Communities of the Future: How Do We Adapt our Social Technologies to Modern Times?

Miriam and Shahid have recently led several salons discussing community in the present and past. Now, building on the insights we’ve had together over the last months, we’ll turn our attention to what these insights can tell us about the future of community and living together.

Whether you’ve been to one, two, or three of our previous salons, or this is your first time (welcome!), bring your tea, coffee, and other beverages and join us for a wide-ranging discussion, plus our usual post-salon chat.

We’ll use the following themes and questions as a jumping off point: 

• We live in a world of unprecedented affluence and abundance. Is this kind of wealth and ease of living antithetical to community? When so much of prior community feeling and obligation was the result of need and dependence, how can people recreate similarly strong communities in our world of today and tomorrow?
• What can secular communities learn from traditional religious and ethnic ones?
• Shared beliefs and values are crucial for healthy social functioning, even in the absence of what we traditionally think of as religion. In a world of ever-increasing heterogeneity (ethnic, cultural, religious, lifestyle, economic) and choice, what principles and ideals can communities (and society at large) organize around?
• How can we build communities that have the strengths of traditional ones while still living fully in modernity– in other words, without becoming insular or degrowth?
• What are some existing experiments in forward-thinking community living, and what can we learn from them? (If you’re an ii member, check out our channel (coming soon) under “personal host channels” in the discord for some food for thought on this theme!)

Come join us for an exciting, hopefully-optimistic discussion of our collective responsibilities and futures.

Recommended Reading (optional): 

Religion for Atheists: A Non-believer’s Guide to the Uses of Religion (Alain de Botton)