Am I Getting a Signal?

Signals are a very important aspect of futures work. When I began learning about them, I found them a bit confusing. It was hard for me to understand the difference between something that was “interesting”, and that which occurs on the margins of society and anticipates some aspect of our uncertain future. I believe I am getting a better grasp of the concept; but one has to both play around with identifying signals, and describing their future implications to use them in building scenarios of the future. Covid-19 has been a significant disruption for all of us. Julian Brave NoiseCat looks back on Indigenous experience to consider how the pandemic might signal new forms of dreaming of a flourishing life amidst our darkest hours. As a signal it reconsiders grounding flourishing and a good life in ideal circumstances. It recasts everyday notions of the “American Dream” and directs us towards the creative construction of life narrative that integrates, joy, survival, resistance, and agency. As I look at the signal, I think the future of flourishing, of a good life, of well-being will begin with asking how we reckon with experiences of structural oppression as we work toward our preferred horizons.