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milliongenerations.org started because of the question how there could be most happiness. The milliongenerations foundation exists from 2009 to 2034 to generate ideas that make it more likely that the future is very long, that there actually could be generations of conscious beings alive and able to exchange information on this planet for as long as the sun shines. An act of God would be beyond our control, but we should try not to risk ending civilisation ourselves. We don't know if it is possible to survive progress for long, but we really should make an effort. We, who exist and enjoy the fruits of progress, must protect the interests of those who do not yet exist and expand their possibilities. We must reduce risks that threaten the existence of civilisation with a joint and formidable effort to make it likely that we and our – common – descendants continue to survive progress. Our political and economic models must become able to develop forever and work primarily for the vast majority: those who are still to come. An extremely long view can add useful perspectives. We should not want to predict the future, but we should make it possible. Let us be good ancestors.

Future generations

Nothing is more important than the existence of future generations. Efforts to ensure existence and wellbeing of future generations, those who do not yet exist, increased in recent years, for example with a UN Declaration on Future Generations. Like human rights and legal systems, this could be a significant addition. A closer relationship with future generations will help humanity reduce polarisation and foster collaboration as well help define and motivate sustainability. Broader concern for those yet to come will give us a better chance to survive progress. The milliongenerations foundation supported preparations for the exhibition Good Ancestors: Art and Culture for Future Generations, joined and supports the Impact Coalition for Future Generations, the Pledge Network as well as the organisations organising an Intergenerational Fairness Day. It seeks to collaborate with many more in order to help increase the number of Saturdays (yes, Mondays, too).

What if the future could be long?

We all hope that our children enjoy a good life. And their children, too...

Our civilizations have achieved amazing feats: about 8,000,000,000 human individuals are alive on this planet, living on average more peaceful, longer and easier lives than any earlier generation. Knowledge helps.

What if useful knowledge could be passed on for as long as life existed? What if progress can be survived?

These pages form an open source think tank: what if the growth of knowledge and the power it brings could be combined with long term existence? What if progress could be survived and can benefit those alive for a very long time? Assuming a very long lasting civilisation helps to clarify conditions for the existence of future generations and challenges associated with progress and long-term existence of learning beings.

What if civilization continued?

Continued to develop and refine its knowledge on this planet indefinitely - as long as life is possible - as long as the sun shines. Civilization that lasts and survives its progress.

How can you help?

Imagine that knowledge continues to be passed on, that civilization in some form or other will continue on this planet for as long as the sun shines.

If that perspective is helpful to you, you are invited to improve the pages on this site now: log in and click on the "edit" tab at the top of the page. Assume information continues to be deliberately passed along, no matter what the future civilizations look like. Try to deduct rather than predict.

If there's no edit tab even when you're logged in, use the discussion page or contact the foundation by email to propose changes. (Originally, all pages were open to access from everybody, but some were protected from editing by non-registered users to reduce spam.)

Please check the help pages and guidelines first. It also helps to know about which relevant thoughts exist or which structures exist on this site. Note that all the blue or underlined text are links that you can follow. click here for an entry to the discussion.

If you're looking to do something else, you could check out initiatives listed here or actions discussed here. There are many worthy initiatives. Please limit your contributions on this site to thoughts related to the assumption above. (To maintain focus, clearly unrelated content will be removed.)

Why should you care? Click here for a motivation.

In the long run we are all dead, as was famously observed by John Maynard Keynes. Life, however, should be possible on earth for several billions of years. While self aware beings are alive, it should be possible to pass on knowledge for the benefit of those alive and their descendants. To let civilization continue warrants a sincere effort, everything within our control. We might be standing in a line that continues for millions of generations with individuals who realize life is wonderful. There is no necessity that ensures this happens, so it is worth thinking about what it would require to try to bring it about. Please join the effort.

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Quick links

Exhibition Good Ancestors: Art and Culture for Future Generations - at UNHQ September 2024

Collaborations

• Association of Long-term Art Projects
• Intergenerational Fairness Day - November 16th, IFD - announced in collaboration with other organisations
  

Content and debate

• Questions to consider and debate what could be derived from this assumption
• Motivations to think about why this is relevant
• Conditions of sustainable and resilient civilizations
• Actions to be taken to achieve sustainable and resilient civilizations
• Build a device that converts Fuel to Food
• Write a Bill of Rights of Future Generations
• Letters (of Utrecht)
• Related topics to add references or learn about similar work
• A short video about ideas that helped start milliongenerations.org
• Overview over the pages on this website (select a namespace, the namespaces "Main" and "Milliongenerations" contain most pages)

Editing

• Help pages and guidelines

Community: improving and enabling this site

• milliongenerations.org to learn about this project
• The environment to suggest improvements for the site
• Current events to check out what urgently needs to be done
• Foundation to contribute to the foundation behind milliongenerations.org

Criticism of this project

• Criticism for disapproval or faults of milliongenerations.org and warnings about its dangers

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This site has a lot of text and all the blue links need a long time to go through. If this is not for you, you're in very good company. But the approach here has contributed to surprising results, so it seems worth to hope you'll stretch your attention span and find and add more value, here or elsewhere. If you know how to say all this better and shorter, please do, and make it more likely that posterity can benefit from what we know and do.