Hey, friends of RADAR.
It’s August, and we’re still over here living for the hope of it all. Working on the launch of Radical Stacks. Helping the members who received micro.grants get their projects off the ground. Plotting IRL moments with our Futures Friends, SOIF, and SXSW EDU. And tending to our signals garden, as always.
Call it our experimentation era. We’re just feeling particularly passionate about the idea that the future belongs to those who think about it these days, and following that passion where it leads.
Most recently, it’s led us to reconfigure these last few months of 2024 into something that’s not just a campfire, nor quite a cycle, but rather a collective focus for us to embark on together that feels right for the times and ripe for our community.
And so, for the next 3 months, we’ll be asking ourselves: What if we lived in a world that led with love?
In a world less concerned with chasing individualism and more interested in cultivating intimacy, what might change? In a world that prioritized platonic companionship as much as romantic relationship, what might change? In a world that recognized love in vastly more dimensions than it does today, what might change?
From the traits and relationships we value, to the communities and collectives we find camaraderie in, to the kinds of care we build into our structures and systems — leading with love would impact just about everything.
Over the course of three months, we’ll explore, imagine, and speculate:
- In August, we’ll spend two weeks in free exploration — broadly following our whims and interests. Then, we’ll spend two weeks diving deep into focused rabbit holes curated by the core team.
- In September, we’ll ‘what if’ our way to a collective worldbuilding session where we’ll not only feel into the world but flesh it out, too. And then, we’ll vote on speculative mini-briefs to pursue from a collection curated by the core team.
- In October, we’ll dive into speculative design, foraging for ideas against our selected briefs and collectively bringing them to life however we see fit.
And in November, we’ll cap it all off with a virtual Future in Love Fest: an accessibly priced, open-to-the-public event featuring all the RADAR vibes you’ve come to expect from us and the launch of our second round of micro.grants aimed at funding A Future in Love.
Over the last few weeks, whatever vibe shift or timeline jump we’ve experienced has offered a potent reminder that things can feel different. And sometimes, that kind of opening; that kind of crack in the fabric of ‘what is’ is all it takes. So what if we lean into it?
As we wrote in our Curious Human’s Field Guide to the Future, “Opened wide enough, these cracks turn into doors. And when enough of us travel through them, not just considering but embracing the alternative paths and new ways of living they present, suddenly the unimaginable becomes the ordinary. It’s collective change that starts with collective vision, and it all comes back to that simple, radical truth: that the future belongs to those who think about it.”
We kick off tomorrow at 10am ET/4pm CET in the Events channel on the server. Come think about a more loving world with us. And if you’re not a member yet but this strikes a chord, now’s a perfect time to join us.
To building better futures,
Your friends at RADAR
