Welcome to this week’s edition of Simon Sees!
This edition was sparked by our latest Future With Friends episode with the wonderful Lizzie Davidson, where we explored ‘The Future of Meaningful’. Together we unpacked how meaning and connection might shape a post-reset world—one where community matters more than consumption.
In this round of signals, we begin with a powerful piece on Universal Basic Income and the radical idea of money without strings. If financial pressure was removed, would we choose more meaningful work—and ultimately, be happier?
Next, we head to the University of Melbourne, where researchers are imagining a life beyond capitalism—one grounded in care, community, and environmental limits. And finally, we sneak in a little Simon Reads with The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson. Its fictional government department offers a very real provocation: perhaps meaning is found not in comfort, but in responsibility.
In a world where everything is being optimised, commodified or outsourced, maybe the most revolutionary act is to pause and ask—what really matters? And are we in fact building futures that make space for it?
THE GUARDIAN
Money for nothing: is universal basic income about to transform society?
“The concept of a guaranteed income is gaining traction as a solution to the impact of AI and way to encourage more rewarding and socially valuable work.”
UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE
Post-capitalism: Life within environmental limits
“Capitalism’s limitless growth on a finite planet means the economic system we take for granted could end soon. If so, transformative and sustainable change must come from grassroots action.”
Book
Kim Stanley Robinson
The ministry for the future
From the visionary New York Times bestselling author of New York 2140 comes a near-future novel that is a gripping exploration of climate change, technology, politics, and the human behaviours that drive these forces.
THE FUTURE WITH FRIENDS PODCAST
Ep 9: The Future of Meaningful
In this episode, Simon Waller sits down with the sweary and sharp-witted Scottish writer Lizzie Davidson to explore the timely and deeply human topic: The Future of Meaningful.
Lizzie shares a bold and hopeful future scenario set in the aftermath of a great global reset — triggered by the trajectory we’re currently on: climate collapse, pandemics, conflict. But rather than dystopia, this is a world where consumerism has been replaced with connection, and the fundamentals of life — housing, food, education, healthcare — are no longer things people have to worry about.
As Simon puts it, this was “easily the most utopian scenario that someone has produced for the show so far.” But the conversation isn’t naive. Together, they unpack the real-world tensions between individualism and community, and the societal work required for such a future to emerge. It’s a vision rooted in deep congruence — a world where people show up the same in their work lives as they do in their personal lives.
They explore the joy in everyday things, the sticky process of imagining a better future, and how we might each become weak signals for the change we want to see — quietly lighting the way toward what’s possible.
This conversation is both deeply uplifting and quietly challenging. Because maybe meaning isn’t something we find. Maybe it’s something we practice.
Also available on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
Simon
