Ministry of the Future
Overview
Founded in 2072, the Ministry of the Future is a public institution with an international team of over 10,000 researchers, domain experts distributed across offices in every district across GATA. The Ministry also collaborates closely with local governments, consultancy partners, and other stakeholders and representatives in GATA society.
A bicameral institution focused on GATA's future, the Ministry is an advisory council and a research fund dedicated to identifying major technological, economic, and geopolitical risks and opportunities for GATA's territorial interests, and its institutions and enterprise.
Function
The Ministry of the Future focuses primarily on identifying deep trends, novel research with unforeseen potential, and systemic risks across all domains.
Key areas of focus guide the Ministry's enterprise investments, and structure their advisory reports, which go beyond innovation and enterprise to include geo-strategic and political analysis.
Due to the need for Ministry workers to communicate and interact with a wide range of parties across every domain of GATA society, they also functionally serve a de facto diplomatic role for their district.
Leadership
Each district's Ministry operations are dually coordinated by two executive roles: a "Minister" and a "Caller".
The Minister is selected according to the district's charter (typically by appointment from local government leadership) who determines the focus of their Ministry's research and forecasting, and who represents the district at all Ministry-wide assemblies in Atla.
The Ministry's Caller is selected from among the Ministry's members by the members themselves, and is tasked with the disbursement of the Ministry's investment fund, and the analysis of Ministry investment performance over a wide range of time scales, from minutes to decades.
Operation
Directors form committees and working groups tasked to address their Ministry's key areas of focus, informed by local economic, environmental, geo-political, and industrial interests.
In drafting reports, forecasts, and investment proposals, Ministry committees often consult directly with leaders of community organizations, local and cross-jurisdictional institutions, enterprise, and other stakeholders.
Ministry members endorse reports and forecasts from all Ministries across GATA, informing which findings will inform Ministry advisory and investment positions.
Ministry reports and forecasts often focus on 10, 20, 50, and 100 year time horizons, and balance philosophical vision with clear-eyed probabilistic planning, prioritization, and preparedness.
The Ministry's fund exists to partially align the Ministry's incentives with the present, providing direct feedback from the market and performance metrics. When the Ministry is right, the fund reflects their insight regardless of whether their consultation is heeded by partners.
As a public institution the Ministry is partially funded by the Second Quorum, and the returns on the Ministry's investments are used to help fund GATA's System Yield, as well as future investments in science, industry and enterprise.
The Ministry has some interaction with the Research Corps and does occasionally host the Speaker of ALTAR to inform their research and projections.
Internal Culture
While it is part of the Ministry's mandate to remain dispassionate and impartial in its research and advisory contributions, it is widely understood that the Ministry's current internal culture is frustrated by deepening schisms.
As demographics in the Ministry have shifted to reflect the citizenry of GATA's growing constellation of districts, a vocal contingent of staunchly neo-decelerationist members have attained increased influence in Ministry affairs.
This contingent's less-than-optimistic reports and forecasts have been rising in popularity among some representatives in the Second Quorum who share those concerns in their district's interests, spurring a reactionary hardening of neo-accelerationist voices within the Ministry who reject views they perceive as backwards and dangerously aligned with the Eidetic worldview.
While the Ministry's reporting branch has been gripped by the neo-decelerationists, the accelerationist faction has reinforced its control over the Ministry's fund management.
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