OUR CHANGING WORLD
Seize the Day or You Might Cease to Exist
This Extraordinary Moment In History Might Be Our Last Chance To Devise The World That We Want To Live In
There are pivotal moments in history when unavoidable decisions have to be made. Now is one of those moments.
Humanity has to decide what kind of future it is going to live in.
Decide?
Yes, decide!
We have to mastermind our own futures. The alternative is to leave the decision to circumstances. Or even worse, leave the decision to a system blinded by materialism and the accumulation of personal riches.
If we let either of the last two scenarios play out, we are in serious trouble. If we leave our fate to those obsessed with the accumulation of wealth, we will progressively push the Earth into a permanent state of hell.
Our most advantageous course of action is to take our future into our own hands. We can create an environment in which we, and specifically our descendants, will thrive.
Achieving this requires multitudes of us to combine our intellect, determination and direction. There are many who believe, rightly so, that human nature stands in the way. However, everything changes and so does human nature, given the right atmosphere.
It is imperative that we become architects of our future, or we will go down the drain to Dante’s 9th circle of hell.
We can, of course, choose the opposite direction and step through the gates of a future full of possibility. If we enter with our minds open, there is the capacity to build a wonderful world beyond anything that humanity has previously imagined.
The potential awaiting us is mind-boggling. Between the years 1900 and 2000, the world experienced 100 years of social and technological change. Predictions are that in the next 100 years we will experience the comparative equivalent of 20,000 years of technological change. We are about to enter a world in which we will be forced to advance 20,000 years in the next 100.
Astounding possibilities!
We are facing a challenge beyond anything we have ever encountered. The Chinese character for crisis is comprised of two characters: danger and opportunity. What are we going to choose? Do we have the boldness to face the challenge, or will we give up and cower away from the danger?
A tsunami of social and technological changes is sweeping our society. It has, and is, destroying many livelihoods, pushing many into a conundrum. We cannot allow this to continue and those who can swim in these turbulent seas of change must help those who can’t. If we allow these changes to overwhelm our adaptability and we lose control of the situation, our destiny will be ripped from our hands. We would have lost the battle.
We still have a fighting chance. We are currently at a beginning of this change — or more accurately, the end of the beginning. The tsunami of information and knowledge is exploding, but it is still at an intensity where we can blunt the edge of the assault, and buy some time until we learn how to manage it.
Already, millions of people are being replaced by machines and this trend is accelerating.
The first step is to envisage the potential scenarios that the future holds. The second step is to select the most promising scenarios and build a path towards them. Although the future is a mystery, the fruits of tomorrow are in the seeds we are planting today.
We are the ones who are in control of the planting and of the selection.
People vs. Machines, or People and the Machines?
As the architects of the future world, at this stage of the conceptual design, we must decide whether to continue on the present path towards an environmental doom and gloom scenario, or whether to execute a radical turnabout and select a bright future as our destiny.
After a long slumber induced by systemic brainwashing, it is time to wake up and recognize that we have the ability to shape our destiny, providing that we can agree on what our destiny should be. This shouldn’t be difficult, because a sustainable “bright” future should appeal to all of us.
Instead of fearing the machines, we should use them and control them as we always have. We are still in control of the technological and social developments going on in the world. We can design robots to produce the goods we need as well as perform maintenance and service jobs for us.
As we design more sophisticated software and hardware, these machines will be able to perform increasingly complex activities, taking progressively more work off our hands.
This will free our minds from their focus on mundane activities, giving us more time to think and become creative. At the moment, most people don’t have time to think about anything else except how to survive from month to month.
If we use technology for the benefit of all, we will empower people with time to think and learn. These empowered people will have greater abilities to control these machines, which must be designed to include human control.
Artificial Intelligence, while a possible threat to humanity, could also become an extraordinary opportunity. We are homo sapiens — wise men — and we are in charge of the design of these machines.
This is an opportunity humanity has never had before.
No-Growth-Limit Economy is Possible
Universal Basic Income (UBI) is a concept that has been discussed for a long time. In anticipation of the displacement of people by technology, UBI has gained new urgency.
The concept advocates monthly handouts of funds to every individual, which is sufficient for them to cover their basic living needs. It is a noble, but divisive, notion. It is resisted by those who have to work to provide money for those that do not.
This resistance is understandable, especially at present when a large majority of people are struggling to make ends meet. To mollify the taxpayers who are financing what they perceive to be layabouts, we should not just hand out money with no conditions attached.
Able-bodied beneficiaries should be required to join a jobs program, developed alongside UBI. The program should focus on our most burning issues of climate change, environmental restoration, cleaning of rivers, seas, oceans, and hundreds of other projects that would rejuvenate the environment.
There is so much work to do that it will require the establishment of an entire environmental economy. Nature is in such a massive crisis that it will generate employment for many people for a long time to come. At last, we will have an economy that is focused not on depleting our resources, but rather on growing them.
Universal Basic Income would be a major injection of funds to finance this emerging environmental economy, which has no growth limitations in the foreseeable future. The more it grows, the better future we will have.
We could boost the effectiveness of those funds to collaborate and trade within the members of the new economy, as well as create profit for all the parties involved. If people cannot profit from the work that they do, it will be more difficult to get them motivated.
The current, carbon-based economy will crumble due to a lack of resources as the planet is not able to regenerate these resources at the same rate they are being extracted.
Presently, we use 74% more resources than our ecosystems can regenerate. To continue on the present course, we need the resources of about 1.7 Earths. Even if we stop economic growth today, we will still slide down the deadly slope of extinction.
The Earth is wounded and we, her children, have to give her respite and help her to heal.
The environmental economy has the potential to reinvigorate the environment and provide people with meaning in their work and life. New philosophies of life need to emerge, which celebrate human creativity and interaction as a measure of success, rather than only focusing on materialistic pursuits.
This does not mean that we should give up the pleasure of having material things. Firstly, the project would not succeed as the majority of people would not accept this. Plus we do in fact need material things.
What we need to do is rethink our buying decision-making process. Before we buy anything, we should first work out how much time we will have to work to be able to afford the particular item, and decide if it is worth it. We then have to consider if we will use the object of our desire enough to justify buying it. A lot of the time we buy things impulsively, such as clothes, and then wear them once. Or a mountain bike that is only ridden a few times before being stored in the garage indefinitely.
We should also feel obliged to compensate for luxury acquisitions by doing something that lowers our, or another’s, carbon footprint.
There are encouraging signs that more and more people are rethinking consumption and growth. We have to convince billions more that living in harmony with our habitat, having meaningful human connections, and living in a healthy environment are far greater riches than the incessant accumulation of material wealth.
Our values are screwed up and we need to unscrew them.
We can do this by promoting a more thoughtful philosophy of life and living it.
The Rise of Responsive Organisations and Human-Centered Businesses
As robots take over manual and repetitive work, we will have to afford people who lose their jobs an opportunity to be reskilled for higher-level work. As software systems become more sophisticated and robots take over higher-level jobs, more humans will be squeezed out.
This scenario will become the modus operandi for at least the near future. If we don’t want real trouble being caused by hundreds of millions, or even billions, of unemployed, then we must prepare to manage the situation.
If we don’t deal with the situation, the rich and the poor will have to deal with the consequences.
Instead of having anxiety about the machines taking our jobs, we should celebrate. Eventually, we will all get paid for not working. We are heading for paradise! We will be able to have fun and do whatever we want if it doesn’t harm the environment. We can become philosophers, artists, or any other type of intellectual and be happy.
For those who want to be more physical, there will always be planting trees, cleaning rivers, seas, and oceans as well as a myriad of other jobs required to repair the damage we have inflicted on our world. Robots will eventually provide sufficient goods and services for all our needs. People would be free to use their time and creativity to restore nature.
Of course, this scenario is not inevitable. Society might continue on the present path of accumulation of more and more wealth in fewer and fewer hands. If that happens, we are all screwed, including those amassing all the wealth.
To inspire change, we must take a deep and critical look at the negative aspect of human nature that has brought us to the present crisis, work out where we went wrong and stimulate the positive aspects of the human character.
We have to put humanity back into the human.
There is plenty of work for entrepreneurial psychologists, behavioral scientists, and many other social sciences occupations. We can use our extensive experience in brainwashing to wash away the accumulation of crap that we are being continuously fed.
The evil part of human nature is reaching its peak and everything that reaches its peak eventually declines. At the same time, the good part of human nature is hitting the bottom and is ready to bounce back.
Critical Thinking Will Become the Pillar of Education
Keeping up with the inexorable advance of technology will necessitate a lot of fast learning. The need for continuous upgrading of skills will demand exponential growth in educational requirements.
The knowledge we will require is not the only thing that we need to do the job. We also need to know how to use critical thinking to deal with the complex problems we will face as a result of the relentless change.
We will also need to educate ourselves in the forgotten art of being happy.
Social skills and socio-emotional competence need to be a part of the curriculum. This will result in high demand for social skills and characteristics like creativity, integrity, collaboration, critical thinking, and many others.
This is another stream of opportunities for entrepreneurs.
Education will be one of the fastest-growing sections of the economy and offer an unmatched opportunity for businesses. Schools that operate on a “best fit for greatest number” philosophy will not be appropriate for the new educational climate.
A fast-evolving educational system where individuals can progress at their own pace will be more apt. Once this transition happens we will have a happier society, as those that learn faster will be less frustrated, and those that learn slower will be less stressed.
Bottom Line
Humankind is at a turning point in its history. It is crucial that we wake up and take charge of our lives and our future. We have to stop being passive observers waiting for others to institute changes and become active architects of the future we want to live in.
The future starts today, not tomorrow.
