technology Archives - Seeding Our Future

Carbots, carebots, therabots and more…

March 18, 2021November 29, 2020 by Alan Heeks

Coming to your life soon Whilst robots and artificial intelligence are just one of a swathe of major technologies which will impact our lives in the next 10 years, I’ve chosen to focus on them because they are likely to be one of the most visible and unavoidable big changes on the technology front. Here … Read more

How to stay afloat in the sea of Technology

February 21, 2025November 29, 2020 by Alan Heeks

Practical ways to avoid total immersion Technology is clearly a vast subject: we’re all being affected by many different technologies, without being aware of them. What’s really alarming is that the motive behind most of the rapid change affecting us is simply profit, and the regulatory frameworks which should steer these changes, and make them … Read more

Technology Power: for whose benefit?

March 18, 2021November 26, 2020 by Alan Heeks

Pragmatic ways to mitigate the downsides Guest blog by Jeremy Green and Fred Barker As part of Alan’s Scanning our Future project, Jeremy Green and Fred Barker were commissioned to research the potential UK future impacts of new technologies over the next 15 years. This blog is a summary of some of their conclusions. Some … Read more

Current Events

Inner strength for stormy times: how soul resilience helps | November 25

Wednesday, November 25 7.00 – 8.00pm UK time: free webinar with Alan Heeks This interactive workshop will help you explore what soul resilience could mean for you: what your spirit or higher self wants for you, how to find some steadiness and clarity amid the climate crisis and digital overwhelm, and ways to nourish your inner self. Alan has been exploring this issue for 30 years, and the webinar draws on his forthcoming book: Soul Resilience: inner strength for climate anxiety and digital overwhelm. Free, but advance booking essential. Group size limited to 24 people. To apply for your free place, follow this link.

Light in the Darkness | November 13–15

A men’s peer group in the Welsh hills 13–15 November 2026 | Trwyn Tal, Llanthony Valley, Wales This weekend is a chance to find your light and nourish it, in the face of the darkening season and the worries of the world. We will draw support from the fellowship of the group and the magical landscapes of the Llanthony Valley. This will be a peer group for a maximum of seven men, enabled by Alan Heeks and Mark Smalley. The weekend may include group processes, walking, meditation, solo time and enjoying each other’s company over shared meals. Our venue: Trwyn Tal in the Llanthony Valley, Wales Cost: £150. Food purchases and cooking will be shared. For more information or to book, contact Mark Smalley: or 07764 335 688 DOWNLOAD FULL DETAILS

A Sufi Garden – Monthly Online Group

Wednesday, November 4, 2026 7.30 – 9pm: free online event The Sufi Garden is a life-affirming evening of meditation, body prayer and poems, led by Alan Heeks and Karim Hadden. No previous experience needed. The theme for November 4 is: Greeting life with gratitude: Rumi reminds us that sorrow prepares us for joy and compares being human to being a guest house where, he advises, we should be grateful for whoever comes because each has been sent as a guide from beyond. In this evening, through our usual combination of dance, song and embodied spiritual practices we will both acknowledge our sorrows and open ourselves to the transformative power of gratitude to harmonize the music of our lives and increase our capacity to live in community with joy and courage. For more information and registration, see here.

Featured Blog

Visit Thrutopia at Hazel Hill Wood

Unlike the rose or gloom of utopia and dystopia, Thrutopia offers visions of a fairly positive and possible future, which recognises the chaos we’re in currently. Mostly Thrutopia is found in books and movies, but you can also find it in a magical Wiltshire wood. Hazel Hill is the 70-acre conservation wood and off-grid retreat centre which I created, and in 2015 gifted to an educational charity. Hazel Hill Trust runs a range of its own events, and hosts a variety of other groups too. If you stay at the wood, you are pretty cut off from both the conveniences and the distractions of modern life. As back-to-the-land communities all realise, living simply and sustainably is satisfying, but it’s hard work. At Hazel Hill, your carbon footprint is a fraction of the UK norm, but you forego some comfort to get there. This is a Thrutopian scenario, because you’re living in harmony with a thriving ecosystem, mostly using renewable resources. Here’s the picture in more detail: Instead of central heating that you never think about, heating and hot water uses timber from the wood, but you need to bring logs in, light the fires, and top them up. Electricity usage is minimal: low-voltage lights, with pv panels and batteries. The backup generator runs on vegetable oil. The only mains connection is for water, but usage is low, because all the toilets are composting. All meals are shared, so food is used efficiently, and waste is minimised. Groups become communities very quickly, because they have to share the work of looking after themselves. So if you’d like a taste of a positive future, along with its demands, come to Hazel Hill Wood. It’s a beautiful wood, teeming with wildflowers and wildlife: www.hazelhill.org.