Siddharth Vadasseri’s Vision

I’m Sid, from the South-Eastern Suburbs of Melbourne, and reside on Boon Wurrung country. I’m a community builder and soon-to-be lawyer, and spent my childhood between India, South-East Asia and country Victoria. I devote a lot of my personal time to family and friends, learning and growing together with others in community.

When I step outside my home on a crisp spring morning in September, 2040, I feel a sense of inner rejoicing as I see so much of the world I hoped my loved ones and I, and the entire human and non-human family, would call home. In the preceding two decades, we have redesigned all of our systems. The buildings around me are not an imposition on the landscape, but a symbiosis, integrating with local ecosystems and enriching them, harnessing only what is necessary in a mutually beneficial relationship of sharing and recycling.

I breathe in the fresh air, relish the greenery in my view, and jump in a self-driving electric rideshare car with my neighbours, all on our way to various destinations for he day. We have long since learned that news is most effective when it is designed to bring us together, not drive us apart. Our Steward-in-Chief has an announcement this morning, and we pause our conversation to listen to what she has to say. She explains that the insects and worms that have been chewing away at the rubbish of a previous era have nearly completed their work. This is fantastic news.

My neighbours and I reflect on how much has changed in our lifetimes, and how refreshing it is that our Steward-in-Chief has a facilitative role. She attained her position by virtue of how much she was willing to give, be truthful, and enable the flourishing of others, and is there to empower and uplift. We work in ways that benefit each other, and thrive together as networks and communities. Our diversity is our strength, and inclusion of many perspectives and worldviews makes us more resilient.

Ten years ago, in the year 2030, we participated in our first whole-of-humanity general assembly. Among the many outcomes of that pivotal month-long process was the adoption of the Declaration of Sustainable Stewardship and the Declaration of Human and Non-Human Flourishing. Those two documents set the tone for a new era of social and economic organisation, and gave us a new story to tell.

There is still work to be done, as perhaps there always will be. My children still cry when they run and fall. My partner and I disagree and then find our way back to understanding. And not every human motive is perfect all the time. But we dwellers of the mid-21st century know something that guides us well. We know that humanity is on a journey, always learning, always growing, and that it is in this process that meaning is found, rather than at any particular destination.