About the project
A laboratory for civic imagination
2276.us asks a single, serious question: what democratic, cultural, technological, and civic transformations might allow the United States to evolve and remain a thriving democracy for another 250 years, all the way to its 500th anniversary in 2276?
The framing is borrowed from long-term thinking, constitutional imagination, appreciative inquiry, and the spirit of the Long Now Foundation. It is not a prediction market and not a political campaign. It is a place to think slowly, together, about foundations.
Contributions are pseudonymous or anonymous by default. There are no likes, no upvotes, and no follower counts. Only reflective reactions and a shared archive meant to outlast any of its contributors.
What we hold to
- Long-term thinking
- We reason in centuries, not news cycles.
- Civic imagination
- Renewal begins with picturing what is not yet real.
- Nonpartisan
- No party owns the future; everyone is invited to build it.
- Intergenerational responsibility
- We write for people not yet born.
- Reflective participation
- Depth over volume. Good faith over hot takes.
- Democratic stewardship
- Institutions are inherited, tended, and handed on.
What's coming
The MVP is deliberately small. The architecture leaves room for these modules, each designed to deepen reflection rather than engagement.
- soonAI-generated thematic maps. Spatial maps of how ideas relate across the archive.
- soonTimeline visualizations. Place visions along an imagined path from 2026 to 2276.
- soonConstitutional evolution trees. Branching lineages of how foundational ideas might develop.
- soonLetters to future generations. Time-stamped messages opened at later milestones.
- soonCollaborative drafting. Co-author living constitutional texts, with full version history.
- soonDeliberation rooms. Facilitated, structured spaces for reasoning together.
- soonFuture scenario builders. Compose and compare alternative civic futures.
- soonMultimedia exhibits. Curated, museum-style collections of related visions.
Add your vision.