Superstruct: crowdsourcing the future

This is exciting.  Really exciting.  When leading alternate reality game designer Jane McGonigal teamed up with the clever² people at Palo Alto outfit Institute for the Future, there was a feeling that something magnificently ambitious would result.  And lo, it did!  Welcome to Superstruct.

Superstruct is the world’s first massively multiplayer forecasting game. By playing the game, you’ll help us chronicle the world of 2019--and imagine how we might solve the problems we'll face. Because this is about more than just envisioning the future. It’s about making the future, inventing new ways to organize the human race and augment our collective human potential.

Imagine it as a 21st century war game but this time the enemy are five global challenges which the planet as a team have to face and provide solutions for.  The challenges are climate change refugees, food shortages, energy crisis, terrorist hack of the web and a killer global pandemic.  Not small then...

Generation Exile - one of the five Superstruct scenarios

Confused?  Read the Superstruct FAQ section.

Want more context?  Read Discover's introductory article.

Who's going to bother? is an obvious question.  Well I am, because I am becoming increasingly convinced of the power of play as a way for us together to tackel the challenges we face - even the biggest of them.  Please do join me.

And for those of you remaining in the safer climes of 2008, I will be reporting from the future over the next six weeks that the game runs. 

Wish me luck...