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World Scholars Cup 2025 Guiding Questions

The document outlines a series of thought-provoking questions and topics related to the future, societal changes, and the impact of technology on human relationships and mental health. It encourages discussions on various themes such as the perception of time, the evolution of societal norms, and the role of technology in addressing loneliness and predicting future trends. Additionally, it explores the balance between optimism and pessimism regarding future prospects, as well as the resurgence of interest in divination and methods of predicting the future.

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0% found this document useful (0 votes)
267 views26 pages

World Scholars Cup 2025 Guiding Questions

The document outlines a series of thought-provoking questions and topics related to the future, societal changes, and the impact of technology on human relationships and mental health. It encourages discussions on various themes such as the perception of time, the evolution of societal norms, and the role of technology in addressing loneliness and predicting future trends. Additionally, it explores the balance between optimism and pessimism regarding future prospects, as well as the resurgence of interest in divination and methods of predicting the future.

Uploaded by

bielenberg
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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https://themes.scholarscup.org/#/themes/2025/guidingquestions

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Introductory 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

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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?

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The Best is Yet to Be, or Not To Be?
●​ 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?)

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●​ 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?

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In Futurity, Someone Prophetic Sees
●​ 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?
■​ Horace | “Ode I. 11” (23 BCE)
■​ William Butler Yeats | “The Second Coming” (1919)
■​ Robert Frost | “Fire and Ice” (1920)
■​ Emily Dickinson | “The Future—never spoke” (1921)
●​ 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

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predictions. Review the following artworks with your team, then discuss with your team:
what are they trying to tell us?
■​ Art
■​ Caravaggio | The Fortune Teller (c. 1595)
■​ Georges de la Tour | The Fortune Teller (c. 1630)
■​ Michael Vrubel | The Fortune Teller (1895)
■​ Julio Romero de Torres | The Fortune Teller (1922)
■​ Helena Sofia Schjerfbeck | The Fortune Teller (Woman in a
Yellow Dress) (1926)
■​ Jose Luis Cuevas | Dreams of Rasputin (1968)
■​ Music
■​ Georges Bizet | “Trio des Cartes” (1875)
■​ Carl Orff | “O Fortuna” (1935)
■​ Benny Spellman | “Fortune Teller” (1962)
■​ Al Stewart | “Nostradamus” (1973)
■​ Suzanne Vega | “Predictions” (1990)
●​ 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.
■​ Ted Chiang | “What's expected of us” (2005)
■​ C. Robert Cargill | Excerpts from Sea of Rust (2007)
■​ Sam Hughes | “I don't know, Timmy, being God Is a big responsibility” (2007)
●​ 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?
■​ Aztec agricultural calendar | Mayan cyclical calendars | zodiac | solar terms
■​ computus | saros | Metonic cycle | Antikythera mechanism
●​ 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
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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

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The Future Wasn’t Meant to Be
●​ 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?
■​ Scorpions | “Wind of Change” (1990)
■​ Jesus Jones | “Right Here, Right Now” (1991)
■​ Michael Jackson | “Heal the World” (1991)
■​ Michael Crawford | “Counting Up to Twenty” (1995)
■​ Will Smith | “Will 2K” (1999)
●​ 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?
■​ Alice Coltrane | “Journey In Satchidananda” (1971)
■​ Vangelis | “To the Unknown Man” (1977)
■​ Kitaro | “Theme From Silk Road” (1980)
■​ Enya | “Caribbean Blue” (1991)
■​ Enigma | “Return To Innocence” (1994)

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If At First You Fall, Try, Try Again
●​ 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
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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?

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Things Really Do Catch Fire
●​ 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? 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
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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?
■​ George Frideric Handel | Music for the Royal Fireworks (1749)
■​ Igor Stravinsky | Feu d'artifice (1908)
■​ Claude Debussy | “Feux d'artifice” (1913)
■​ Oliver Knussen | Flourish with Fireworks (1988)
■​ halyosy | “Fire◎Flower” (2008)
■​ Katy Perry | “Firework” (2010)
●​ 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?
■​ Art
■​ Georges de La Tour | Magdalen with the Smoking Flame (1640)
■​ Jan Griffier | Great Fire of London, 1666
■​ Paul Sandby | Windsor Castle from the Lower Court, on the 5th
November (1776)
■​ J.M.W. Turner | The Burning of the Houses of Lords and
Commons, 16 October 1834 (1835)
■​ Tsukioka Yoshitoshi | The Moon in Smoke (1886)
■​ Alberto Burri | Red Plastic (1961)
■​ Yves Klein | Fire Paintings (1957-1961)
■​ Music
■​ Joseph Haydn | Fire Symphony (c. 1760)
■​ Richard Wagner | “Magic Fire Music” (1870)
■​ Jean Sibelius | The Origin of Fire (1910)
■​ Igor Stravinsky | Suite from The Firebird (1919)
■​ Sergei Prokofiev | Winter Bonfire (1951)
■​ Jerry Lee Lewis | “Great Balls of Fire” (1957)
■​ Johnny Cash | “Ring of Fire” (1963)
■​ Vangelis | “Chariots Of Fire” (1981)
■​ Billy Joel | “We Didn’t Start The Fire” (1989)
■​ Literature
■​ William Blake | “The Tyger” (1794)
■​ Forrest Gander | “Wasteland: on the California Wildfires” (2020)
■​ Linda Hogan | “The History of Fire” (2021)

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■​ Jorie Graham | “I Am Still” (2023)

Speeches that Inspire, Speeches that Spit Fire


●​ 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?
■​ The White Man and the Red | Red Jacket (1906)
■​ Appeal to the League of Nations | Haile Selassie (1936)
■​ The Forgotten People | Robert Menzies (1942)
■​ A Tryst with Destiny | Jawaharlal Nehru (1947)
●​ 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?
■​ “They’ll never take our freedom” | Braveheart (1995)
■​ “Today we celebrate our Independence Day” | Independence Day (1996)
■​ “The streets of heaven are too crowded” | The West Wing: Season 4 (2002)
■​ “We’re a great one too” | Love, Actually (2003)
●​ 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
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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 Up
●​ “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. 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

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attractive subject for storytellers? What are some common implications of immortality that
they explore?
■​ William Wordsworth | “Ode: Intimations of Immortality” (1815)
■​ Alfred Lord Tennyson | “Tithonus” (1833)
■​ Mary Shelley | “The Mortal Immortal” (1833)
■​ Ray Bradbury | “Hail and Farewell” (1948)
■​ Ursula K. Le Guin | “The Island of the Immortals” (1998)
●​ 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?

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Entertaining Ourselves Back to Life
●​ 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
■​ The Hobbit | Prince Caspian | Kimba the White Lion
●​ 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?
■​ Albert Einstein | Leon Trotsky | Jimmy Carter | Friedrich Engels
■​ Dante | Confucius | Rodrigo Belmonte
■​ 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

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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?

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Much Excite, Much Ignite
●​ 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. 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
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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 Imagination


●​ 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?
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■​ 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 here 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?
■​ Yuen Ren Chao | “Lion-Eating Poet in the Stone Den” (c. 1930s)
■​ Marianne Moore | “No Swan So Fine” (1932)
■​ Ernest Vincent Wright | Gadsby, Chapter 1 (1939)
■​ Dylan Thomas | “Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night” (1951)
■​ Kimiko Hahn | “[the whale already]” (2022)
●​ 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?
■​ Tommy Dorsey | “Imagination” (1940)
■​ Gene Wilder | “Pure Imagination” (1971)
■​ John Lennon | “Imagine” (1971)
■​ Evanescence | “Imaginary” (2000)
■​ Cast of Mary Poppins Returns | “Can You Imagine That?” (2018)
●​ 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?
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●​ 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 Restore


●​ 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?
■​ Ragtime | “Wheels of a Dream” (1998) vs. “Wheels of a Dream” (2009)
■​ Martin Guerre | “I Will Make You Proud” (1994) vs. “Justice Will Be Done”
(1999)
■​ Mulan | “Reflection” vs “Written in Stone” (1998)
■​ Alanis Morissette | “Ironic” (1995) vs “Ironic” (2015)
■​ K.D. Lang | “Surrender” (1997) vs. Sheryl Crow | "Tomorrow Never Dies"
(1997)
■​ Billy Joel | “We Didn’t Start The Fire” (1989) vs Fall Out Boy | “We Didn’t Start
the Fire” (2023)
●​ “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

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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? 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 Futures
●​ The future began in 1909—or, at least, futurism did. When Italian poet Filippo Tommaso
Marinetti coined the word 'futurism', he imagined a world of speed, danger, and beauty. To
him, this future could be found in the swift efficiency of the automobile. Today’s futurists look
further ahead to artificial intelligence, space travel, and the blending of human and
machine. Explore the origin and development of futurism, then discuss with your team: how
is it different from science fiction—or is it? Should we value works that predicted futures that
never came to be? Be sure to look into the two early futurist works listed below:
■​ Giacomo Balla | Dynamism of a Dog on a Leash (1912)
■​ Umberto Boccioni | Unique Forms of Continuity in Space (1913)
●​ Later artists and writers adapted futurism’s interest in technology to imagine liberation and
empowerment for different communities. Research the history of Afrofuturism, from its
origins in the Space Age to Marvel’s Wakanda Forever, then discuss with your team: what
makes something 'Afrofuturist'? Could an artist be 'Asiafuturist' or 'Amerifuturist' instead?
Consider the following selections:
■​ Sun Ra | “Space is the Place” (1973)

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■​ Marvel | Black Panther (book cover) (1977) vs Black Panther (movie poster)
(2018)
■​ Grace Jones | “Nightclubbing” (1981)
■​ Flying Lotus | “Galaxy In Janaki” (2010)
■​ Kendrick Lamar | “Black Panther” (2018)
■​ Cyrus Kabiru | Miyale Ya Blue (2020)
●​ Solarpunk offers a more optimistic vision of the future, one in which technology and nature
exist in harmony rather than conflict. Consider Sim City 2000’s arcologies, futuristic
mega-structures designed to support entire communities. In the real world, solarpunk can
inform anything from architecture to game design. Consider the following works. How do
they convey a feeling of optimism about technology and the future, and have any solarpunk
dreams been realized? Discuss with your team: would you like to live in a solarpunk future?
■​ Hayao Miyazaki | Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (1984)
■​ Gojira | “Global Warming” (2005)
■​ Blizzard Entertainment | Overwatch (2016)
■​ N. K. Jemison | “The Ones Who Stay and Fight” (2020)
■​ Common | “Imagine” (2021)
■​ Christian Holland | Wind Farmer (2022)
■​ Free Lives | Terra Nil (2023)
■​ Utopian Art Machine | “SolarPunk Anthem” (2024)
■​ Lynn D. Jung | “We Cast Our Eyes to the Unknowable Now” (2025)
●​ The atompunk movement imagines what the world would have been like if the “Atomic Age”
after World War II had continued to flourish on to the present day. Explore works in this
style, including the Fallout video game and TV series along with those below, then discuss
with your team: would you want to live in an atompunk vision of the present?
■​ Sons of the Pioneers | “Old Man Atom” (1945)
■​ The Golden Gate Quartet | “Atom and Evil” (1946)
■​ Five Stars | “Atom Bomb Baby” (1957)
■​ Tom Lehrer | “So Long, Mom (A Song For World War III)” (1965)

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Concluding 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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