Earlier this week Richard Branson posted Erik Wernquist’s epic short film Wanderers on his Virgin.com blog, exploring the universe beyond our reach and showing us the importance of innovation, and our neverending quest for knowledge. As an introduction to Wanderers, Richard quotes Carl Sagan’s immortal words in his personal commentary:

“The open road still softly calls, like a nearly forgotten song of childhood.” Take a few minutes out of your day to think about the future, our innate urge to explore, and the wonders of the universe.

Wanderers is a science-fiction discussion of what our unfettered future might be like among the stars. Created by the masterful Erik Wernquist, a digital artist and animator of extraordinary talent from Stockholm, Sweden, the four minute film is based on our existing knowledge of our solar system, drawn from research, data and photographs (where possible). You can explore the film, locations and additional pictures here.

The imagery is breathtaking, and poses the question: What are we capable of? Humans are explorers, always looking for new ways to grow and develop as a species – it is exploration, coupled with innovation that has brought us to a point where we can dream of this potential future. The quest for sustainability is no different – no-one can afford to be left behind. The journey requires a thirst for knowledge, for exploration and innovation; without these things how are we to change the status quo and efficiently manage the resources we have left on our planet? If we can dream about the possibility of other worlds, we are certainly capable of dreaming about the potential of our own world.

SustainingPeople has previously written about Project Sea Dragon, the Sahara Forest Project and most recently Google’s new “space station” Campus; there are countless innovative projects and ideas like these that could change the tide against fossil fuel dependency, climate change, modern slavery, food security and the multitude of ills that face us in this day and age.

The space race between the Soviet Union and the United States in the 1960’s shows us what we are capable of if we work in concert to propel ourselves into the future. What will be the next great race that awaits our species? Will it be one of joy and of competition that allows our creativity and ingenuity to flourish? Or will it be borne out of necessity, forcing us to look past our difference to save the planet from ourselves?

Wanderers explores the universe, but it makes us to explore ourselves – what excites us; what makes us dream; what makes us innovate and dare to do better. Carl Sagan said that “your own life, or your band’s or even your species, might be owed to a restless few drawn to a craving they can hardly articulate or understand, to undiscovered lands and new worlds”. With his truism in mind we pose these questions: How will you change the world for the better? What do YOU dream of?