Discovering the path to a thriving future in the Salish Sea Ecoregion

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Navigating Our Future is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization that has created LIFE Systems — a place-based framework for civic intelligence, publishing, and shared sensemaking grounded in the Salish Sea ecoregion of southwestern British Columbia and northwestern Washington State.

We exist to help people make sense of the converging ecological, social, economic, and democratic challenges shaping our shared future — and to explore life-affirming paths forward grounded in whole systems thinking, place, and care for life. 

Rather than promoting a single viewpoint or solution, LIFE Systems curates and publishes trusted knowledge, stories, and perspectives that help communities:                                                                      

• understand what is happening across interconnected systems

• see how local experience connects to regional, national, and global dynamics

• explore what it means to protect, restore, and regenerate life in place

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Through articles, Wisdom Hubs, Resource Guides, and community-informed storytelling, LIFE Systems brings together insights from local practitioners, Indigenous knowledge holders, scientists, economists, civic leaders, and systems thinkers.

Our focus is not quick answers, but convergent sensemaking — helping people see patterns that are already emerging, and widening the lens so more of us can understand what is at stake and what thoughtful action might look like.

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How LIFE Systems works with Artificial Intelligence

Navigating Our Future uses artificial intelligence as a tool in service of human judgment, community wisdom, and care for the living world — not as an autonomous authority.

AI can help us synthesize knowledge across complex systems. It can also amplify error or harm if guided primarily by speed, profit, or scale. For that reason, our approach is grounded in clear principles of human stewardship:

• Humans hold authority. AI may assist, but only human stewards mark content as final or canonical.

• Provenance comes first. We prioritize verifiable sources, lived experience, and place-based knowledge over AI fluency.

• Transparency is our practice. We disclose when AI has materially assisted in drafting or organizing content.

• Place matters. Knowledge is grounded in real ecosystems and communities — beginning in the Salish Sea.

• Your knowledge strengthens our work. We welcome corrections, local insight, and lived experience from readers and contributors.

Some platforms are experimenting with AI agents primarily talking to one another. We take a different path: we center people, place, and the living Earth. AI supports collective wisdom; it does not replace it.

As AI systems grow more capable, LIFE Systems aims to model a slower, grounded, community-centered approach — using AI to deepen understanding rather than accelerate extraction or concentration of power.