Looking around in
2045: Planet Earth

CONCEPT NOTE

In many future speculations, a key idea is often hinted at but rarely fully explored—the need to rethink our approach to growth. We live on a planet with limited resources, yet our systems and institutions have long been built on the fantasy of unlimited, unrestrained prosperity and relentless expansion. Our financial calculations, insurance models, and banking systems all depend on this manufactured illusion of perpetual growth. However, to truly envision a future within our planet’s boundaries, we must aim not for unchecked expansion but for balance.

This shift requires us to fundamentally unlearn and relearn—a cultural evolution toward slowing down. With this in mind, I began to explore how travel, especially the major polluters like luxury liners and private jets, would need to be restructured. What would happen if their costs skyrocketed? What actions might become recognized as crimes against the environment?

In a world where machines could be deployed to create value, could humanity learn to let go of the frantic impulse to grow? Could we move resources to shared commons, and what would a reallocated world look like? My scenario delves into these questions, imagining a future where we prioritize balance over boundless expansion.

It was a common idea in the 2020’s that an all-pervasive singular AI mind would solve planetary scale problems, and help heal the planet that Humans had battered beyond all semblance of hope.

What actually started happening in the 2030’s was the birthing of various interconnected “Hives” of linked intelligences - sharing data and information amongst themselves, collaborating to address the biggest problems of our time.

The first few Algorithms were tasked with a re-imagination of the financial system and global wealth redistribution. Banking records were scrutinised, shell companies were instantly dissolved. A slew of new laws taxed the wealthiest 1% with a 73% climate tax that enabled a shift towards a more equal society. Billionaires and their assets were systematically reassigned. Social welfare laws created a global universal basic income.

A bold new regime enforced an immediate grounding of all industries with a significant Carbon footprint, and intense economic sanctions forced extreme strategic pivots amongst the big polluters.

AI-driven financial reports showed us a harsh report card of our time on the planet. We needed a post-growth paradigm, and a fundamentally new understanding of our relationship with the planet.

After the Industrial age fuelled unsustainable growth, humanity had lived in an illusion of unlimited profits on a planet with limited resources. This illusion was now over. Infinite growth is symptomatic of Cancer. AI helped Industries to move towards achieving equilibrium and balance while respecting various boundaries.

Humanity needed to slow down.

Propoganda Poster : Texas 2045

The next set of Artificial minds were tasked with creating a zero carbon economic system. International flight tickets more than quadrupled in cost, and whole fleets of ships were docked permanently.

The Luxury liner industry was banned in entirety.

For years, campaigners had highlighted rampant unsustainable practices, including the large scale dumping of sewage and untreated wastewater, alongside emissions of air pollutants and greenhouse gases. Infact a report released by the Brussels-based NGO Transport & Environment stated that Europe’s fleet of 218 cruise ships emitted as much sulfur oxide in 2022 as a billion cars.

Luxury liners being decommissioned : Hong Kong 2045

Repurposed liner offshore farms : Hong Kong 2045

Naval Architecture integrations : Hong Kong 2045

The first few ships were converted to offshore farms, with retrofitted hydroponics using solar powered pumps from the pump rooms to irrigate the newly added deck-farms. Sunday Floating Markets became brand new hangouts for youth in the city.

The large sculpted volumes of liner hulls were now being considered as readymade housing, with built architecture scaffolding supporting reassembled decks and large sweeping balconies. As more of these behemoths make their way to their permanent docks across the globe, new uses are constantly emerging.

Massive carbon extraction practices were enacted across dense cities in the global south. Huge subsidies provided to Carbon entrepreneurs created a host of man-machine partnerships aimed to sequestering carbon at source and at scale.

Cities across the world installed neighbourhood suction fans, slowly extracting and pumping atmospheric carbon into water reservoirs, and pumping the carbonated water deep underground into basalt caverns.

Carbon sequestration retrofits : Vietnam 2045

Carbon sequestration retrofits : India 2045

Carbon sequestration retrofits : Egypt 2045

Zero carbon societies began springing up around the world, with a complete ban on travel and an emphasis on using their basic incomes collectively to form green communes. AI enabled perimeter walls allowed realtime sensors and atmospheric data to be collated and enforced.

Emission taxes forced the move from an industrial economy to a Craft economy, where fewer exquisitely produced quality objects replaced the mass-market paradigm of the 2020’s.

Zero Carbon Enclave : Indonesia 2045

Zero Carbon Enclave Construction and monitoring Drones : Indonesia 2045

About the artist

Ayaz Basrai is co-founder of The Busride Design Studio, a leading architecture and interior design firm in India. Busrai graduated in industrial design, specialising in product design, from the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad, in 2003. More recently, Busrai heads The Busride Lab in Goa, working with speculative fiction, heritage conservation, and their ongoing India Futures Project, trying to visualise and birth meaningful Indian futures.

Looking around in 2045: Planet Earth

About the artist

Looking around in
2045: Planet Earth