We, citizens of the world, wish to improve the state of the world, not only for humans but for all life, as a matter of urgency in the coming decade.
Through a collaborative process, Reboot the Future, Franklin University and the Future Food Institute, have collated suggestions from top thinkers from different age groups, sectors and regions, to create a list of principles and values that we agree should underlie the many technical innovations being developed for this process of improvement.
This process is the culmination of a year of conversations called GoodAfterCovid19 that began shortly after lockdown started with the first “fishbowl” type conversation being on March 24, 2020. Each fishbowl focused on a different theme, such as the environment, health, finance, education, the arts, food and finance, asking participants what we were learning from covid, and how we can reboot that sector. Participants in the fishbowls participated in a series of Manifesto dialogues. The fishbowls are on: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFpDeE-aQ6q0-HvCrttyslA. Dialogues will be put on shortly.
The principles and values came from a series of 14 dialogues held with these top thinkers:
Jacqui Hocking – Systems Entrepreneur
Marcello Palazzi – Entrepreneur for Human Progress
Florencia Librizzi – Head of Program and Partnerships, SDG Academy, UN SDSN
Philip Clayton – President of the Institute of Ecological Civilization
Jonathon Porritt, Founder, CEO of Forum for the Future
Sherry Huss, Co-Creator of @MakerFaire
Yo-Yo Ma, cellist
Chiara Cecchini, CEO & Co-Founder of Future Americas
John Perkins, Author
Antoinette Weibel, Professor of Human Resource Management
Antonio Hautle, Executive Director, Global Compact Network Switzerland
Laura Koch, Founder and Chief Engagement Officer at Women 4 Solutions
Arne Cartridge, Executive Director, IMAGINE Food Collective
Serena Vento, Founder Trustee of National House Project
De Kai, Professor of Computer Science and Engineering & Research Scholar at Berkeley’s
Sandrine Dixson-Declève, President of The Club of Rome
Francois Taddei, Director of the Interdisciplinary Research Center
Barbara Bulc, Social Chemist and Founder Global Development
Sophie Charrois, President, Oikos International
Paul Polman, Founder and Chair, Imagine
Jude Kelly, Founder and Director of WOW
Peter Blom, CEO of Triodos Bank
Alberto Villoldo, Founder of The Four Winds Society
Carlo Giardinetti, Sustainability Lead Consulting, Deloitte, Switzerland
Sara Roversi, Founder and President, Future Food Institute
Anthony Bennett, CEO, Reboot the Future
Kim Polman, Founder and Chair, Reboot the Future
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The following is a merging of these ideas, all of which explain more fully the basic principle:
Treat others and the planet as you would wish to be treated.
COMPASSION/EMPATHY
Love thy neighbour as thyself.
- We, as leaders and as individuals, promise to take the time to understand our neighbours (in the broadest sense), both other people and all forms of life. We aim to understand that what we do in our work and in our personal lives affects others and the environments around them. We aim to help others and all life fulfil their purposes and to live their values.
LOVE OUR EARTH
We promise to sacralize the world.
- We are grateful to all life that gives us life and hold in reverence the beauty and wonder of our world.
- We promise to listen better to the earth, to its cries of pain, but more importantly to its seasons, to its rhythms, to its cycles of life so that we will be inspired to restore the damage we have done, and to understand how to do that.
- We acknowledge that we are part of the whole system of nature and not separate from it.
LOVE EACH OTHER
We promise to care for each other.
- We recognize the fundamental rights of all people, that all should have equal opportunities and have full respect and dignity – all ages, women and men, all skin colours, disabled, gender choice, religious choice. We rejoice in our diversity in the way a healthy ecosystem is rich in biodiversity.
- We commit to listening to all constituents before planning, making decisions, and taking action.
- We commit to helping all people unleash their potential.
BALANCE
We strive to find more balance.
We have learned that extremes are always hurtful to someone, something or someplace. Therefore, we strive to balance:
- Mind and body
- Egotism and selfishness with kindness and generosity
- Capitalism with liberal arts and nature
- Innovation with tradition
- Short-term and long-term goals
- Technical solutions with cultural qualities and values
- Rich and poor
- Privilege and poverty
- Developing artificial intelligence that helps more than harms, such as overcoming unconscious biases and fake news
- Rural with urban
- Competition with collaboration
- Trust with dishonesty
- Fulfilling needs with wants
STEWARDSHIP OF THE EARTH
We promise to create a Life Economy.
- We are inspired by many native cultures and their great wisdom about living in harmony with earth’s life systems.
- We commit to repairing the damage we have done and to regenerate destroyed environments.
- We recognize that we need to end the Anthropocene period by being of service to nature, and by promising to control mankind’s incessant drive to compete in destructive ways. Nature has an innate ability to restore itself, just as our bodies fight off disease. We promise to support nature’s ability to regenerate and restore its own balance.
YOUTH EMPOWERMENT
We promise to listen to our youth.
- We recognize that the future belongs to our youth, so we commit to supporting and amplifying the work of young activists, on whatever issue they promote.
- We recognize the visions, fears, creativity and courage of young people and promise to take their views into account when making decisions that impact their futures.
EDUCATION
We promise to give education a deeper purpose.
- We acknowledge that in our communities, creative practices and education should be aimed at awakening all generations to our connections to ourselves, others, other species and our planet, that we promote the understanding that we are part of a living system where one part affects other parts.
- We commit to providing quality education to all children.
NEW CITIZENSHIP
We encourage a new understanding of global citizenship, which leads to a planetary ethos of stewardship.
- We wish to establish a citizenship based on fractal democracy that includes everyone in a participatory manner, in local communities, nations and planet.
- We nourish citizenship whereby each citizen understands their obligations and responsibilities as well as benefits.
- We strive to awaken from ego and cultivate eco consciousness, requiring the citizen to be humble in the face of the earth and the future.
THE GOOD ANCESTOR
We promise to do unto all future children what we would have wanted our ancestors to do unto us.
- We recognize that we do not own this earth, but borrow it during our life span, and are required to pass it to future generations in a good state.
- We will not forget the past to learn going forward so as not to repeat our mistakes.
THE LIFE ECONOMY
We promise to build a caring economy, focused on the human being rather than the human doing.
- We promise to include the costs of external inputs (use of and destruction of natural resources) in our production systems, and to see that these resources are for the common good of everyone and all life.
- We commit to moving our economic system from transactional to a giving economy.
- We commit to changing the financial system to prevent excessive making money from money.
- We redefine success to move from financial wealth to well-being and how excited we are be alive. We commit to defining new measurements of success and new incentives and rewards.
- We redefine growth from power, wealth and consumption to growth in:
- fairness (equity)
- healthy relationships
- guardianship of the planet
- living within the planetary boundaries
- regeneration of the damage done to our earth
- trust and transparency
- well-being
- health
- education
- acceptance of diversity
- biodiversity
- elimination of waste
- quantity of remaining common resources
PARTNERSHIP
We promise to work in collaboration.
We, as leaders in our communities, will create safe spaces to think more carefully about what good looks like, to share ideas, make decisions together, and be supportive.
We aim to have collaborations done in the spirit of trust, transparency, compassion and accountability.
We aim to direct these partnerships to fostering structural changes in society.