D&D at the University of the Philippines Los Banos

The FlowKeeper!

I really enjoyed the futures conversation I had with the Masters in Social Development and Sustainability (MSDS) students and faculty during our DSDS Meet Up at the University of the Philippines Los Baños last weekend. It was such an intimate and inspiring foresight exchange. We explored futures studies, colonial and decolonial foresight, indigeneity, anticipatory governance, imagination, and even preposterous futures, all through the playful lens of the Dreams and Disruptions Game. I’m deeply grateful for the energy, openness, and ideas everyone brought into the space.

One scenario that stood out to me was the idea of water as a surveillance mechanism within a PROUTist economic society, with aquifers as a key variable — a strange, yet deeply thought-provoking vision of a possible future a hundred years from now.

Water as Living Surveillance Mechanism

In this scenario, water itself becomes a living surveillance medium tracking human behavior, presence, and even ecological rhythms. The logic follows that water is everywhere, and it flows through everyone from rivers and aquifers to our own bodies and brains. Within a PROUTist economic framework, surveillance is reimagined as a shared cooperative resource, not a commodity ,used to protect and preserve nature rather than to control it. In essence, water surveillance could be managed collectively for safety and stewardship, instead of being owned by states or corporations.

Is this scientifically and societally plausible? I think so. Emerging issue scans point to its possibility: using water to monitor air and water quality, embedding sensors for digital networks, or enabling optical communication through water. (See for example: Vision-intelligence to track and align optical communication through water https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.21290

This raises a bigger question: what kind of leadership archetype would it take to make such a future morally and ethically responsible? A Sadvipra, perhaps? Could disruptions — like those surfaced in our game help guide the evolution of water surveillance toward cooperative governance and ecological stewardship, rather than authoritarian control?

 My takeaway: even the strangest ideas can reveal new pathways for how we imagine and govern the future. Sometimes, the “preposterous” is what helps us see possibilities we never thought existed.

Maraming Salamat Dr. Jenny Sunga-Amparo and team!