Let us end where we started, with a glimpse at the future several years from now. People visit clinics just like they do now. However, the consultations are not only about recovery from illness, but also about adapting to change. Doctors and patients work together as co-experts, and patients are the experts of their own lives. The contribution of the doctors is their knowledge of the diseases and the treatment options. They have the skills to ask solution-focused questions, inviting patients to add their own perspectives. In this way, knowledge from research can be optimally used for what is working for this person, at this moment, in this context. Protocols aren’t paramount anymore; the realization of a new and better life is what matters. What is the patient’s goal? What’s already working? And what will be the next signs of progress? Doctors ask feedback about the approach and their own role in the process. This has a beneficial effect on the treatment, it ensures a more equal doctor-patient relationship, and it improves the doctor’s competences.

In this future vision, society values diversity and encourages the use of strengths. People with different backgrounds and educational levels do not live separately, but interact everywhere. This is not only more fun, but also more successful. The vanguard makes sure no one is left behind. Attention is paid to education and equal opportunities for all; a remedy against hunger and poverty. Social networks don’t fuel social division, but serve as platforms for collaboration, and think tanks for developing new ideas

Coherence is important in this society. You could call it Ubuntu. A person can only exist through other people. To quote Barack Obama’s address at Nelson Mandela’s memorial service, “We are all bound together in ways that are invisible to the eye.” [1] This worldview acknowledges that everyone has skills and strengths, that we don’t live in isolation, but become more complete through cooperation and mutual support. A legal system is appropriate here, in which laws form a foundation, but also with room for special circumstances, for mediation and for restorative justice instead of retributive justice.

In this society economy is based on organic thinking. It is circular; no more waste, but always reuse. Efficiency, the highest goal in days gone by, is now balanced with flexibility. This creates the resilience that is needed to adapt in the event of disruptions. It prevents, for example, a shortage of medical staff or hospital beds during a pandemic. And a collapse of global supply chains due to the lack of specific components is no longer an issue. We adjust and adapt if necessary.

Modern agriculture is not an industry. It no longer consists of large-scale monocultures. On the contrary, attention is paid to variation and coherence, so that the balance that has arisen over millions of years is not disturbed. It is this respect for self-organization in nature that reduces disruptive factors, thus averting a climate crisis and preventing the suffering of animals.

Now dataism is over, technology has taken on a supporting role. New generations of powerful quantum computers do not calculate with ‘0’s or 1’s’, yes or no, right or wrong, but also with everything in between. These systems give us feedback on ongoing developments. In this way they support the balance in coherence when new things are created. The flourishing of this society is not so much about growth in numbers or speed, but above all in quality. It’s about what’s important to us, in relation to each other, to our environment, and to the planet. In 2050 the world will continue to turn….

What if the whole is greater than the sum of its parts? Some questions are too good to spoil with an answer. However, some answers are even more beautiful. Discover coherence!