by Flemming Funch
My friend Paul Hoffman asked a couple of big questions in an e-mail, to survey people who's opinion he'd like to hear. The first question is "What are the top five problems facing our planet, our species?". Since it took me a little longer than the 5-8 minutes he suggested to come up with some quick answers, I'd better share them here too, and hear what others will come up with. It really is meant as a quick survey, not as any precise analysis.
What are the top five problems facing our planet, our species?
1. Widespread inability to see things clearly, based on low emotional intelligence
Too many people, including many who are in positions of power, don't have the mental and emotional capability to perceive what is going on around them, and to work with others towards a common ground that works for everybody. I.e. they respond based on what they believe and feel, not based on what is actually there. Specifically we're talking about the lack of the ability to hold several different views/perceptions/feelings in your mind at the same time.
2. Information overload combined with a scarcity of available Knowledge
We (the westernized people who hold most of the cards in the world) are being bombarded with too many pieces of information in too short a time. Thus we've become comfortable with accepting things as true without ever verifying them, and we've lost touch with most avenues towards knowledge. A large percentage of the population have accepted a picture of the world as being random and disjointed and confused and meaningless, thus rendering themselves largely powerless.
3. A global economic system owned and controlled by people who don't have everybody's best interests in mind
Most people believe that what we have is a free market system where people who do things that are of value are rewarded by with the equivalent value in dollars, and that the money system is quite neutral. When in fact the global money system is in itself an enterprise on private hands, which by its very nature is a ponzi scheme that enriches its owners, but is impossible to resolve to the satisfaction of all its customers.
4. The enforcement of a globalized consumer mono-culture on all societies
Evolution is based on the existence of diversity, so that many approaches can be tested out, and the good ones will survive. By trying to move the whole world into a McWorld consumer culture, the vital DNA of humanity's many cultures is poured down the drain
5. A widespread lack of understanding of the economy of nature
Nature is a collaborative system where everything is recycled and nothing is wasted in the long run. Everything is re-used. Human civilization is currently using an economic model based on infinite exploitation, with no mechanisms for replenishing the resources that are plundered.
What are the top five most hopeful, likely/possible solutions that you see? What are you looking for happening to improve our situation on the planet? What's happening, good news spreading, that you are looking to see more of?
1. The invention of visualization systems that show relationships and consequences so clearly, quickly and easily that any regular person is likely to see the bigger truth, despite personal biases
I.e. making big decisions is no longer just a matter of consulting one's confused emotions and one's religious beliefs. Playing around with a model on a computer screen might quickly tell us the difference in consequences between putting more people in jail or not, electing George Bush or not, supporting Israel against Palestine or not. Even if such visualization could only be done after the fact, or only about the present situation, it could still have a big impact. I'm thinking about something like Buckminster Fuller's Geoscope, where you can apply large numbers of statistics to a visualization of the earth in real time.
2. Evolution is likely to provide us with an unexpected quantum jump which changes everything.
Such as that all children who are being born suddenly have crystal clear telepathy and an exact and unmistakable knowledge of who speaks the truth and who doesn't.
3. A new grassroots economic system
Somebody might design a new bottom-up, self-organizing economic system that works so well that it rapidly replaces the existing system. The new system would allow value to flow in an entirely different way, where hoarding money becomes meaningless, and where good work is naturally supported.
4. An unexpected global event might suddenly force a dramatic shift in thinking
E.g. an approaching asteroid, or the public appearance of extra-terrestrials. A sufficiently large event might prompt most people to make a sudden shift, beyond their normal biases against each other, and creating widespread collaboration for the common good.
5. Technological quantum jumps
The practical availability of certain technologies would change everything. Nano-technology, teleportation, quantum computing. Most importantly, some of these things would change economics irreversibly, so there is no longer any workable way of keeping the majority of the earth's population from getting what they need and want, and there is no longer any meaningful reason for exploiting nature.
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