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The 2025 theme · Guiding questions

Reigniting the Future

Introductory Questions9 questions
  • Rip Van Winkle slept for twenty years, Steve Rogers for seventy, Aang for a hundred—in each case, with remarkably little impact on their health. (Rip Van Winke did grow some facial hair.) Imagine that you went through something similar and woke up in the year 2120 (albeit with neither superpowers nor supercharged follicles.) How quickly do you think you’d notice you were in the future? Would beds feel different? Would chairs be strange shapes? Would there be funky new food in the fridge? Would there still be a Global Round in Bangkok? Outside your home, would you encounter a strange new society or one roughly like our own? Or would you encounter no society at all, just a picturesque (and probably terrifying) post-apocalyptic landscape?
  • “Slice of life” is more than a film genre: research everyday life in the years 1825 and 1925 to learn more about how much things changed between those two years and between 1925 and now. Has the rate of change in your community slowed down or sped up–or does it depend on what you’re looking at?
  • A hundred years is a long time. What if the same thing happened, but you woke up (like Rip Van Winkle!) only 20 years in the future? What do you imagine the year 2045 will be like for students like you? What are the easiest things to predict–and what are the hardest?
  • Some things catch fire literally, others metaphorically—and the fires that most interest us are those happening for at least the second time. Without reading the rest of this outline, brainstorm with your friends what it could mean for something to re-ignite, and how different that is than igniting in the first place. When is it better for something to burn twice? And is there a difference between burning up, burning down, and burning with?
  • There’s no denying that some things excite our passions. For some of you, maybe, World Scholar’s Cup is that kind of cause; others of you might thrill to the fight against global climate change, a big boss in the Forgotten Land, or the harmful impacts of social media. But what would it take to have your feelings about something (or somewhere or someone) re-ignited? Under what circumstances does a person leave a project, then return to it with new zeal?
  • Not long ago, the future beckoned with open arms. Many people at the beginning of the 20th century–and even at its conclusion!–were certain that social and technological progress would continue endlessly, that there was a kind of Moore’s Law for everything. (At least one influential thinker still believes this.) Consider the musical selection “Counting Up to Twenty” as just one example of this boundless optimism. In those not-so-long-ago times, forecasts for the future were exuberant—and sometimes even exuberantly dull. How do you see the future, and how does your view compare to that of the older people in your life?
  • “The best is yet to be,” wrote the English poet Robert Browning, a phrase often quoted (out of context) to evoke a sense of possibility and hope. But we now live, many people are saying, in a pessimistic age–in which some people even avoid having children to protect them from the grim days ahead. If you met someone who was sure the future would be full of suffering, would you try to give them hope again? If so, what would you tell them?
  • Take a step back from the broader future to zoom in on small things that can also be recalled to life with new vitality: musical bands, TV shows, even products once abandoned to museums and overstock warehouses. (For instance, walk around your school and may spot someone buzzing about with a film camera.) We’ll investigate them more later in this outline, but, for now, what other dead or derelict institutions, products, or trends do you think will become popular again in our lifetimes? Is there a restaurant that you and your family miss that you wish would be revived—and how much effort would you be willing to put into that revival?
  • While actual resurrection is probably still impossible, individuals can still be recalled to life in different ways, as in this first book of A Tale of Two Cities–whether it is after incarceration, illness, or a different kind of darkness. Do you know anyone who has found a new lease on life in this way? How can we best support someone who is starting over again?
The Best is Yet to Be, or Not To Be?11 questions
  • In 2009, the Australian government announced an ambitious project to provide super-fast fiber-based Internet to 93% of the population; in 2013, it revised the plan to reuse existing copper wire; in 2025, many Australians still have no (or slow) Internet. First promise big things, then revise the promise to make them little things, then don’t finish them anyway. This isn’t (we hope) a description of the World Scholar’s Cup curriculum release process, but a pattern of behavior for governments all over the world. Discuss with your team: is it better to underpromise and overdeliver, or vice versa?
  • Don’t worry, Australia—you’re not alone. (More on loneliness later.) In Canada, a proposed high-speed rail network had its target speed slashed before being rebranded as a high frequency network. In many developed countries, ambitious projects have gone out of fashion in favor of slow, incremental ones. Check out the mega projects below, as well as those from your own country, then discuss with your team: is this shift in approach justified? How might megaprojects (or their failure) affect the way people perceive progress? And are some countries more consistently successful at these projects?
    • Big Dig | Channel Tunnel | California High-Speed Rail
    • Sejong City | Hambantota | NEOM | Khazar Islands
    • Three Gorges Dam | Hong Kong-Zhuhai Bridge | New Eurasia Land Bridge
  • Sometimes social distancing is the problem. In 2023, the World Health Organization declared loneliness a pressing global health threat. Explore how this concern varies around the world, then discuss with your team: do you agree that there is a “loneliness epidemic”—and, if so, how can it be treated?
  • Some countries have tried tackling the problem with technology—and none more so than Japan. Explore efforts to “fix” loneliness in Japan and elsewhere, then discuss with your team: are they the sorts of solutions that more societies should adopt? What technologies would you design to achieve the same aims?
  • In 2021, the UN Development Programme found that living conditions in 90% of the world's countries had declined for the second year in a row—possibly contributing to declining birth rates. Discuss with your team: is this decline irreversible or will the world’s population begin to boom again? Should we want it to?
  • During the Covid pandemic, podcasts exploded in popularity. Their hosts (or at least their subtly-enhanced voices) became many people’s closest friends in a solitary time. Discuss with your team: are podcasts meaningfully different from old-fashioned radio broadcasts in their impact on society, and will their impact continue? In other words, how dated will this bullet seem, ten years from now?)
  • Speaking of bullets, the man who eventually assassinated American President James Garfield, Charles Guiteau, was certain they had a close personal connection (which, of course, Garfield never knew about.) The Internet has driven a surge in these one-sided “parasocial” relationships. Algorithms on these platforms are designed to boost engagement and view time, even if the content is harmful or raises false hopes. Explore how social media also affects the health of adults and seniors, then discuss with your team: who should be held responsible when an algorithm promotes harmful content? Could you design an algorithm to craft a healthier, happier society—and would it be successful?
  • How often do you pick up your phone to check a fact or answer a question during a meal with friends or family? Can you imagine living in a world where things just—stay mysterious, and where you have no idea what is happening a thousand miles away? Researchers have found that the oversaturation of news, especially of negative stories, leads to constant stress and a skewed worldview, especially when they contain violent images and videos. Discuss with your team: to protect people’s mental health, should the government (or others) limit the amount of information we can consume?
In Futurity, Someone Prophetic Sees48 questions
  • Nostradamus never predicted that people would remember him 500 years later, but his reputation for accurate prophecies has nonetheless flourished for centuries. Discuss with your team: why do people want to know their future in advance? Would it benefit them if they did? If someone offered you the opportunity to read a biography of your life, would you?
  • Some poets have also taken a swing at predicting the future. Consider the selections below, then discuss with your team: how seriously were they intended to tell the future? Is poetry (with its often murky meanings) the perfect vehicle for prophecy?
  • Anthropologists believe that this sort of divination is a practice as old as Neolithic humans. Look briefly (no rabbit holes, please) into the following ancient divination techniques, then discuss with your team: which are still practiced today, and, if they seem hard to believe now, why do you think so many people once believed in them?
    • comparative horoscopy | haruspicy | ornithomancy | alectryomancy
    • pyro-osteomancy | oneiromancy | bibliomancy | hydromancy
    • astragalomancy | scyphomancy | astrology
  • Firefighter, astronaut, investment banker—diviner of the future? If you’re thinking about future careers, consider a career in thinking about the future. Explore the following future-telling occupations, then discuss with your team: should governments regulate this industry, and, if so, how?
    • palmistry | physiognomy | ceromancy | tasseography | cartomancy
    • fortune teller | oracle | soothsayer | shaman | witch | clairvoyant
    • Ifá | Jyotish | I Ching | Bazi | Jiaobei | omikuji | Ouija | crystal ball
    • fortune cookies | horoscopes
  • Not all fortune tellers are mystics. Michio Kaku is an award-winning theoretical physicist whose side business is predicting the future in books like Physics of the Future and The Future of Humanity. Explore some of his predictions, then discuss with your team: which of his predictions do you find too alarmist? Which ones do you most look forward to?
  • While those predicting the future cast their gaze forward to tomorrow and the days after, some artists cast their gaze (and occasionally their glaze) toward those making the predictions. Review the following artworks with your team, then discuss with your team: what are they trying to tell us?
  • Certain methods of divination seem more reliable than they are. Explore the following examples and terms, then discuss with your team: why is divination enjoying a resurgence amongst young people today? Is the future trending?
    • Barnum effect | Pygmalion effect | cold reading | confirmation bias | self-fulfilling prophecy
  • Did you freely choose to read this bullet, or were you always bound to find yourself puzzling over it at this very moment? Explore the age-old debate between those who believe we have free will and those who believe we live in a deterministic universe, then discuss with your team: how much does it matter whether we are making choices for ourselves? Is it possible that some people have more free will than others? And, if criminals are not really choosing to be criminals, should they still be punished? Be sure to learn the differences between genetic, biological, and other forms of determinism.
  • Not all methods of foretelling the future are rooted in superstition or ritual; some stem from long-term observations and lived experiences. For example, the Chinese agricultural calendar is based on centuries observing the weather and the movement of celestial bodies. The result is a calendar that reliably predicts the movements of the sun and moon, ocean tides, astronomical events, and the turning of the seasons—one still referenced by farmers today. Research the following and explore with your team: are there any other reliable not-quite scientific methods of predicting the future that merit continued study?
  • Your weather app predicts a warm and dry afternoon; you wear a summer dress and you wind up drenched by an unexpected afternoon rainstorm. Research how meteorologists make weather forecasts and explore with your team: how far ahead in time is a weather forecast useful? How might AI prediction models change the field of meteorology? Be sure to also learn the difference between weather and climate models, and if they are still accurate in face of a changing climate.
  • A butterfly flaps its wings and a hurricane (eventually) pops to life on the other side of the world. Small changes can have large impacts that may not be as random (or unpredictable) as they seem. Explore the field of chaos theory, which attempts to understand how complex systems are built up from simple parts, then discuss with your team: are there examples of such systems in society, and can they help us tell the future? Be sure to explore the following terms:
    • emergence | self-organization | de-centralization | feedback | determinism
    • chaotic systems | sensitivity | flocking model | three-body problem | fractals
    • randomness | parameters | stable vs. unstable equilibria
  • “Ripped jeans will be back in fashion in 20 years”, says one pundit. “We’ve been in a decade-long bull market, but just you wait for the bear market”, says another. Research the following popular “cycles” in public discourse today and explore with your team: what do they purport to predict, and how accurate are their predictions? Can a popular “cycle” ever become a scientific model?
    • fashion cycle | nostalgia cycle | news cycle | business cycle
    • market cycle | Moore’s law | Eroom’s law | platform decay
    • bathtub curve of electronics | nomadic war machine
The Future Wasn’t Meant to Be16 questions
  • Explore the following futuristic technologies that failed to be widely adopted. What prevented their success, and is there a situation in the future where they might find popularity?
    • rocket mail | flying car | maglev | zeppelin | suspension railway
    • ground-effect vehicle | supersonic transport | nuclear propulsion | hyperloop
    • hydrogen vehicle | mecha | metaverse
  • For many, the 1990s were an unabashedly optimistic time; the academic Francis Fukuyama infamously suggested we might have reached the end of history, or at least the end of conflicts between dictatorships and democracies. This optimism extended beyond political and academic circles into popular culture. Review the following artworks, then discuss with your team: what kind of excitement did they reflect for the upcoming century? Were they justified?
  • The New Age movement of the late 20th century represents a revival in the interest of occult and metaphysical ideas, with many of its practitioners very much into love, harmony, and personal transformation and healing. Explore the following works associated with the movement, and discuss with your team: do such messages still resonate today?
If At First You Fall, Try, Try Again18 questions
  • Rasputin may be the most famous Russian monk, but he wasn’t the first to opine on geopolitical affairs. In the 16th century, his distant (and also lushly-bearded) predecessor Filofei proposed (in letters to a young prince named Vassilij) that Russia could be the third Rome. Consider what he meant then and what the implications of his suggestion might be today, then discuss with your team: could there be another Rome in our own era, and would it be good for the world if there were? Would Greenland be part of it? Be sure to explore the following concepts:
    • unipolarity vs. multipolarity | core vs. periphery | great vs. small powers
    • controlling vs. client state | soft vs. hard power | foreign assistance
  • Rome isn’t the only empire that keeps popping back up. Like certain movie franchises, a great empire can only fall once, but it can be revived—usually unsuccessfully—many times. Study the history of second chances at imperial grandeur. What were they trying to emulate or continue, and how close did they come to succeeding? Did any last longer than the regimes they sought to restart?
    • Neo-Assyrian Empire | Song Dynasty | Byzantine Empire
    • Carolingian Empire | Ottonian dynasty | Meiji Restoration
    • Neo-Sovietism
  • Destroyed buildings can also have second leases on life. Consider the following examples, then discuss with your team: is a reconstruction of a building a continuation or something altogether new?
    • Bibliotheca Alexandrina | White House | Notre Dame | Basilica of Saint Paul
    • Babylon | Shuri Castle | Yellow Crane Tower | Stonehenge | Shakespeare's Globe
  • In Isaac Asimov’s Foundation series, the great Galactic Empire is falling. Thirty thousand years of darkness and ruin await—even Palpatine couldn’t have lived that long—until a man who can predict the future using math comes up with a weird plan: a colony of librarians who, if left alone on the fringe of the known universe to write a great encyclopedia, could shorten the Dark Ages to a “mere” thousand years. Discuss with your team: would librarians be a good choice of profession for those entrusted to restart a great civilization? If not librarians, then who? And how much do you think math—and big data—can and should be used to predict the future?
  • Sometime in 2025, a dead airline will return to the skies. A private company is planning to de-extinct the once-legendary airline brand Pan Am for some very expensive charter flights, with hints of bringing it back in a bigger fashion down the line. And, speaking of fashion, Pan Am has already been revived as a South Korean clothing brand. Consider the examples below of other brand names that have been brought back from the dead to sell new products and services–even if they are unconnected to the companies that spawned them. Discuss with your team: is this kind of branding dishonest, and what derelict brands or companies would you want to reintroduce–and in what forms?
    • RCA | Westinghouse | Polaroid | RadioShack
    • Gateway | Nokia | Sansui | Eastern Air Lines
  • Could 3.5 inch floppy discs be next? (They do make good coasters.) From audio cassettes to instant cameras, many vintage technologies are enjoying a resurgence today, often driven by viral online trends that celebrate their limitations. Discuss with your team: why do some products and brands become popular again after gathering dust for so long? When do you prefer something older and (technically) worse to something newer and (technically) better?
    • disposable cameras | handheld gaming devices | vinyl | film
    • shortwave radio | AM radio | pager | magnetic tape storage | physical media
  • De-extinction isn’t just for passenger pigeons, bankrupt brand names, and outdated technologies. Artistic and musical can be brought back, sometimes unsuccessfully—and sometimes, perhaps, too successfully. Discuss with your team: is it true that old music is killing new music?
Things Really Do Catch Fire41 questions
  • The Hangzhou Round famously caught fire. But what is a fire, and how does it burn? Begin your exploration of this topic with the terms below:
    • oxidization | ignition | combustion | flash point | convection
    • fire triangle | fire tetrahedron | flame | fuel
  • Next, explore the history of fire. Was it discovered or invented, and by whom and when? How often is this history revised? (alternate link) Discuss with your team: if someone had first come up with fire in 2024, would they have been able to patent or copyright it? (And would it have been subject to international copyright laws?) Did anyone “own” fire in a similar way in the ancient world?
  • One way or another, people did start the fire. While fires can occur naturally, different methods—such as matches, and episodes of the Apprentice—now allow us to start them at will. Investigate historical fire-starting, from stones and flint to ants and lenses. Discuss with your team: should children be taught how to start fires—and, if so, at what age?
    • lighter | match | lenses | hand drill | fire striker | flint & steel | safety match
  • A fire that no one can extinguish: not Los Angeles in 2025 but a deadly weapon in Byzantine Greece. Learn the science and history of Greek fire. Would it still be a useful weapon today, and what are its closest modern-day equivalents? Be sure to study the examples of napalm, thermite, and white phosphorus.
  • For early humans, fire was surely useful for cooking raw Macrauchenia and for fending off saber-toothed tigers—but could it also have been used to create the ancient equivalent of cartoons? Consider this research into the prehistoric use of fire as a tool for animation, then discuss with your team: is this a form of art (or entertainment) that we should be reviving today? Can you imagine other forms of storytelling that utilize natural phenomena—for instance, strong winds—in a similar way?
  • On New Year’s Eve ___, a tragic fireworks accident killed many and maimed more in ____. Every year, those blanks can be filled in differently, most recently with 2024 and Hawaii. Though dangerous, fireworks remain popular around the world. Research their history with your team. What were the earliest fireworks—widely believed to have been invented in China—made of, and what was their purpose? When and how did they become the bright and colorful displays they are today? Discuss with your team: should they be outlawed, and, if so, is there something that could replace them in the popular imagination?
  • Music can be explosive; it can also be about explosives. Listen to the works below to see how the creators treat fireworks in their music. Are they celebrating or criticizing them, or is it impossible to tell? What instruments or lyrics do they use to channel the feeling of fireworks?
  • If you’ve ever gone camping on a cold night, you might have gathered around a fire with your friends to toast tasty s’mores and tell tasty stories. Every so often, someone needs to put more wood in the fire to keep it from going out—they are tending it. Early towns and villages had people assigned to this task full-time, because it was much harder to restart a fire than to keep it going. Explore the mythologies that emerged in early civilizations around the idea of keeping a fire alive and well, then discuss with your team: is there anything else similar to fire that is easier to keep alive than to restart once it is gone—and, if so, who tends to it?
  • Consider the fire-related selections below, then discuss with your team: do they treat fire literally or metaphorically, and to what end?
Speeches that Inspire, Speeches that Spit Fire15 questions
  • JFK’s most famous speech may have been about going to the moon, but that giant leap was a lot easier to achieve than peace in his (or our) time. Watch these selected excerpts from his “peace speech” at American University, then discuss with your team: is it possible to give a passionate speech about peace, and, if so, does JFK succeed here? Is he naïve about the role of the United States in world affairs? Then consider the speeches listed below and discuss with your team: are they, too, inspirational—or naïve? Can they be both?
  • Some people claim not to believe anything politicians say. For them, political speeches are works of fiction. But fictional politicians also give speeches—some of them very effectively. Consider the example below, then discuss with your team: what made them effective, and would they have worked equally well in the real world?
  • There is a long history of famous leaders traveling abroad to deliver speeches to audiences outside their own countries—sometimes to ask for help, sometimes to inspire. Consider U.S. President Barack Obama’s 2013 speech to the people of Mexico, with special attention to the concluding paragraphs, then discuss with your team: would the prime minister in Love, Actually have cheered this speech—or criticized it? What would he have said about this speech by the president of Ukraine? What leaders from abroad would you like to have visit and speak in your own community?
  • Explore the history of broadcasting and mass communication. How does technology impact the effectiveness and reach of speeches, news, and entertainment programs? Be sure to explore the following historically significant examples and discuss: how did technologies (new or repurposed) make each of them possible, and could they have worked in different mediums? For instance, would FDR’s fireside chats have been as effective if delivered over the Internet?
    • Fireside chats | Churchill's wartime broadcasts
    • Apollo 11 | Kennedy vs. Nixon | “Miracle on Ice”
    • Neujahrskonzert | Jazz Hour | Eurovision | Intervision
Reliving It Up16 questions
  • “Time of death,” says a doctor on TV, after frantic efforts to get someone’s heart pumping again fail, “5:11 am.” If it were only that simple! Research is increasingly suggesting that death is a complex process, sometimes reversible—sometimes not. Explore the differences between resuscitation and resurrection, then, without getting too dark, discuss with your team: how much of a person’s mind needs to be intact for it to be a good idea to keep them alive—and who should decide? You may also want to explore some historical ideas about what happens after death, including those below:
    • Valhalla | Tartarus | Diyu | Jigoku
    • Nirvana | samsara | happy hunting ground
  • It’s not as convenient as a wardrobe, but tensei stories offer an alternative portal to fantastical worlds: death and reincarnation. Explore this genre and discuss with your team: what are some common themes in these works, and why might they be so popular today? Could ours be the world that someone from another world be reincarnated in and perceive as fantastical?
  • People have searched for ways to live forever—well, basically forever (Alternate Link). Today, many fields of scientific research, many spurred on by billionaires, promise that we are on the cusp of finding the answer—or at least a way to extend our lives in unprecedented ways. Explore the following technologies and discuss with your team: would you choose to undergo these treatments if they were available to you? Would it be good for society if people lived for centuries?
    • cryonics | biomechatronics | regenerative medicine | genetic enhancement
    • senolytics | stem cell therapy | reproductive cloning | digital cloning
  • The manga series Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End portrays a 1000-year old elf with one regret: not getting to know her human companions better before they passed away. This is just one story in a long line of literary works exploring immortality and its consequences. Read the examples below, then discuss with your team: why is immortality such an attractive subject for storytellers? What are some common implications of immortality that they explore?
  • In 2002, researchers in the United States were able to reconstruct the polio virus from scratch—from materials they ordered in the mail. Explore the emerging field of synthetic biology, then discuss with your team: how might advances in this field help you and your loved ones in the future? What does it mean to synthesize a thing, versus simply to make it? And what future applications of synthetic biology can you imagine existing outside the human body?
  • For scientists interested in studying living organisms, they can turn to the UK’s National Collection of Type Cultures, a repository of century-old bacteria samples. Meanwhile, the thawing permafrost in the arctic is exposing pre-historical pathogens—a boon for adventurous virologists but one that raises the concerning possibility of transmission to modern-day humans. Explore with your team: why are so many of these efforts taking place in the arctic?
  • Noah might not have needed an ark if he’d had the Arctic. Stashed away above the Arctic circle, the Svalbard Global Seed Vault is dedicated to preserving seeds from around the world to guard against extinction. Research it and similar efforts, then discuss with your team: how important is the preservation of living samples of today’s species for future generations?
Entertaining Ourselves Back to Life16 questions
  • The third book of the Lord of the Rings trilogy is titled The Return of the King; in it (spoilers ahead) the character Aragorn returns to unite humanity against a dire threat. The idea of a prophesied king reappearing and bringing his people together again against a formidable foe is common in literary history, from the overtold legend of King Arthur to the incomplete story of Jon Snow. Explore some of the following legends, then discuss with your team: why do such stories have such appeal? What political developments in today’s world might have similar causes?
    • Horus | Yudhishthira | Jesus | Richard the Lionheart
    • Charles II | Louis XVIII | Henry VII | Juan Carlos I
    • Rodrigo Belmonte | The Hobbit | Prince Caspian | The Lion King
  • When at first you don’t succeed, try and try again—and, likely as not, flop harder. Napoleon Bonaparte returned from exile in Elba as a self-reproclaimed emperor, only to drown in misfortune at Waterloo. Look into the following figures whose careers took off post-exile, then discuss with your team: why was their second wind better than their first? Can you think of other examples of individuals, like Napoleon, who attempted a comeback—but failed spectacularly?
    • Dante | Confucius | Friedrich Engels
    • Albert Einstein | Leon Trotsky | Jimmy Carter
    • Malala Yousafzai | Sun Mu | Belarus Free Theatre | An-My Le
  • “Funny when you're dead, how people start listenin'” quipped the 2010 hit song “If I Die Young”. Consider the other now-famous dead people below and discuss with your team: what is the best way to reignite someone’s legacy? Vincent van Gogh, for instance, only became famous after his death thanks to the people in his life. Should we focus more on studying the works of those who are still alive, or does a creator’s death make their creations more interesting in some way?
    • Gregor Mendel | Alfred Wegener
    • Emily Dickinson | Franz Kafka | Anne Frank
    • Vivian Maier | Otis Redding | Jim Croce | Nick Drake
  • “I did it again” isn’t always an oops; it’s often a plan. Many artists re-record and sometimes greatly revise and recreate their own past works. Taylor Swift’s new “Version(s)” of her old albums have set the charts on fire even though most of her songs are little-changed—but for some, her success has had consequences. Discuss with your team: what is the right time to re-release existing works, and to what degree should the original creator need to be involved?
  • In 2023, electronic music artist Porter Robinson created the “Po-uta” voice bank to allow future artists to create songs using his voice. Check out this interview where he explains his motivations as well as the demonstration song “Humansongs”. Similarly, some Hollywood actors are creating digital clones of themselves with the help of AI—some to preserve their likeness for the future, others to accept multiple gigs at once. Explore these technologies with your team, then discuss with your team: when (and how much) does it matter whether an artwork is created by the artist themselves or their digital clone?
  • For years, people have wondered what Beethoven’s tenth symphony—the “Unfinished”—would have sounded like if he had lived a little bit longer. Now, an AI has taken on the task, with substantial human involvement. Read about the effort, then compare the outcome to this earlier attempt by the composer Barry Cooper. Which seems more authentic to you—and which has more artistic value? Are there other unfinished works you would like to see completed in a similar way?
  • Some people think a lot about the Roman Empire, but the songwriter Jorge Rivera-Herrans was more into ancient Greece. Explore the TikTok-documented story behind the creation of his EPIC: The Musical—which was inspired by Homer’s The Odyssey but blends modern genres, even video game music, and listen to at least this one example song (you’ll probably want to keep going): “Wouldn’t You Like”. Afterward, discuss with your team: should more creators communicate openly with the public while developing new works of fiction, theater, and art? Should we have done that with these outlines?
Much Excite, Much Ignite12 questions
  • Sometimes cars don’t start—but when they do, how does it happen? Explore the ways in which cars can be powered on. And that’s only the start(er): once a car is moving, it speeds away propelled by a series of mini-explosions that keep moving it along until the next traffic jam. With your team, explore the science behind internal combustion engines. How do they work, when were they invented, and are they obsolete? Be sure to consider the following topics:
    • internal combustion engine | heat engine | gas turbine engine | Wankel rotary engine
    • Otto engine | reciprocating piston engine | rotary engines | continuous combustion engines
    • hydrocarbons | diesel | biodiesel | bioethanol | ETBE | hydrogen
  • Long before Elon Musk’s Tesla, electric cars were already popular for their convenience, quietness, and lack of horse manure aroma. Electric cars were poised to dominate the twentieth century—and then they disappeared for a hundred years. With your teammates, explore the invention and spread of early automobiles. (alternate link) What happened to electric cars and what led to their return? What were some of the key innovations in automobiles? Have you ever gotten stuck inside a self-driving taxi? And, most importantly, where are our flying cars?
  • Even the sun is just a gas puddle—but someday that puddle will run dry. While some people worry about whether they will be able to afford a house in their thirties, and others about whether humanity will survive to see the 22nd century, a few very long-term thinkers are already concerned about the sun going dark—and are contemplating whether it could be revived. Read about the fate of the sun, and study how the sun and other stars actually work (for one, they aren’t technically burning), then discuss with your team: when is it worth it to think about problems that are still far in the future? How soon do they need to be expected to happen for them to become urgent considerations?
  • Volcanoes explode, and it’s not baking soda bubbling up inside of them. Explore the science of volcanic eruptions and study their consequences. Review the following cases and research: when and why do dormant volcanoes reawaken, and does human activity play a role? Also, what is an igneous rock?
    • Mount Vesuvius | Huaynaputina | Unzendake | Tambora | Krakatoa
    • Lake Nyos | Mount St. Helens | Eyjafjallajökull | Hunga Tonga | Yellowstone
  • Like dormant volcanoes, not every war can be suppressed forever. Treaties break; truces fail to hold. Explore why some periods of conflict lasted as long as they did, then discuss with your team: what does it take to “put out” a war so that it doesn’t reignite? To what extent were there periods of quiet within the larger scope of the violence around them? Is the best way to achieve a lasting peace for one side to win a conflict decisively?
    • Punic Wars | Hundred Years War | Wars of the Roses
    • Mongol Invasions | Reconquista (Spain) | 335 Years War
The Generative Area: A Mind for Imagination23 questions
  • During a difficult conversation, you look down and see what looks like a giraffe in the carpet. This phenomenon—the human brain’s ability to find patterns and images even where none exist—is called pareidolia. Research how pareidolia works. Then discuss with your team: would humanity be better off if we only saw what was literally in front of us? When does pareidolia most hurt us—and when does it most help us?
  • Are some settings better for creativity? “Beginnings are contagious there, they’re always setting stages there”—the song “Once Upon a Time in New York City” praises the Big Apple as a place for dreamers, fervent with opportunities for reinvention. Ernest Hemingway and Scott Fitzgerald, among many other writers of their era, hung out with other writers in Paris. Explore the history of the salon, or gatherings where creative and intellectual spirits meet frequently to share and develop ideas, then discuss with your team: is there a place in your country that beckons to the creatively-minded? Has the salon been replaced in the modern world by the Internet—and if so, how?
  • Consider the neurobiology of imagination: what actually happens in your brain when you are imagining things? Explore the terms below, then hypothesize with your team: how might a person’s imagination be affected if you alter one or more of these elements? How do they relate to emotions, belief, suppositions, and fantasy?
    • memory | mental imagery | perception | world view
    • neocortex | thalamus | frontal cortex | REM sleep
  • Research drugs that stimulate the imagination, then discuss with your team: should all these be considered illegal hallucinogens? Be sure to consider how and to what degree a hallucination varies from a simulation, a rehearsal, or other acts of the imagination. For instance, when is a daydream a hallucination?
  • While how to become more imaginative is a question most frequently answered by self-help publications and clinics that also offer derriere implants, some mainstream treatments and techniques do exist and are practiced in the real world. Explore the following approaches and terms then discuss with your team: which do you think would be most effective?
    • active imagination | hypnagogia | mind wandering | hypnosis | meditation
    • psychological distance | nature experiences | novel experiences
  • One used by writers is called “writing with constraints”. If their options are limited—for instance, if they cannot use the letter A in a story—someone struggling to put words on a blank page might dodge that first paralyzing moment of decision-making. Artificial limitations “provide a certain level of texture against which a metaphorical match can more easily be struck,” says the writer Matthew Tomkinson. Many traditional poetic forms—especially strict ones, such as haiku—are examples of this approach. Read about others across different genres, including those of the French Oulipo movement, then learn more about the selections below. Afterward, discuss with your team: should more creators use this technique? When they do, should it be advertised to the public? Would you want to try it for your World Scholar’s Cup writing event?
  • Disney’s theme park designers are infamously branded as “Imagineers”—in just one of the many ways that imagination is celebrated in popular culture. Check out the following works, then discuss with your team: what perspective do they take on imagination? Do they share any common messages?
  • The 2016 short film Shelter portrays a girl living alone in a simulation, passing her days imagining virtual worlds—until one day a letter arrives explaining how she got there. This film is one of many that explores how the human mind can remain active in a world without physical stimuli—which could be your fate if humans achieve digital immortality in our lifetimes. Learn more about the brain activities of coma patients and those living in isolation, then discuss with your team: what would it take for you to be happy living without a body?
  • After learning about the mechanics of imagination in the human brain, take a stand in the debate over whether current generative AI models possess actual imagination and creativity. Would it be possible to train these models to become more imaginative over time? Be sure to consider concerns over “model collapse” and yet-to-be-achieved artificial general intelligence, then discuss with your team: what makes human imagination so difficult to replicate?
No Backup, But Restore12 questions
  • Some creative works—including film, theatrical productions, and even novels—fail at the first go, but are then reworked in new ways months, years, or even decades later, in hopes that they can find that missing spark. Consider the musical Ragtime as an example of this kind of rebuilding project, then explore the selections below. In which cases did the new version of a project succeed where the first hadn’t? Should the early incarnations of a piece be studied alongside those that succeeded later, or left in the dustbin of history?
  • “Liberally mix major and minor scales and lydian mode,” one blogger advises anyone on a (five-or-more-minute) mission to write music with a science fiction flavor. What do these terms mean, and Is there such a thing as a “future” riff—a musical shortcut that helps to set a time and place, but in this case for a time and place that haven’t happened yet? Be sure to consider the song “A TV Show Called Earth” and to discuss with your team: does the songwriter choose to make it sound alien or futuristic—and, if so, how?
  • Blocks fall from above in various configurations as this iconic music plays: the Japanese composer Hirokazu Tanaka’s original soundtrack for Tetris is a classic of the genre. Discuss with your team: should we be creating more of this chiptune music today? (Alternate Link) Continue your exploration of the history of video game music, then discuss with your team: is video game music a legitimate form of art? And would music, and literature and art in general, benefit from more limitations such as those imposed by low-powered processors and audio capabilities on early video games—or from fewer?
  • Some people’s fingers whirl across the screen tapping and flicking with uncanny efficiency; others hesitate, or aim and miss, or fire at things that aren’t there. Rhythm games are a great source of entertainment, but they can also help people with injuries—or even brain damage—rebuild their motor and mental skills. Consider their broader history of rhythm games, learn more about (and hopefully play!) the examples below, and then discuss with your team: how could rhythm games be used in schools for educational purposes? What kind of rhythm game would you design if you wanted to create a popular product? And could rhythm games be changing how future music is composed and appreciated?
    • Osu | Beat Saber | Dance Dance Revolution | Guitar Hero | maimai
    • Beatmania | Deemo | Just Dance | Tap Tap Revenge
Punky Futures25 questions
Concluding Questions3 questions
  • Reconstruct, reimagine, reignite: consider the works of David Irvine as examples of how new art can be made from old things, even those found in thrift stores. Will the future be built from bits of the past, or from materials we haven’t even imagined yet? What would you prefer to see?
  • Listen to the song “Section 52 (Morning Sun, I Built the Stairs)” by the Polyphonic Spree, and then consider whether it feels more like a song about beginnings, endings, or starting over again. Is it optimistic about what comes next? Are you?
  • Work with your team to imagine yourselves reuniting in 20 years; you can even use AI tools online to create images of what you’ll like in the future. What kind of world will you be living in, and what sorts of people will you become? Which of your dreams, if any, do you think will need reigniting?

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