Technology is our Next Nature
Hello Earthling
The planet is changing. Climate change, artificial intelligence, urbanization. Human presence is everywhere. Next Nature tells the story of humans changing their world with the fruits of knowledge, design and technology. We are open, hopeful, forward-looking people who want to move not backward, but forward to nature. We are making an impact worldwide, with members in 44 countries. In our museum of the future in Eindhoven, experience the vision in real life.
Open Call: Future of Health
We invite artists, designers, thinkers, and makers to envision new perspectives on care, well-being, and health. What does the future of health look like in a constantly changing world? Share your project proposal, surprise us with your vision, and stand a chance to become part of our exhibition.
On show in our spaceship
Currently shining in our spaceship are groundbreaking exhibitions you won't want to miss: Once upon a time... the Earty, Digital Wellness Center and RetroFuture. Fancy more adventure? Then book a journey through time in our Synthetic Reality experience or try to escape from the Quantum Escape Room!
Experience autumn at Next Nature
Discover the interactive world of the Next Nature Museum together this autumn break, a place where nature and technology converge. Enjoy everything from exhibitions and activities to inspiring events for all ages.
Online Magazine
Not only do we explore the next nature in our Future Museum, we also do so online, in our magazine. Here you will find thousands of articles in which we analyse trends and explore possible futures. Read, for example, about computers made of brain cells or discover the game world of Microtopia. In a rapidly changing world, Next Nature is your guide to the future.
Your event in our spaceship
Looking for an inspiring location for your event or meeting? Our spaceship has a diversity of rooms, suitable for events up to 1400 people. Offer your visitors a unique experience and the inspiration to move forward. From the invitation to the review: your congress, event or meeting will have all the attention it deserves.
Learn by wondering
At Next Nature, wonder is the starting point for learning. No matter what anyone knows, there is always more to be excited about and explore. Curious how your organization, company or team can harness the future for today's challenges? With our Next Nature Academy programs, we offer the philosophy, method and tools you need.
Why Next Nature?
Virtual worlds, printed food, living cities and wild robots. We are so surrounded by technology that it is becoming our “next nature. It sounds abstract, but it is actually very close; cars drive themselves and heart valves are printed. The technosphere already outweighs the biosphere. How do we find a common future for all life? How do you navigate this new reality? How do we become a better crew for Spaceship Earth?
What do we make?
The best way to predict the future is to make it. Our research into the nature of the future comes to life in exhibits, events, education and publications that can be experienced and make an impact worldwide. Together we make a dreamed future especially life on Earth. In our future museum in Eindhoven, experience the vision in real life. See an overview of our projects.
Who are we?
We are a nonprofit network of creative makers, thinkers and contributors. Open, hopeful, forward-thinking people who want to move not backward but forward into nature. With members in 44 countries, we are the international network for anyone interested in debating our future - where biology and technology merge. We want to save not only the panda and the rainforest, but also humans.
How do we work?
We are a radar for possible futures, making them experienceable for all. So that there is a more meaningful conversation about the future we want. Our approach is open-minded, hopeful, playful, educational and connecting. It takes little effort to imagine a future where everything goes wrong; the newspapers are full of them. It takes imagination and creativity to imagine a world in which you yourself wish to live and also grant others.
Support us and become a member!
In a landscape of traditional nature organizations, we are the only one approaching the concept of nature in a new way. Conservation is important, but we must also dare to look forward. Do you think you will ever eat cultured meat? Do robots pose a threat to your work? Why does a tree from the jungle not yet represent ecological value?
If you agree with us and think road good work, support us by becoming a member.
✓ Our editorial newsletter in your inbox every month!
✓ Make research and actions possible.
✓ Discounts on all our (web)shop items.
✓ Only 25 euros per year.
Next Nature Projects
Our projects range from a VR time machine where you explore the far future of the earth, to a Spacefarming exhibition about food in 2050, to a fictional sneaker company that ignites a debate about biotechnology, to a smartphone app that lets you hear WIFI signals, to an ECO coin for ecological value, to the world's first cookbook for lab-grown meat. Using stimulating and playful projects, exhibitions and products to stimulate debate and collectively define our future is our goal.
Next Nature philosophy
Man's impact on the earth can hardly be underestimated. Think of climate change, urbanization or genetic engineering. Unspoiled Nature hardly exists anymore. Certainly in the Netherlands every meter land has been artificially arranged. At the same time, our technological environment has become so complicated that a new kind of Nature is emerging: it is man-made.
Uncontrollable financial crises, traffic jams and computer viruses. While technology was originally deployed to free us from the wild forces of nature, it has now developed its own natural dynamics, which may be as wild and unpredictable as ever. Time to refresh our image of nature.
Next Nature does not want to go back, but forward to nature. We want to get away from the romantic image of a paradise nature that was better before man appeared. Man is part of nature. Evolution continues and nature changes with us. We want to harness technology for a more natural world. Because ultimately we have to save not only the panda, but also humans.
Our goals: what we want
1. Communicate a richer nature consciousness
Disseminate the changing image of the relationship between humans, nature and technology.
2. Balancing biology and technology
Exploring how technology develops its own natural dynamics. Make visible and strengthen connections between the biosphere and technosphere.
3. Train the crew for Spaceship Earth
Make sure that tomorrow's humans will also have a livable existence by charting a path to the future that is desirable for humanity and for our planet as a whole.
Our vision: what we think
Nature changes along with us
Although it is tempting to think the perfect natural paradise existed, before humans got their hands on it, we need to realise that nature has always been in motion. Evolution goes on. Nature is a dynamic rather than a static reality.
People aren't separate from nature. We're part of it.
We’re not an anti-natural species, capable only of spoiling and wrecking nature. We come from nature. When a bird builds a nest, we call it nature; when people build a network of motorways, it’s fundamentally no different, except that our impact is much greater than the bird’s.
We shouldn't be obsessed with unspoilt nature.
There are few or no places left on earth where human beings have not gone or their presence can’t be felt. A romantic yearning for untouched nature won’t help us to deal with pressing issues like climate change, deforestation and declining biodiversity.
We're co-evolving with technology.
Just as bees and flowers have evolved to be symbiotic – bees, as they gather nectar, help flowers to reproduce – people are dependent on technology and vice versa. We are technological creatures. Since our first day as human beings, we’ve created technology. It comes naturally to us. Our technology has grown so complex and omnipresent, though, that it’s developed a natural dynamism of its own, and we need to understand it better.
We're a factor in evolution
Although it is tempting to think the perfect natural paradise existed, before humans got their hands on it, we need to realise that nature has always been in motion. Evolution goes on. Nature is a dynamic rather than a static reality.
Human beings are not the dominant species on earth.
Although it’s seductive to think of human beings as the dominant species on earth, many others play important roles too. Bacteria, insects, algae colonies, and the technological systems with which we are co-evolving all have a dynamism and an agenda of their own, separate from the human perspective.
We must go forward to Nature.
We can set the goal of developing technology that takes our human needs and strengths as its point of departure; that gives us power; that enhances our senses and our capabilities; that connects to our instincts and the dreams about ourselves that we’ve realised. Such technology will feel completely natural. Truly advanced technology is indistinguishable from nature.
Nature likes to hide itself.
We’ll never be able to completely understand or analyse nature. We must remain humble in the presence of nature. We are just one species on a small blue dot in a vast cosmic theatre. Nature is bigger than us. It will always continue to surprise, amaze and challenge us. It will never stop, and that’s a wonderful thing.