The Wild Evercard

Speculative Design Futures Approach

Framework: The Experiential Futures Ladder developed by Stuart Candy, was used for worldbuilding a context within which this artifact might be found.

Device: Postcards from the Future was used as the futures artifact inspiration

Prompt: Utilising a prompt from That Thing From The Future

The Prompt: A millennium from now, in a world characterised by continued growth, there is a gift related to the environment that evokes a feeling of hope.

The Process

The World We're In

In the past millennia the earth's climate has undergone profound changes, some initiated by humans themselves and many forced upon humans as they struggled to adapt to increasing megastorms, super droughts and ecosystem collapse. In 2055 an increase of 3 degrees unleashed a cascade of catastrophic events across the world, reshaping ecosystems and destabilizing civilizations across the globe. Climate migration became unmanageable as wet-bulb temperature zones across South Asia, Africa and the middle East rendered surrounding regions uninhabitable.

Higher latitude areas in Scandinavia, Canada and Russia fared better than others, along with higher altitude areas which experienced milder temperatures and more access to glacial freshwater supplies. Likewise Iceland and the British Isles survived due to freshwater resources and abundant geothermal energy stores, but increased climate migration saw these regions isolate themselves from the rest of the world as they urgently enforced dramatic regulations across every aspect of human life in a last ditch attempt to re-engineer human activity toward balance with the planet.

The Setting

This artifact comes from a possible future in 2034, a millennium from now. It is a future characterised by continued growth of feedback loops between humans and the planetary ecosystems in which they live. As reforestation and rewilding efforts finally begin to bear fruit . . the earth gifts us its own living sensory feedback loop network in the form of living data which emerges to play a key role in planetary balance, accessible via an underground mycelium network connected to forest areas.

The Seed

The seed or starting point for the scenario - is the continued growth of feedback loops between humans and ecological systems, which informs the human systems of care and repair to maintain planetary balance.

The Scenario

We now live in a time characterised by continued growth in global planetary management systems to monitor volcanic activity, reforestation density, glaciation cycles and orbital variations. The conjoining of science and indigenous knowledge in the past 50 years birthed a global planetary transformation, most evident in the first home-grown city developed in New Zealand which acted as a pilot for the rest of the world. Reforestation reached target levels of 40% across the globe restoring natural carbon sinks, regulating temperature and absorbing atmospheric Co2 which began to stabilise temperatures, reducing megastorms and supporting biodiverse ecosystems and species migration as those remaining animals adapted to meet the new climate landscape. Ancestral scientists began to open up genetic seed vault libraries, using those historical repositories to begin the restoration process aimed at recultivating the biodiversity we had lost.

The Situation

As reforestation levels surpass global targets, ancestral scientists began to notice a new energy force reading showing up on their planetary management systems. It appears that the dense networks of forest are acting as a kind of planetary barometre. Each forest is connected via their roots, to an underground mycelial network which serves as a kind of living data network of feedback, showing the deep health of the planet in real time. The sensory signals surface above the ground through smells and sounds, create an immediate connection and surfacing of health that people can feel . . even if they can't see it. The energy flows are much stronger beneath the ground, and easily identifiable by the planetary monitoring systems, enabling scientists to observe and respond to planetary health in real time across the globe. The earth's willingness to scaffold our systems of care and repair, can be seen and felt at every level of life and the need for balance, continues to transform us at every level . . from leadership to science to everyday living . . . Finally we can not only experience what planetary balance might feel and look like, but we can monitor and maintain it through this gift of planetary health signalling the earth has offered us through our forests.

The explicit anticipatory assumptions underlying this artifact

The possible future scenario that provides context for this postcard includes several anticipatory assumptions which are worth describing explicitly. This scenario assumes:

• An inevitable collapse of consistent climate and the ability of humans to overcome it, albeit not without great loss of life to both humans and non-human animals.
  
  

• A global temperature increase of 3 degrees, which results in large scale climate migration, population decline and the inevitable conflict that accompanies it.
  
  

• An interim isolationist approach, as countries sought to restore stability through autocratic-style governance that reshaped societal systems in a bid to urgently restore planetary balance.
  
  

• A reintegration of global stewarding and planetary governance as those emerging regions who had transformed, began to share and connect with others around the globe.
  
  

• A reshaping of knowledge and wisdom, through the combing of ancient indigenous wisdom with ever-advancing scientific knowledge.

The Wild Evercard

The Wild Evercard is a living artifact that embodies the ongoing dialogue between humans and the planet on which they exist, a tangible example of forest experience. Just as the mycelium networks connect forests and plants with underground systems exchanging nutrients and signals, so too do the Wild Evercards act as a kind of human-planet-human dialogue mechanism. When someone receives a Wild Evercard, they are plugged into the narrative of whichever local forest the card originated from, enabling them to understand soil moisture levels, plant health indicators, carbon sequestration status and how this forest contributes to overall planetary balance and wellbeing. Environmental knowledge is no longer the domain of scientists or climate activists, but is now considered one of the most important forms of collective knowledge through which people share, learn and develop their own understandings of local balance.

The Wild Evercards are produced locally by Sylvan Keepers in forest sanctuaries from each region and also include ancestral science data and localised forest feedback. Each time a Wild Evercard is sent, the data available through the card updates automatically, providing the health status of the forest of origin in real time. What's more, people can compare the Wild Evercards they receive against their own local forests and rewilding territories to understand the differences in regional landscapes and the pathways toward balance that others have taken. The Wild Evercards form a kind of decentralised, self-sustaining collective knowledge network amongst the planet's inhabitants, fostering an ever-deepening understanding and record of local and global balance. Each Wild Evercard carries with it a small call to action that directly supports forest health . . such as instructions for planting seeds, an invitation to forest bathe or directions on how one might create a pollinator habitat. After all, planetary balance is something that needs to be maintained, it is not an end point but rather an ongoing process to achieve homeostasis from one moment to the next. These cards provide their own continuous feedback loop as inscribed notes move from one person to the next, always in motion.

Slow Messages of Hope. The Wild Evercard is the perfect medium; we're all playing the long game and nothing important happens quickly. It comes when it comes, you can't control the wild. Hope is something we collectively plant, and help to cultivate - it requires us to listen and more importantly, to act.

RelayPost. The carrier service which keeps messages moving without the need for stamps. Users simply scan + pay each time they send a new message

Forest Feedback. Constantly updated with local forest feedback, users can see the live biosensory feedback from the local forest at any moment in time.

Sylvan Keepers send these wild evercards to local residents to inspire a source of pride in what they achieved in their region, and to spread hope to others as people seek to more fully bridge the gap between their own local action and global balance. The wild evercards act as carriers of both stories and seeds, as conduits of ecological knowledge in the physical embodiment of their local forest network. Just as the local trees on the surface connect to an underground mycelium network which reaches far beyond the local area . . so too, do these wild evercards allow people to generously share their experience and knowledge across the globe. They're "Wild" because they represent the untamed, self-sustaining growth that cannot be controlled . . only nurtured - and "Evercard" because they can be wiped clean with apple cider vinegar and reused, the user simply scans the living RelayPost code on the top right corner and pays for postage each time it is sent.

Some people also choose to send their local Wild Evercards during seasonal transitions such as the summer solstice or spring equinox, or when their local forest reaches a significant milestone such as a biodiversity target or at the completion of a transformation cycle. The Wild Evercards represent a celebration and a cause for hope, a reminder of the planet's ability to heal itself in partnership with human environmental stewardship.

Using the design constraint of the postcard I'm trying to bring out both the feeling of connectedness (and the communication which cultivates this sense of connectedness - people sending evercards to each other); and also the point that in a living ecosystem . . things keep moving. Just as circularity inspires us to reuse and repurpose (as users can do with the evercard here), so too is the forest feedback a circular gift that invites us to experience the movement of a living forest system as it cycles through the seasons, from region to region and is shared through connection from person to person.