Illustration: Matt Huynh
Last year, I got invited to a super-deluxe private resort to deliver a keynote speech to what I assumed would be a hundred or so investment bankers. It was by far the largest fee I had ever been offered for a talk — about half my annual professor’s salary — all to deliver some insight on the subject of “the future of technology.”
I’ve never liked talking about the future. The Q&A sessions always end up more like parlor games, where I’m asked to opine on the latest technology buzzwords as if they were ticker symbols for potential investments: blockchain, 3D printing, CRISPR. The audiences are rarely interested in learning about these technologies or their potential impacts beyond the binary choice of whether or not to invest in them. But money talks, so I took the gig.
After I arrived, I was ushered into what I thought was the green room. But instead of being wired with a microphone […]
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
Perhaps. There is no escape, no lifeboat and no tech fix for what humans have wrought. Until humanity understands, as indigenous people the world over have always known, that their own lives were indelibly intertwined and entangled with all the rest of the web of life. The modern disconnect is a spiritual one and it is a cavernous divide that can still be remedied; however, time is indeed short. The problem is consciousness, it always was.
And the consciousness of these five wealthy guys is entranced by the material world. They imagine that being very successful businessmen they will also be very successful survivalists. With such ambition and smarts how could they be so amazingly stupid so dismissive of the real reality that John speaks of.
These are the ones in charge of the ship these days. Their soul awareness is so buried. so asleep that instead of seeing that we are all part of this wonderful planet they are figuring what’s is in it for them. Remind you of anyone?
I agree with both John and Will (it reminds me of Trump), and I applaud professor Rushkoff for his effort to change these rich people to understand that philanthropy can avoid the “calamity” these oligarchs perceive. There is no way to avoid the fact that we all must perish some day and it can not be avoided. We all end up dead and what matters is what we did to help humanity, not ourselves. Actions speak louder than words, and the sooner the oligarchs understand this, the sooner we solve the world’s crises and become one species with equality for all and an appreciation of the fact that we are destroying the planet and begin to repair the damage we have done to it, the sooner we will have a lasting peace, and love and happiness will become a reality for all.
I will leave this discussion with my motto:
Ignorance is it’s own punishment
and Wisdom is it’s own reward.
I hope the oligarchs will understand this before it is too late.