Be Excellent to One Another

We all need someone we can lean on

   - Rolling Stones

Get busy child

  -Moby

Greetings

         Here's is the latest from Nate Hagens, one of the smartest guys around. He's figured out high finance, ecological economics, and evolutionary psychology,  so he has a pretty good idea of the mess were in, and how we are genetically disposed to make an even bigger mess.

      Now he's trying to to turn all those smarts into wisdom, and it seems he's getting somewhere.   So, if you've heard the story before, just fast forward to the end, and check out his prescriptions.

     

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Humans and Earth: Transitioning from Teenagers to Adults as a Species (lecture)

Posted on May 15, 2014 | Leave a comment

On Earth Day, I usually ‘swing for the fences’ a bit beyond normal economy/energy issues and reflect/share on where we came from, where we are, and what is at stake from a big picture perspective.   The lecture link below was a talk given on Earth Day at University of Wisconsin Stevens Point. (The sound on the Q&A was poor so that was left off – the Q&A of the previous night starts at the 1:09 mark at this link:  http://youtu.be/iyG95w4TT8w?t=1h9m)

I have concluded that facts are necessary but insufficient to change peoples behavior on the myriad converging crises our species and culture face. I have concluded that we are unlikely to do anything meaningful ahead of time to mitigate some of the major risks (finance/currency, poverty, economy, biodiversity, ocean, climate etc.).  I have discovered that telling people the whole story – firehose style, is kind of like a curse, unless you proffer some action steps.   It’s why I largely stopped speaking a couple years ago (other than on Earth Days)- I could explain the various risks and their intersections, but had no clue what to tell people what to do – I am getting (slightly) better at that and have even more ideas since this talk was filmed. In the end I think its about acknowledgement, integrity and accountability.

Essentially mankind has never had a plan or a goal. We pass the baton each day, each week, each year, each generation without a collective realization of our historical trajectory and future fiduciary.  Many in the tribe of Man think about deep-space. How many are thinking about humans and deep time? If we want a livable world in 100, 500, 10,000 years, with things we value, some long term ethos has to precede any actions we might take.

We don’t know what will happen. But we can know with high confidence what won’t happen, and that is a seriously important thing. The future will also be a matter of degrees; near-infinite variation of outcomes which are not equivalent.  And as much genetic/cultural baggage we carry, we humans have never known and been aware scientifically about ourselves and our natural world the way we are now– there are emergent properties bubbling up at the intersection of our morality and our knowledge. Things might look dark, but there is always a chance for benign and fantastic trajectories for the future – and the odds increase slightly with every person that acknowledges this truth.  “We” might not know how to influence things. Our actions might just as easily make things worse as better. But if one views the future as a fan of possibilities, many are still available, and those in our small but growing demographic who are aware of supply and demand drivers might aspire, at least for some fraction of their time, to synthesize and uphold as examples what this tribe of humans COULD be like what they COULD manifest as, despite the tall odds.

My ultimate point in this lecture is not a call to action, but a call not to rule out action.   What matters?  Caring defines what matters. Not caring also defines what doesn’t matter. We may not know exactly what or how to influence the future in positive ways.  But our situation calls for dignity, integrity, creativity and probably some discomfort.  The combination of 100:1 exosomatic buffer (for americans), scientific knowledge of how we got here, and emergent properties at the intersection of culture and knowledge,  we may pass the baton forward in ways different than the deterministic course that brought us to this point. And there are degrees of both success and failure in any case.

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The Earth Day lecture linked below is an attempt to look beyond the reductionist trend in vogue and synthesize ecology, environment, energy and behavior with a look to the future.   I already have ideas on how to improve the next iteration, at 2015 Earth Day, if not before. It’s alot – too much really – for an hour but you’re unlikely to be bored.

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