It's important to be positive about the future. Not as wishful thinking. Not as blind optimism. But as actual constructive bets and contributions to the good that exists, and it certainly exists.
Societal collapse is what happens when we lose our north and just start panicking. About politics. About climate change. About big tech.
The problems are numerous, and huge. But the times we live in give us fantastic tools. A scientific paper could take just a few minutes after published to be discovered by you and downloaded to your phone. That access to knowledge is a superpower.
I'm not a blind optimist that downplays the scale of the problems in the 21st century. Our problems are actually huge and numerous. But if we have courage and use the amazing tools and skills and cooperation we have access to, we could do great things.
With so many changes happening, it's easy to be conservative, to think that we can somehow go back to good old days. But it's not going to happen, we have to admit it and allow change to arrive.
It's easier to influence the course of this "change" than it is to revert it.
It's easier to influence the course of this "change" than it is to revert it.
Here are things we could do:
🔹 Data-mine hope
Use data, science, and statistics and tech tools to look for hope-inducing answers. Ironically, Chan Zuckerberg Initiative have a tool called Meta which does just that: meta.org but it's closed source, obviously.
🔹 Data-mine hope
Use data, science, and statistics and tech tools to look for hope-inducing answers. Ironically, Chan Zuckerberg Initiative have a tool called Meta which does just that: meta.org but it's closed source, obviously.
🔹 Hack subsistence
Climate crisis will hit hard the global food production systems in 20 years. We need to figure out our own food, locally. With permaculture, hydroponics, acquaponics. We can make our own furniture and our own software but not our own food? That's mad.
Climate crisis will hit hard the global food production systems in 20 years. We need to figure out our own food, locally. With permaculture, hydroponics, acquaponics. We can make our own furniture and our own software but not our own food? That's mad.
Hacking subsistence is more than just producing our own food. It's really about *hacking* life, with the incredible aid of modern communication systems and a culture of sharing DIY globally, that we can untangle ourselves from economical needs. Capitalism will weigh less on us.
🔹 Lock it open
Open source, open data, open knowledge have an incredible property: they're permanent. Once something effectively leaks, there's no "unleaking". Successful open source projects can actually dry out a whole market. Would you buy a media player when there's VLC?
Open source, open data, open knowledge have an incredible property: they're permanent. Once something effectively leaks, there's no "unleaking". Successful open source projects can actually dry out a whole market. Would you buy a media player when there's VLC?
🔹 Assist and be assisted
Hot take: individualism is dead. Or when was the last time you accomplished something big entirely by yourself without searching the web? Today, we exist within a mutualist cybercontext. Your superpower *is* others.
Hot take: individualism is dead. Or when was the last time you accomplished something big entirely by yourself without searching the web? Today, we exist within a mutualist cybercontext. Your superpower *is* others.
I have many other thoughts that can't quite be put into words yet. I'll finish this thread with: we're witnessing something huge going on, but it's time we stop being just witnesses.
