Future Design

C92

C93

D02

D72

D82

P41

Members of future generations are yet unborn. Therefore they cannot participate in markets and cannot vote in democratic elections. This paper surveys a number of articles that incorporate future generations in current decision-making. Consider the Demeny voting system that allows parents to vote as proxies for their children. In an experiment, the parents did not always vote in their children's interest and people who voted for younger generations under a normal voting system did not necessarily vote for them. These outcomes undermine the intended effect of the Demeny system. On the other hand, groups with imaginary future generation subjects in an experiment tended to choose a sustainable alternative. When people considered choosing future policies in actual practice, the current generation tended to focus upon the current unsolved problems, whereas the imaginary future generation tended to create original policies for future generations.