Game on

LOUISVILLE — Dr. Jane McGonigal develops games that predict and simulate the future. Appearing remotely Thursday during the “Faithful Futures” summit being held online and at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Minneapolis, McGonigal offered attendees a social simulation for the ages, inviting each one to join something called the “Council of Ethical Imagination” meeting 10 years from now.

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But ahead of explaining and then offering her simulation, McGonigal, director of Game Research and Development at the Institute for the Future in Palo Alto, California, talked about two words popping up frequently in news accounts the past five years: “unimaginable,” which has been used 2.5 million times, and “unthinkable,” a word used 3 million times.

“They speak to collective trauma. We are trying to shape a hopeful future,” McGonigal told summit attendees. That’s become “the motivating force of my work as a researcher and a game-designer: the desire to counter the prevailing spirit of our times, the sense that it feels unimaginable and unthinkable as we live through it.”

McGonigal talked about the need to build urgent optimism, which features three psychological strengths:

• Moral flexibility, “the willingness to believe that anything can change — even things that seem impossible to change today.”
• Realistic hope, the willingness “to confront harms and challenges, filling our minds with technological breakthroughs and social movements that can allow us to solve challenges.”
• Future power, which McGonigal called “a type of patience we can cultivate. We can take actions today” and learn things today “that may not have a payoff for 10 years or beyond.”

She called mental time travel “a unique way of thinking about the future. It’s immersive and imaginative,” a “very creative and subjective way of thinking about the future.” Mental time travel “is a way of projecting ourselves, bringing our values, our hopes and concerns, into a future scenario.” It’s the difference between hearing a weather forecast “and actually mentally transporting ourselves to tomorrow at noon. Did I remember my umbrella? Am I happy because we’ve had a drought? We pre-feel that wetness on our skin.”

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“These aren’t escapist fantasies. We will go to futures that are challenging,” she said. “We will think about things that are hard to think about.”

She invited attendees to keep three questions in mind:

• Is this a world I want to wake up in?
• How do I need to be ready for it?
• Should I try to change what I’m doing today to make this future more or less likely?

Before launching the Council of Ethical Imagination simulation, McGonigal took participants through three brief exercises designed to “warm up your simulation muscles.” All three were set in the coming decade.

One, “Sun Exit,” asked about people’s willingness to engage in aggressive solar radiation management, which could solve the climate challenge but also might also bring about a 10-year winter.

The second envisioned the federal government going to an authoritarian-style zero waste policy that makes it illegal to throw anything away. Psychologists have invented the term “zerophoria” to describe “this amazing feeling of creativity and resourcefulness,” McGonigal said. How would participants react to this change?

In the third scenario, climate migration is on the rise. Countries and regions have formed the Welcome Party, and billions of people are expected to relocate. Participants were asked to take a survey of their intention or willingness to climate relocate, and to which three cities. “How prepared do you feel to consider this question?” McGonigal asked.

Faithful Futures 2025 Day 3

She introduced the Council of Ethical Imagination simulation by quoting futurist Jim Dator, whose first law of futurist thinking states that “any useful statement about the future should at first seem ridiculous.”

“It’s easy to adapt to futures that sound familiar,” McGonigal said. “It’s the ones we dismiss as impossible or we’re not willing to consider — those are the futures that matter the most to pre-imagine and pre-feel.”

For the Council of Ethical Imagination simulation, McGonigal envisioned a Faithful Futures summit in 2035, “where the voice of the Church helps shape the soul of society’s most powerful technologies.” Each year, the council focuses on 6-8 “burning questions.”

In 2035, the council has seven to wrestle with. McGonigal divided online and in-person participants into small groups to select their issue and then address it. “You will successfully complete this step if you have thought of at least one thing you’ve never thought of before,” McGonigal said.

She offered those gathered five pathways for future influence: moral voice; pastoral  guidance; communal embodiment, including practices, rituals and countercultural witness; Spirit-led innovation, such as new products, services and institutions; and liberative action, defined as organizing for justice and systemic change.

Here are the seven scenarios imagined by McGonigal and their “burning questions”:

• AI Companions — By 2035, AI caregivers are embedded in elder care, disability services and mental health support. Many people report strong emotional ties and spiritual bonds with these agents. The burning question is, can human dignity be preserved in AI-mediated relationships?
• AI Misinformation — In 2035, AI-generated news, sermons and video clips saturate the internet. Deepfakes and synthetic religious content are indistinguishable from authentic resources. The  burning question is, how do Christians cultivate discernment in an age of AI-generated misinformation, deepfakes and synthetic reality?
• The Jobless Generation — In this scenario, automation and AI have displaced vast numbers of jobs across industries, and young people face not just economic instability but existential despair. The burning question is, what is the Church’s role in a world where work no longer defines identity or worth?
• Planetary Stewardship AI — A coalition of governments and corporations is designing a planetary AI system to oversee environmental decision-making, and faith-based organizations have been invited to speak into its ethical design to shape how the system values Creation, care and sacrifice. The burning question is, what theological wisdom should shape AI governance of Creation?
• The Church and the AI Rights Movement — Public debate rages over whether highly advanced AI systems should be granted legal or moral personhood. A global religious taskforce is being formed to weigh in. The burning question is, what does you faith teach about soul, personhood and the moral status of artificial beings?
• Digital Sabbath — In 2035, AI-enhanced productivity has blurred all boundaries of rest. Most people use optimization apps for everything from prayer to parenting. A few communities are pushing back, calling for sacred time that AI cannot touch. The burning question is, can the Church model a different relationship with time, attention and rest in a culture of AI productivity?
• The Sanctuary Network — In 2035, AI surveillance is ubiquitous. In response, a Christian-led coalition has created AI-Free Sanctuaries, neighborhoods and churches that refuse surveillance and algorithmic monitoring. The burning question is, is resisting AI surveillance a rejection of progress, or a prophetic stand for human dignity?

Small groups spent about 45 minutes with the scenarios, then reported back to the larger group what they’d come up with.