The Long View Project

“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

As part of NC State’s Climate and Sustainability Academy, 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.

• 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.
• The Long View Future Scenarios are challenges to engage your imagination that 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 Hopeful Futures series explores plausible, positive futures through conversations that engage and inspire participants and audiences to create the futures they want.
• Our Conversations About Higher Education 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.
• We can help you incorporate futures thinking into your work or teaching. 

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.” – Rob Dunn

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.

news

Sustainable Futures Fellows Imagine Pathways to Sustainable Industry

Written by JoAnna Klein, Public Communications Specialist, Long View Project Conducting deep research and engaging their imagination, NC State’s 2026 Sustainable Futures Fellows discovered that the sustainable futures they want are possible, with the right research, education and collaboration along the way.  On Jan. 28, 20 graduate and undergraduate students left the campus of NC… 

Creativity to Imagine the Future at NC State

What do science fiction stories, 10-minute plays, and scholar-driven conversations have in common?  They’re all working to change our planet’s future through creative solutions to wicked problems like climate change.  The impacts of climate change are both immediate and far-reaching. As NC State prepares students for careers that will extend far beyond the next five… 

A More Breathable Raleigh: Muggy, but Not Miserable

When I wrapped the soaked bandana around my dog’s neck, it was still crunchy from the freezer. But now we’ve walked past two houses, and it’s gone limp in the… 

A Hopeful Future of Pets

On March 11, students, faculty, and staff gathered in the Fishbowl Forum for the Hopeful Futures: Future of Pets event to discuss human relationships with pets and how AI and genetic tools are advancing research on our furry friends. 

Will We Build Cities for Humans or Machines?

In October 2023, JoAnna Klein interviewed research ecologist Adam Terando along with drone aficionado Evan Arnold and public transportation systems researcher Kai Monast about the future of transportation. As climate changes and advanced technology accelerates, they explored a unique opportunity to rethink how people, goods and ideas move around the world.  

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

Jordan Kern models environmental risks, and Harrison Fell studies the economics of energy systems and policy. In November 2023, they shared what they know about what influences energy policies, how those policies play out in society, and why people behave the way they do. In our conversation, they laid out the challenges – and opportunities – that may arise on the journey to a green energy future.