We're now accepting applications for the Better Futures Fellowship, an eight-week virtual program examining culture, desire, and emerging technologies. The fellowship is a collaboration between the Critical Explorations Initiative and the team at How to Want Better Things.

The aim

Technology is actively reshaping our lives. But most conversations about emerging tech focus on specific capabilities and risks, not on the deeper question: What kind of future do we want, and how do we get there?

This fellowship exists to develop more people who can think clearly about technology's role in human flourishing — not just as engineers or policymakers, but as creators in the broadest sense. We combine philosophical rigor in confronting hard questions with a practical orientation toward answering them.

What you'll get

• Access to leading thinkers: Weekly seminars with scholars, practitioners, and voices shaping the conversation across academia, industry, and public life
• Intellectual depth: Engage with texts ranging from Aristotle to Steven Pinker with an eye towards the co-evolution of values, desires, and technologies
• A national peer network: Connect with people tackling similar questions from different angles
• Sustained mentorship: Continued guidance beyond the program as you pursue research, careers, or projects at the intersection of technology and human values
• Clarity on your path forward: Whether you're headed to grad school, a startup, industry/policy, or something else, you'll leave with sharper questions and a community to help you answer them

Topics & Approach

The fellowship takes an interdisciplinary approach to questions like:

• What forces shape human desires and cultural values?
• What philosophical frameworks help us navigate technological change?
• How can we build better futures in an age of AI and digital transformation?

Discussions draw from philosophy, technology studies, economics, psychology, and other fields, creating a forum for inquiry with peers who share your commitments.

You might be a good fit if you:

• Are a current undergraduate or master's student, or early-career professional
• Have an interest in the philosophical, cultural, and social dimensions of emerging technologies
• Want to engage with fundamental questions about human values and technological change, and figure out what to do with those insights
• Are motivated to translate ideas into action and impact beyond the classroom
• Seek intellectual community and mentorship from people asking similar questions

Program Details

• Format: Virtual (weekly meetings)
• Duration: 8 weeks
• Dates: Third week of March – second week of May
• Application deadline: February 28, 2026

Application link: https://forms.gle/nvFD1LWzaYwCzuP29

Questions? Reach out to jonah@criticalexplorations.org