Title of the original newyorker article: Jonathan Ledgard Believes Imagination Could Save The World
Jonathan Ledgard, who was the East Africa war correspondent for The Economist, and “turned to work on speculative projects for a more equitable, sustainable future that ranges from practical and humanitarian to fanciful and abstract. The world, according to Ledgard and his collaborators, might stand a chance:
“In 2012, Ledgard quit his job, moved to Switzerland, and began a fellowship at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, one of Europe’s best research institutes. “It was very important to me to be in an almost autistically scientific environment,” he said—not “hanging around with political scientists or economists or anthropologists and having the usual conversations, learning nothing.” He pinned photographs of a Nokia 1100 and a Kalashnikov next to his desk, as reminders of why he was there. (Kalashnikov is one of the most common guns there. Nokia 1100 is the most popular model of the phone there)”