A whole personal journey that eventually led to the creation of NovaFuture
It’s hard to grasp the real potential of NovaFuture without knowing a bit about the journey of its creator. I really don’t enjoy this kind of exercise, but I’ll still give it a shot and introduce myself in broad strokes. My name is Emmanuel, but plenty of people know me through my various pseudonyms instead. Chasing fame has never been part of my goals, which explains the use of pseudonyms. All that matters to me is building useful projects that can make life as meaningful as possible.
As far back as I can remember, anarchist philosophy has always been part of who I am. It took me until around the age of 20 to finally put a name to it and realize it was a strength, not some kind of glitch in my wiring. Since childhood, I had the chance to develop solid skills in both literary and scientific areas. Those two sides of me explain a big chunk of everything that came next.
The real adventure started in 1997 with the creation of an alternative space, in collaboration with Ukrainian hackers, artists and all kinds of makers. It was a concept that blended a Linux center, a web TV channel as early as 1998 and cultural activities with no commercial agenda whatsoever. Meanwhile, in 1999, Indymedia was born and I got involved in the project. That was the beginning of a deep passion for independent media that would take different shapes later on and that has never left me.
Around 2001, I met a talented engineer who was designing and building compressed-air cars. His project was rough around the edges, but it was still a huge eye-opener that made me realize you can’t break free from capitalism with writing, video and open source software alone. Without concrete action, you stay stuck in theory and end up going in circles. So I let the space I had created live its own life without me, and I threw myself fully into an intensive deep dive on ecological alternatives and self-sufficiency.
I moved around a lot. Across different countries. Most of the time, my van was my home. The moment I heard about an alternative project somewhere, I’d head over without thinking twice. I’d swap ideas and learn through practice. That went on for about four years. By the end of that stretch, I was building up some really solid skills. And to take things up a notch, I set up a consulting firm specializing in alternatives. Once again, without much of a business plan behind it. My main priority was still to keep expanding my knowledge, mostly through conversations with other engineers and seasoned technicians. It was an adventure that gave me the chance to travel a lot and discover other cultures.
After about six years, even though it wasn’t my goal, my consulting firm was running pretty well. But I had the feeling I had done what I needed to do there. So I dropped everything and left for Africa, to live a simple life and develop alternatives that could actually be useful on the ground. From 2011 until 2023, I spent less than three years in Europe.
Toward the end, there was that whole COVID mess that complicated a lot of things. But it also landed in a period where I felt I needed a breath of fresh air. So I told myself that if I wanted to pull off something truly effective between what’s loosely called the Global South and the West, I had to build some kind of bridge between those two worlds. That’s where the idea behind the NovaFuture concept came from. From the get-go, I was fully aware it was one hell of a challenge, that it would mean a massive amount of work and that patience would be key.
In the end, all those adventures combined have been truly amazing. But nothing was ever easy. Because despite the apparent successes, it’s also a path that’s been marked by doubts and of course plenty of failures. Without doubts and failures, no learning is possible. And therefore no real success either. But the good news in this whole story is that failures are sometimes so painful that you make sure not to repeat them. As for doubts, you learn to handle them as your skills grow.
Now, I think you’ve got the idea, NovaFuture is the fruit of this whole journey that I’ve only sketched out for you here. On top of that, in this era where fakery, virtual life and AI are taking up more and more space, it felt extremely important to bring a real touch of humanity to introduce this new project, which goes way beyond the virtual realm.
Our editorial philosophy in everyday practice
What’s amazing about knowledge, culture and information is that you can share them endlessly without ever losing them. Building on that, sharing is the core value driving our approach. Is it easy? Absolutely not! We put in countless hours to keep the site moving forward. We give everything we’ve got. That’s part of the behind-the-scenes story. Everything may look easy when in fact nothing really is.
When it comes to our editorial line, we feel it’s crystal clear. It fits in a single sentence: offering concrete alternatives to capitalism and patriarchy. As for how we put that line into practice, we definitely don’t claim to deliver ready-made thinking. Our goal is more about opening up debates and seeing what constructive ideas come out of them. Based on that principle, we’re really not trying to please everyone. First, because trying to please everyone means pleasing no one. Second, a cultural space that wouldn’t push for reflection and self-questioning would be on the same level as scrolling through social media or watching TV. Reaching that result is fairly easy because we have no advertisers or sponsors to keep happy. On top of that, we can afford the luxury of losing readers who don’t like what they read. For committed authors, this kind of freedom is priceless. And for the site’s readers, it’s the absolute guarantee of real independence of mind.
Something else that’s obvious: our role is also to shine a light on every initiative that fits with our editorial line. Whether on the technical or the cultural side. To do that, we have no geographical limits and we try our best to bring attention to people or projects that deserve to step out of the shadows. Because even in underground circles, there’s unfortunately a kind of well-established star system that pushes people to focus too much on what’s already in the spotlight. So we steer clear of that direction because there’s really no point in knocking down doors that are already wide open.
NovaFuture is about moving forward together, each in our own way
NovaFuture is definitely not an end in itself. In fact, it can’t be and shouldn’t be one. Quite simply because it’s not a political movement with set doctrines and policies to push through. To sum it up, NovaFuture is more like a compass pointing to paths out of injustice and obscurantism. Based on that principle, it’s up to each and every one of us to follow our own road and pick whichever direction feels right.
That absolutely doesn’t mean we’re individualists. It’s actually quite the opposite. Because it would make no sense to talk about open source and an open project if we didn’t apply that in practice. So to take part in NovaFuture, you just need to understand how an independent and self-managed project works. It’s really not that complicated, you just tell us what you can do. From there, you can bring your talents as a writer, coder, graphic designer, translator, comms person… for as long as you want and depending on your availability. To do so, reach out to us on NovaFlow or on our social channels and things will fall into place naturally. In a friendly vibe and with mutual respect.
On top of that, we regularly support other independent projects in one form or another. So there are plenty of different ways to walk the same path, and we’re always really happy to see people drawing inspiration from our approach, just like other people have inspired us and keep doing so. Because in the end, all that matters is being able to move forward together toward ecological and social progress. In other words, within this approach, names, labels and logos don’t matter.
NovaFuture can’t just live on the web
We’ve talked a lot about the internet. Probably because it’s the visible part of the iceberg. Now let’s talk a bit about concrete projects in real life. To unlock its full potential, NovaFuture absolutely needs a physical place. This project, currently in the works, will be the logical next step in a very long journey that will let us prove beyond any shadow of a doubt that another world is possible.
For now, we’re doing what we can with what’s at hand. But honestly, it’s a bit of a waste of skills. Because sure, we know how to write and we hold our own with code. But on top of all that, we know how to work with wood, metal, stone… We know how to handle complex tools. We’ve mastered permaculture, eco-building, self-sufficiency techniques… and plenty of other practical fields. Without a place and without the right tools, those skills stay dormant. So we can’t share them the way we’d like to, simply because we lack the proper setup for it.
Now we’re probably reaching the moment where you’re thinking: “How does a project happening far from where I live matter to me?” That’s a totally legitimate question. So it deserves a clear answer. Once the NovaLand project is up and running, what’s going to happen? First, we’ll be able to produce much more detailed how-to guides, plenty of video tutorials, open source low-tech applications… So given that we’re going to publish all of that, who’s going to benefit from it? The answer: thousands of people, you included. On top of that, there’s the whole applied philosophy side, which matters a lot. Not to mention all the other possibilities it will open up, that you’ll also be able to enjoy.
If you’d like to know more about this big project, you’ll find all the info by clicking on this link. And of course, we can also chat about it on NovaFlow or anywhere else.
How can you support the project?
There you go, we did our best to walk you through NovaFuture with all its ins and outs. We really wanted to do this in a friendly way without diving into purely technical aspects. So all that’s left is to hope that from now on you’ve got a better grasp of everything we want to share.
If after all these explanations you’d like to support the project, you can do it in just a few seconds by becoming a member of the site. And you can also take part by sharing our content, by bringing in your skills and by leaving us a friendly message every now and then. Either way, thanks for reading this far. And thanks for being here.