🔬Science as a Commons, Not a Commodity
Science is one of humanity's most powerful tools for understanding the world. But science is not scientism. Science is inquiry, experimentation, and discovery. Scientism is the dogmatic belief that only scientific knowledge is valid, often paired with the corporate capture of research for profit.
The Problem: Current scientific funding prioritizes what can be commercialized by corporations—AI, pharmaceuticals, weapons—not what serves humanity's deepest needs. Meanwhile, Indigenous knowledge systems that sustained civilizations for millennia are dismissed as "unscientific."
We need science that serves the commons:
- Publicly Funded, Publicly Owned: Research funded by taxpayers belongs to everyone. No corporate patents on life-saving discoveries.
- Collaborative and Open: Scientists work across borders and disciplines. All findings are peer-reviewed and accessible.
- Shielded from Manipulation: Corporate influence is eliminated through transparent, democratic funding processes.
- Contextual Communication: Results are shared with interpretation, uncertainty, and context—not sensationalized headlines.
Against Premature Publication: Science that is still "baking"—incomplete, uncertain, or without proper context—should not be released for media sensation. The rush to publish creates misinformation and erodes public trust.
🌿The Wisdom of Slow Science
Isabelle Stengers' concept of "slow science" offers a profound alternative to the frantic, publish-or-perish culture that dominates research today. Slow science means:
Time to Think
Research takes the time it needs. Complex problems require deep contemplation, not rushed solutions.
Interdisciplinary Dialogue
Scientists work with artists, philosophers, Indigenous elders, and community members—not in isolation.
Care and Responsibility
Research considers its impact on communities, ecosystems, and future generations before proceeding.
Living with Uncertainty
Science acknowledges what it doesn't know and resists the pressure to provide definitive answers prematurely.
This approach recognizes that science works best when it "lives with" the world rather than trying to control or extract from it. It's science in relationship—with communities, with ecosystems, with the unknown.
🌍Indigenous Knowledge: The Original Science
Indigenous peoples developed sophisticated understanding of medicine, ecology, astronomy, and sustainable living over thousands of years. This knowledge is also science—empirical, tested, and refined through generations.
Modern society is destroying the planet despite having access to vast scientific data. Indigenous societies sustained themselves for millennia while nurturing biodiversity. What they knew—and what we've forgotten—is that knowledge without wisdom is dangerous.
A just society integrates:
- Traditional Ecological Knowledge: Indigenous understanding of local ecosystems guides land management and conservation.
- Holistic Approaches: Healing practices that treat whole persons within their communities and environments.
- Long-term Thinking: Decision-making frameworks that consider seven generations into the future.
- Reciprocal Relationships: Knowledge systems that see humans as part of nature, not separate from it.
📚Stories: Humanity's Most Powerful Technology
Before we had science, we had stories. Before we had data, we had dreams. Stories are not just entertainment—they are the most powerful technology humans have ever created. Stories shape reality by shaping how we imagine what's possible.
The future is not a scientific calculation. It's a story we tell together about what kind of world we want to build and inhabit.
Currently, our stories are impoverished:
- Shallow for Profit: Corporate media reduces complex narratives to simple formulas that sell products and maintain systems.
- Dystopian by Default: Most visions of the future are apocalyptic—not because they're realistic, but because despair sells and prevents change.
- Limited Imagination: We're told there are no alternatives to current systems, that "this is just how the world works."
We need new stories that:
- Expand Possibility: Help people imagine different ways of organizing society, work, and relationships.
- Center Justice: Show worlds where care, equity, and ecological wisdom are normal.
- Inspire Action: Motivate people to build the futures they want rather than accept the futures they're handed.
🚀Bureau of Futures: Imagination as Infrastructure
A just society invests in imagination the same way it invests in roads or hospitals. We propose a Bureau of Futures—publicly supported institutions dedicated to envisioning and testing possible tomorrows.
Speculative Artists
Writers, filmmakers, and artists create compelling visions of just and sustainable futures.
Social Experimenters
Researchers test new forms of governance, economics, and community organization in pilot projects.
Future Historians
Scholars study how societies have transformed in the past to understand how change happens.
Community Visionaries
Local communities develop their own visions of what thriving looks like in their specific contexts.
This isn't about predicting the future—it's about creating space for collective dreaming and turning those dreams into actionable experiments.
⚖️Knowledge Justice: Integrating Ways of Knowing
A mature society recognizes that different kinds of knowledge are valuable for different purposes:
- Scientific Knowledge: Excellent for understanding mechanisms, testing hypotheses, and measuring change.
- Indigenous Knowledge: Crucial for long-term sustainability, holistic healing, and ecological relationships.
- Experiential Knowledge: Lived experience provides insights that no study can capture.
- Intuitive Knowledge: Pattern recognition, emotional intelligence, and creative leaps that logic alone cannot reach.
- Spiritual Knowledge: Meaning-making, purpose, and connection that sustain human flourishing.
The goal is not to rank these ways of knowing but to honor each in its proper place. Science without wisdom becomes technocracy. Spirituality without grounding becomes escapism. Stories without truth become propaganda.
Integration means:
- Humble Science: Scientists acknowledge the limits of their methods and collaborate with other knowledge holders.
- Evidence-Based Spirituality: Spiritual practices are grounded in their effects on wellbeing and community health.
- Truthful Stories: Narratives are emotionally honest about both struggle and possibility.
- Practical Wisdom: All knowledge is evaluated by how well it helps communities and ecosystems thrive.
🌱What This Looks Like in Practice
Imagine research institutions where:
- Climate scientists work alongside Indigenous water protectors and speculative fiction writers to develop both technical solutions and cultural narratives for ecological restoration.
- Medical researchers collaborate with traditional healers and community organizers to address health as a social and ecological issue, not just individual biology.
- Social scientists partner with artists and activists to prototype new economic models in real communities before scaling them up.
- Urban planners integrate data analysis with community storytelling and ancestral land practices to design cities that serve both human and more-than-human communities.
This is not anti-intellectual or anti-scientific. It's more rigorous because it tests ideas against multiple ways of knowing and multiple criteria for success. It's science in service of wisdom, wisdom grounded in evidence, and both guided by stories that help us imagine better worlds.
🔮The Future We're Storying Into Being
Every manifesto is itself a story—a vision of what could be different. This manifesto imagines a world where:
- Knowledge belongs to everyone and serves the common good
- Science is rigorous but not arrogant, precise but not reductive
- Ancient wisdom and cutting-edge research inform each other
- Stories inspire rather than manipulate, expand rather than constrain
- The future is something we create together rather than something that happens to us
The Meta-Story: We are living in a moment when the old stories about progress, growth, and control are breaking down. We have a choice: accept dystopia as inevitable or begin telling—and living—better stories about what human societies can become.
Science gives us tools. Stories give us direction. Wisdom helps us choose which tools to use and which stories to believe. Together, they can help us build futures worth inhabiting.