In 1736, mathematician Leonhard Euler solved the famous Königsberg bridge problem by proving it was impossible to cross all seven of the city's bridges without crossing the same one twice. To do so, he invented graph theory — one of the foundations of modern mathematics. A graph is simply a set of nodes (points) connected by edges (lines). But this simple structure can represent almost anything: social networks, food chains, electrical circuits, and — as we shall see — connections between ideas and events.
Knowledge graphs apply this structure to information. Google uses one to connect facts: when you search for "Leonardo da Vinci", the panel that appears on the right doesn't come from a web page — it comes from a graph connecting Leonardo to Florence, the Mona Lisa, the Renaissance, engineering. Each node is an entity, each edge a relationship. This structure allows not just finding information, but navigating connections.
Concept maps, developed in the 1970s by Joseph Novak at Cornell University, are a more accessible version of the same principle. A concept map shows concepts as nodes and connects them with phrases describing the relationship ("climate influences agriculture", "agriculture depends on water"). The power of concept maps is that they make explicit the connections that remain implicit in our minds.
Network thinking is an increasingly important skill in the contemporary world. The problems we face (climate change, inequality, migration, artificial intelligence) are not isolated: they are interconnected in ways that linear thinking cannot capture. Seeing connections is the first step towards understanding complexity and acting effectively.
In NextHuman, this principle is fundamental. Every future event is connected to others: an energy crisis can accelerate the green transition, which can influence employment, which can change migration flows. Mapping these connections is not an academic exercise — it is the tool for understanding that the future is not a list of isolated events, but a system of relationships.