The Arthur C. Clarke Center for Human Imagination at UC San Diego
The Clarke Center is a research-and-practice hub, where the best insights from the neuroscience of imagination are connected with the latest in technology and put to use to unlock the transformative power of imagination across age groups, and communities to tackle the most pressing issues facing the planet. Collectively, we face seemingly impossible challenges. Yet imagination discovers new possibilities within the impossible. Imagination is at the root of empathy and compassion. Imagination gives rise to hope. We aim to unleash the power of imagination to tackle the most pressing issues facing life on Earth—to envision and build a more equitable and sustainable world.
SDFutures: Youth Futures Literacy
Started in 2018, SDFutures is a series of youth-oriented programs designed to help young people develop futures literacy as a core skillset for imagination in the 21st century. What is futures literacy? It is the skill to deliberately imagine future possibilities, reflect upon them, use that understanding to shape present action, and build new worlds. It takes what is typically either unconscious or an expression of anxiety and turns it into a powerful tool for changemaking. Futures literacy has been increasingly recognized as a core 21st competency. UNESCO defines futures literacy as “a universally accessible skill” that “allows people to better understand the role of the future in what they see and do. Being futures literate empowers the imagination, enhances our ability to prepare, recover and invent as changes occur.” Under the SDFutures umbrella, the Clarke Center has organized yearlong programs for students studying public policy, imaginative fiction writers across five continents, and undergraduate students. With the support of the Rising Foundation, SDFutures will pilot a K-6 program and card game for children to explore the possibilities for change across their lifetimes and the power of their own choices and voices to shape that future.
