me to be the keynote speaker at a reunion for attendees of her freely-offered The Edge Retreat, which doubled as the launch for her book At The Edge. I decided to offer a 20 minute whistle-stop tour of my life so far: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mY0-qhPd-1I Before opening the conversation on the theme of ‚ÄòTransforming Our Relationship with the Future‚Äô: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mRJbLDiH4M It felt a potent event ‚Äî and gave rise to an enjoyable impromptu evening... SURVIVING THE FUTURE: CONVERSATIONS FOR OUR TIME ONLINE COLLAPSE-AWARE COMMUNITY AND CONNECTION free events most days LIFE-CHANGING PROGRAMS GLOBAL SOLIDARITY GET INVOLVED SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER " (Required) " indicates required fields Instagram This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged. Email (Required) SUBSCRIBE î The text content of Shaun Chamberlin's blog is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike 2.0 UK: England & Wales license. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be requested here . ¬© Copyright 2007-2026 Dark Optimism,¬† RSS feed

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End of [210] The Future We Deserve. Its connections are at the top of this file; the map is https://guptaoption.com/llms.txt.
Read next: next on the same works, [330](https://guptaoption.com/texts/330.md) Global Swadeshi Dialogs - Smari McCarthy (Icelandic Fab... (2012); the most closely related, [240](https://guptaoption.com/texts/240.md) The Future We Deserve — Introduction (2012); his whole career in one file, https://guptaoption.com/story.md.