The California We Seek: California 100 Releases Its Vision & Roadmap for California’s Next Century

After two years of investment and engagement with stakeholders, research centers and institutions, and everyday Californians, California 100 and its Commission released today The California We Seek: Vision & Roadmap for the Next Century. The California We Seek reflects the collective views, hopes, and commitments of the California 100 Commission, and builds on a mountain of work that is unprecedented in its scale and scope with respect to envisioning and building better long-term futures. 

Explore The California We Seek: Vision & Roadmap for the Next Century

“California 100 launched in 2021 with a daring question: how can we envision a dramatically better future for our state, and how can we expand our capacity for research, policy innovation, and collective imagination to make those visions a reality,?” says Karthick Ramakrishnan, Executive Director of California 100. “Throughout, we collectively grappled with big ideas to build better futures—not only for ourselves but also for our children and our children’s children. We are excited to bring all of these strands of work together in this document, a Vision and Roadmap for the Next Century that is grounded in a set of core values that speak to the aspirational nature of our effort.”

How to use the California We Seek: Vision & Roadmap for the Next Century

The California 100 vision and roadmap proceeds in four parts. First, it lays out core values, which are essential to staying grounded during periods of massive uncertainty and rapid change, and can help guide the state in its  journey to build better futures. Next, the document outlines an aspirational set of visions that aim to inspire and motivate people, to come together and take bold action. 

The roadmap then lays out a set of pivotal moves, which offer strategic approaches to realize the visions, with ways to design and build systems that stay true to California 100’s aspirational values and commitments to intergenerational progress. Finally, the document offers breakthrough solutions, which are provocative, intriguing ideas that reveal the limitations of our current system, and compel us to enact transformative solutions that serve all of California, and all Californians. Thought-provoking solutions include:

• Creating a state Office of Diplomatic Engagement that builds better relations with other states and foreign governments,
• Implementing tools and processes for intergenerational fairness, including having a young person on every state board and commission,
• Creating an advisory Commission on Artificial Intelligence that includes industry, academic, and community expertise in technology, ethics, economics, and health, and
• Improving the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) process to minimize frivolous lawsuits.

Readers are encouraged to treat this document, not as received wisdom, but as an invitation to explore and engage, and to bring their curiosities as well as expertise, passions, and commitments. Californians are invited to engage, improve upon, and even disagree, with the breakthrough solutions sketched out. 

Ultimately, California 100 invites readers to formulate their own vision and roadmap, utilizing its toolkits on strategic foresight and working in partnership with a variety of organizations and community members, including young people and elders alike. Californians are invited to utilize the various resources the initiative has produced, including 15 policy issue specific reports, 9 reports on different California regions, several innovation pilot projects, the California Considers Deliberative Poll, Youth Futures Summit and Youth Futures Manifestos, and engagement partnerships with organizations throughout the state. 

To explore the California 100 Vision & Roadmap and its core values, visions, and pivotal moves, please visit vision.california100.org.