A collection of stories and signals translating real-life research to inspire new futures

This newsletter caters to individuals who are interested in exploring innovation, futures, and systems from a unique and unconventional perspective. Our aim is to provide readers with a fresh outlook on research insights by presenting them in the form of short sci-fi stories.

It is important to note that this newsletter is not just a platform for disseminating research, but also a project in itself. Our team recognizes the need for a more accessible and democratic language to communicate our findings to a wider audience. Thus, this newsletter serves as a laboratory where we experiment with different ways of converting innovation research results into engaging and thought-provoking stories that can drive change.

The content you will find here is the result of our exploration of radical systemic tools, all with a genuine intention to create change, despite the challenges that exist within our current systems.

Rethinking Foods Series

The current edition of this newsletter is about Food Future. Rethinking Foods is an ongoing project by Transformative Times to research how we can foster the adoption of new sustainable foods and what is blocking humans from being faster. The project started in late 2021 as a means to become a playground to test new methodologies in systemic thinking that rapidly turned into a full-sized project. Over the course of these two years, we published a research paper on food and systems, interviewed and connected with key international players on planetary food systems, collaborated with chefs, launched an immersive networking dinner event to talk about food futures, and a 10-week pilot project about the relationship of memory and food adoptions.

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Signals from the future

What if, in addition to our current knowledge, we were able to receive small signals or brief glimpses of ourselves in the near future? How would this ability to see the consequences of our actions impact the decisions we make today? Perhaps instead of focusing solely on what we should do, we should also consider the consequences of not taking action.

The purpose of this newsletter is to share research insights through the medium of short science fiction stories. By exploring possible futures, we hope to inspire creativity, innovation, and new ways of thinking about complex systems. Each story serves as a window into a potential future, providing readers with an inspiring signal that arrives in their mailbox every so often.

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A partnership between Transformative Times and Damien Lutz

In order to materialize this idea, we came to the talented writer Damien Lutz who is the person in charge of translating different pieces of research into compelling short sci-fi stories. Damien will get a research prompt plus key information to contextualize the research finding. And from there, imagine a pathway that holds lessons from our species’ inertia on not acting fast enough when we know we should do. The main objective is to apply a future archeology method, where we look to the future to understand and change behavior patterns now.

Therefore each short story holds two key elements. Within the story is embedded a research lesson that the reader needs to decode and interpret and a reflective lesson on how the story would have been different if we had acted faster.