The Long View Project

NC State’s Long View Project seeks to anticipate the intermediate and far future by building on the interdisciplinary expertise of the world’s best scholars.

“The very act of trying to look ahead to discern possibilities and offer warnings is in itself an act of hope.”
Octavia Butler

About the Long View Project

The Long View Project investigates possible futures through conversations and creative projects that engage and inspire participants and audiences (scholars, administrators, students, and the general public) to create the futures they want.

Our Long View Conversations series offers a platform for experts to share information about emerging issues for higher education – like artificial intelligence, demographic and enrollment shifts, and disruptive science – with higher education leaders.
The Long View Interviews are in-depth conversations with small groups of disciplinary experts about discoveries that will transform our future, covering subjects ranging from artificial intelligence and education to transportation, energy, and waste. These journalistic pieces, published online and in collaboration with existing news outlets, uncover cutting-edge research and transformative trends with the potential to reshape our world in ways many of us couldn’t imagine.
The Long View Future Scenarios are created using trends gleaned from the interviews. Picture lifelong AI-powered tutors, the end of personal cars, and societies unconstrained by energy. Are these dreams we hope to manifest? Are they nightmares we wish to avoid? These scenarios are challenges to engage your imagination and can be used in stakeholder discussions and classrooms to ponder how we can take action now to prepare for or alter what is to come.
Our annual Envisioning Urban Futures event, organized in partnership with the Peter A. Pappas Real Estate Development Program, brings together scientists, artists, engineers, and other thought leaders from across the disciplines to explore positive urban futures. The event gives hundreds of stakeholders, decision makers, students, and members of the general public an opportunity to engage with these potential futures.

We recognize that the current practices and plans of individuals, businesses, governments and universities alike don’t adequately anticipate the future and, as a result, are not sufficiently prepared for the changes to come. Yet, many choices we make in society have consequences that last for centuries.

Humanity notoriously fails to consider the intermediate and far future for many reasons. It is difficult for leaders, administrators and scholars — astrophysicists and paleontologists notwithstanding — to take the long view in planning for the future. Quarterly reports, urgent challenges, and, for scholars, the realities of immediate concerns tend to demand so much time that it is difficult to make time for truly long-term planning. Yet, our daily decisions are what ultimately shape these seemingly remote futures.

“Many choices we make in society have consequences that last for centuries… As scholars and educators, if our research is to be useful, our public engagement relevant and our students successful, we must do all we can to try to anticipate the future.”

This reality applies not only to issues like infrastructure, but also to less obvious areas, such as education. Students graduating from universities today will be hitting their mid-career stride around the year 2050. By 2050, their world will be one in which energy systems, communication, ecological realities, climate and societal context are far different than they are today. As scholars and educators, if our research is to be useful, our public engagement relevant and our students successful, we must do all we can to try to anticipate the future. By doing this, we not only prepare for what is to come, but may also alter our trajectory, steering our collective ship away from tempests and toward calmer waters.

Envisioning “Charlanta”

This year’s Envisioning Urban Futures event brought together experts from across disciplines to look at the Southeastern megalopolis and share visions for how growth can be compatible with livability and sustainability.

Saving Earth’s Starry Cathedral

JoAnna Klein spoke with ecologist Caren Cooper, space environmentalist Lindsay DeMarchi, and photographer MJ Sharp about the cultural significance of the stars, the alarming effects of light pollution on planetary health and the innovative – sometimes, quite simple – ways we might preserve this natural wonder for centuries to come.

AI-generated image of person in bathroom looking at green cityscape.

What’s on Tap? Maybe One Day Your Wastewater

JoAnna Klein spoke with environmental historian Matthew Booker and engineer Francis de los Reyes about the problem of urban wastewater. The answer, it seems, is a lesson in history – and a call to challenge our assumptions about what we consider waste.

Can We Reach Green Goals by 2050? Yes, But It’s Complicated

In the future, green energy could leave zero carbon footprint. We could store it for years and transfer it from coast to coast, delivering energy at low cost to anyone who needs it. It’s possible, say Jordan Kern and Harrison Fell. It’s even likely. But it won’t be easy.

Collage depicting a hand holding a train extending toward a cityscape.

Will We Build Cities for Humans or Machines?

After decades of cities built for machines, will we return to cities built for humans? A changing climate and advancing technologies open doors to reimagine the future of transportation.

Will Our Best Teachers Be Robots?

AI could help even those who struggle the most learn better in the future, say computer scientists and educators James Lester and Noboru Matsuda. With personalized precision tutors, interactive experiences and the time-proven power of storytelling, learning in the future will be easier – and more fun.

NC State Envisions Urban Futures

NC State recently hosted Envisioning Urban Futures, a collaborative effort of The Long View Project, the Office of University Interdisciplinary Programs, the NC State University Libraries, Arts NC State and the College of Design’s Initiative for Community Growth and Development. Together, they invited participants to explore cities of the near and distant future.