Guaranteed Basic Resources and Augmented Community Decision-Making

In our previous issue, we continued our exploration of the forecasts in the Institute for the Future's (IFTF) report "Lighting Up the Future for Children," focusing on scenarios that highlighted possibilities for rebuilding "the health and education systems and physical infrastructure" on which children and families depend, with a view towards the next decade and beyond.

Today, we shift our attention to futures in which community members have the tools, platforms and resources they need to lead “solutions and responses that align with their values and priorities.”

The IFTF report imagines this bottom up, community-determined approach to navigating immediate challenges in two forecasts: 

• "Cultivate Community Development Visions”: In this future, AI empowers communities to articulate their shared goals, honor cultural traditions, and act in ways that are aligned with local values and priorities.

• "Guarantee Universal Fundamental Resources": In this future, everyone has “unconditional access to the basics needed to thrive” like housing, healthcare, and education. People also control their personal data, allowing them to share in the wealth created by new technologies like AI.”

These forecasts shift our attention to a different dimension of the polarities IFTF’s report navigates. While earlier forecasts focused on approaches driven by traditional, top-down hierarchies (even if informed by community input), these two forecasts emphasize empowering communities and individuals. They highlight non-traditional approaches to that prioritize access, inclusion, local values, and direct community engagement.

This shift allows us to see how new approaches to leadership and allocating resources might create more equitable and responsive communities. By empowering local voices and guaranteeing universal access to fundamental needs, we might foster societies that are better equipped to address diverse challenges, honor cultural traditions, and share the benefits of technological advancements more fairly.

Scenario 1: Cultivate Community Development Visions

By 2035, AI has become a powerful tool for community engagement and decision-making, helping communities express their hopes and needs more effectively. AI now helps communities visualize futures, build consensus, and align priorities with local values. AI-aided community boards engage more stakeholders, creating shared understanding of challenges, opportunities, and goals. This creative use of AI has encouraged collaboration and made gathering and reconciling community insights more efficient and inclusive. As a result, communities can better act to honor unique perspectives as well as shared values, as they navigate challenges and work to support and includes everyone.

Signs of this Future in the Present

• vTaiwan and Pol.is are digital platforms that use AI-driven sentiment analysis and opinion clustering to facilitate large-scale public participation in policy-making, allowing citizens to contribute ideas, debate issues, and find areas of consensus on complex topics.

• Narrafirma and Participatory Narrative Inquiry use a combination of qualitative and quantitative approaches to collect diverse perspectives within communities and gain insights into complex social issues.

• The Local Voices Network in Wisconsin aims to connect community members, inform local policy-making, and improve coverage of local issues and sentiment about them.

• The Indigenous Protocol and AI Working Group explores how AI can benefit all communities while respecting indigenous ways of thinking. Its members seek to broaden the conversation about AI beyond traditional tech hubs, ensuring that Indigenous voices play a role in guiding the development of these powerful technologies.

Artifacts from this future

• "AI Elder" Pod: A small, organic-looking device that houses an AI trained on Indigenous knowledge and protocols. It can be consulted for advice on community decisions, much like elders are consulted in many Indigenous cultures.

• Cultural Context Translator: A wearable device that helps translate not just languages, but cultural contexts and perspectives in real-time during community discussions, facilitating better understanding between different groups.

  

  The Cultural Context Translator helps people bridge differences and build shared understanding. Image created with DALL-E-3.

• Community Wisdom Quilt: A large, collaboratively created quilt where each patch represents a community decision or value. New patches are added over time, creating a physical, tactile record of the community's journey and wisdom. The quilt serves as a visual aid in meetings and can be touched to help ground discussions in shared history and values.

• Good Ancestor Decision Coins: A set of coins, each inscribed with a different ancestral principle or value on one side, while the other side prompts consideration of future generations. Community members can draw these coins during decision-making processes to remind the group of important considerations that might otherwise be overlooked and help make choices that honor the past while safeguarding the future.

Scenario 2: Guarantee Universal Basic Resources

By 2035, we have moved away from conditional, limited aid and embraced a model of guaranteed fundamental resources. This new approach ensures access to essentials like “financial security, housing, healthcare, education, and a healthy environment,” along with the tools and skills needed for personal growth. Unrestricted cash transfers have become the norm in many places, empowering families by placing resources and decision-making directly in their hands. The recognition of digital privacy and personal data ownership as rights has also led to a more equitable distribution of AI-generated wealth. The guarantee of basic needs has fostered community cohesion and mutual responsibility.

Signs of this Future in the Present

• Nine states have begun to provide free school meals to all students, regardless of income, and twenty-five more are considering similar programs.

• Platforms like Datacoup and Citizenme allow individuals to monetize their own personal data by selling it directly to interested companies or researchers. These platforms aim to give users more control over their data and enable them to profit from its value.

• Inspired by California Governor Gavin Newsom's 2019 proposal for a "data dividend,"  in 2021 the California Data Dividends Working Group proposed a comprehensive framework for implementing a system to distribute the economic value generated from collective data back to the public. 

• The Canada Child Benefit (CCB) is a tax-free monthly payment made to eligible families to help with the cost of raising children under 18 years of age. The program provides a base amount to nearly all families with children, with additional amounts provided to lower-income families, and is automatically calculated based on the family's income tax return.

• Mayors for a Guaranteed Income is a coalition of over 100 mayors advocating for guaranteed income programs. This network has supported numerous pilot programs across the United States. As of 2022, the programs had disbursed over $210 million to 29 million people in 31 states.

Artifacts from this future

• Resource Allocation AI Assistant: A personal AI assistant accessible via smartphone or home device that helps individuals optimize their use of guaranteed resources and suggests personalized development opportunities.

• Data Dividend Ledger: A secure, blockchain-based system that tracks an individual's data contributions and the resulting dividends, ensuring transparent and fair distribution of AI-generated wealth.

• Modular Smart Home Unit: Standardized, eco-friendly housing modules that can be easily assembled and customized, ensuring quality housing for all.

• Community Resource Hub and Sharing Network: A hybrid physical-digital platform that serves as a centralized location for accessing guaranteed resources and facilitating community resource sharing. 

  

  Community Resource Hubs connect people to their Guaranteed Resources and to opportunities in their communities. Image created with DALL-E-3.

Food for thought

The "Cultivate Community Development Visions" scenario presents a future where AI has become a powerful tool for community engagement and decision-making, helping communities express their hopes and needs more effectively. How can we, as educators, prepare for this technologically enhanced future of civic participation, ensuring that we and our students can actively and thoughtfully participate in shaping our communities?

• Classroom level: What activities could help students understand the complexities of community decision-making? What project-based learning activities could engage students in using AI to address real local community challenges? How can we foster discussions about the ethical implications of relying on AI for community decisions, particularly regarding data privacy and algorithmic bias?

• School level: How can we ensure our technology curriculum adequately prepares students for this AI-enhanced civic landscape while also addressing potential biases and limitations of AI systems? How might we transform our school into a 'living lab' for AI-aided community decision-making, involving students, teachers, and parents in using AI tools to address real school issues while critically examining the process?

• District level: What infrastructure and resources do we need to provide schools with access to AI tools? How might we collaborate with local government and community organizations to help students engage with real-world community issues? What policies do we need to implement to ensure ethical and equitable use of AI in our educational practices and community engagement efforts? How should we adapt our professional development programs and hiring practices to ensure our educators are equipped to teach and utilize AI tools for community engagement?

The "Guarantee Universal Basic Resources" scenario presents a future where access to fundamental resources is universally guaranteed, including financial security, housing, healthcare, education, and a healthy environment. In a world operating within a new economic paradigm, how might the relationship between schools and communities change, and what will it mean to prepare young people to thrive within these new paradigms?

• Classroom level: How can we design learning experiences that help students understand and navigate the new economic paradigms of universal basic resources? How can we foster discussions about personal and societal responsibilities in a world where basic needs are met? How might the guarantee of universal basic resources impact student learning capacity and readiness?

• School level: What new forms of community engagement and service-learning could emerge in this context? How can we prepare for potential shifts in student needs and motivations in an environment where basic resources are assured? How might we need to adapt our approach to student support services and extracurricular activities?

• District level: How should we redefine our educational goals and metrics of success in a universal basic resources society? What new partnerships with community organizations, businesses, and government agencies might we need to develop to support student growth in this new paradigm? How might universal basic resources impact our hiring practices and staff retention? How should we adjust our budgeting processes to account for potential changes in funding sources and student needs? How might we need to adapt our approach to educator professional development to prepare teachers for their evolving role in this new societal context?

Looking ahead

Later in August, Part 5 of our “Lighting Up the Future for Children” series will explore three future possibilities that imagine a world in which we “prioritize the expertise and experience of local leaders and residents in shaping their futures and invest in their ideas for audacious reinvention of systems and supports.” In September, we’ll wrap up the series by highlighting some of the exciting work happening in schools and communities around the world that have begun to navigate and create the future possibilities IFTF imagines.