J.D. Moyer

science fiction author, beatmaker, against fascism

Category: Utopian Speculations Page 9 of 10

What Would a Restorative Economy Look Like?

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On October 18

In Alternative Economics, Utopian Speculations

Solar powered parking lot at Arizona State University.

I dislike the word “sustainable.”  One hears the word used in the context of food production (“sustainable agriculture”), product manufacturing (“sustainable industry”) and general economic models (“sustainable economy”).  Wind and solar power are considered “sustainable energy sources.”

What’s wrong with sustainable?  In some ways my negative reaction to the word is visceral and irrational, but I’ll try to explain my feelings.  The word seems to imply stasis, a kind of false ideal of human affairs where population is steady, basic needs are met, and the environment is not further molested or abused.  If human beings live sustainably, we live in a way that enables us to keep living.  This seems reasonable enough, but it’s uninspiring.  What about growth and expansion?  Those concepts seem incompatible with sustainability.  After all, the planet isn’t getting any bigger.

That helium isn’t coming back.

This criticism on my part isn’t really fair.  I essentially agree with most of the ideas behind sustainability.  There should be less pollution, less waste, less free use of the commons, less mining, less blasting through irreplaceable resources like fossil fuels (and helium, while we’re at it — did you know once that balloon goes up in the air the helium never comes back?  It’s an element — you can’t make the stuff).  Collectively, human beings should find a way to continue living without wrecking our home planet.

Instead of the word sustainable, I prefer the word restorative.  What our environment and world economy needs is radical healing and transformation.  Restorative projects create real wealth (food, energy, goods) while leaving the environment and community in better shape than before production efforts started.  The classic example is Joel Salatin’s farm (described in Michael Pollan’s book The Omnivore’s Dilemma).  Using hyper-modern intensive land management techniques, Salatin’s farm produces high quality organic food while creating rich topsoil and adding natural habitat for local fauna (a nearby forest in an important part of the farming system, functioning as a windbreak among other things).  Spain’s Veta la Palma fish farm is another example, where resident biologist Miguel Medialdea engineers a system that not only produces 1,200 tons of tasty seafood annually, but also restores natural wetlands and supports a booming population of birds (some of them endangered species).

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Global To Do List (Next 1000 Years)

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On September 25

In Evolution/Biology, Utopian Speculations

Ridley Scott's Bladerunner -- let's not go there.

In 1000 AD, human civilization was led by the Golden Age of Islam (with extensive trade routes, massive cities, and polymath philosopher-scientists like Alhazen) and the 100-million strong Song Dynasty of China (with such inventions as gunpowder, paper money, the movable type printing). Vikings raided feudal Europe, Mississippian culture thrived in North America, and the Aztecs had just moved to what is now Mexico. Drought and environmental collapse had recently led to the downfall of the Mayans. Just like today, the world had its bright spots and disaster areas, and plenty of areas where people just muddled along as usual.

Diagram of a hydropowered water-raising machine from The Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices by Al-Jazari in 1206.

Unlike today, the world’s 300-million inhabitants did not enjoy the quality of life many of us experience via sanitation, mass production, the combustible engine, electricity, the internet, modern chemistry, materials science, telecommunications and photography satellites, advanced optics, literature, recorded music, etc. Even the brightest oracles of 1000AD could not have predicted half the miracles we experience as part of daily life. Looking forward to the year 3010, there are no doubt hundreds of technologies and planetary events (and disasters) beyond what we have imagined. Still, nothing is stopping us from considering what we, as human beings, should try to do within the next 1000 years. This is the third and final post in this thought experiment; if you like you can also read the 10-year and 100-year lists. As I’ve mentioned before, I don’t consider myself a futurist or an expert in any way — I just like to make lists and consider the big picture.

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Global To Do List (Next 100 Years)

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On September 20

In Utopian Speculations

Time to escape the gravity well (on the cheap).

This is the second in a series of three posts, in which I consider which tasks human beings should prioritize within various time frames, in order to improve quality of life for the most possible people.  Nothing in particular qualifies me to make these lists — it’s just a topic that interests me.  I don’t think enough people are thinking and talking about what kinds of progress *should* be made in the next 100 years.  A Google search for “goals for humanity next 100 years” returns scant relevant results.  There are plenty of predictions, but that’s a different game.  Intention is what I’m interested in.  What are we trying to do, as human beings, on this spinning ball in space?  An impossibly broad question?  Maybe.  Impossible to achieve consensus?  Of course.  There are at least as many legitimate answers as there are people.  So my  list-making is a thought experiment and a conversation starter, and isn’t meant to be definitive.

I can't wait for the future.

What kind of world did people imagine for their great-grandchildren, circa 1910?  In this fascinating article, Michael S. James collected quotes from various newspapers in 1900, considering life at the end of the 20th century.  Some seem overreaching, predicting flying cars, the eradication of disease, and the end of drunkenness.  Others are spot on, predicting gains in human height, improvements in health and longevity, and progress towards work equality for women.  In at least two areas — telecommunications and electronic computation — the predictions fall short of actual advances.

While future technological progress is impossible to predict, it’s largely irrelevant for the purposes of this list.  What I’m interested in is what our priorities should be, not how we’ll accomplish them.

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Global To Do List (Next Ten Years)

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On September 14

In Utopian Speculations

Get out your notebook.

There are infinite arguments for having either an optimistic or pessimistic view of the future of human beings on Earth.  For example, on the plus side, there are more human beings who are happy, well-fed, well-educated, and living without immediate fear of violence than at any other time in history.  Efficiencies of mass production and electronic communication have brought unprecedented wealth and information to billions.  Every day new scientific discoveries enable us to improve our lives and expand our knowledge horizons.  Positive, enlightened values like tolerance, freedom, caring for the environment, and personal responsibility are the on rise, worldwide.

There is just as much ammunition in the pessimist’s magazine.  Global warming will likely wreak havoc on our croplands and low-altitude communities.  Hundreds of millions still live in abject poverty, without access to clean drinking water and nutritious food (not to mention electricity, education, internet access, and most other luxuries many take for granted).

Not a joke.

A great deal of the world’s wealth is controlled by corporations who act with only profit-making in mind, abusing the environment, worker’s rights, and the health and well-being of both communities and customers.  Even worse, international organized crime gangs headed by sociopaths operate unchecked, dealing in arms, drugs, and human beings.  Our entire economic system is a pyramid scheme based on perpetual growth (which is impossible, at least until we escape the planet) and ignoring externalities (like the environment).  Many countries, including our own, seem to exist in a state of perpetual war, and xenophobic attitudes (as anachronistic as they might seem to the blog reader) are deeply entrenched in many communities.  Human health in threatened by a sea of chemicals (and poor quality Frankenfoods) of our own making.

Frankenfoods.

Human beings have triggered a new epoch of mass extinction by destroying nearly all of the old-growth forests on land and the great reefs of the sea.  Nuclear war is still a threat.  And we have zero protection against the ultimate calamity — a large asteroid hitting the Earth (don’t think it can’t happen).

Holding both the positive and negative in one’s mind at the same time is the most difficult path.  It’s much easier to take either a Panglossian or nihilistic attitude, as neither requires action. Take your pick: 1) Everything will work itself out, or 2) Everything is hopeless.  The true character of the extremist is laziness. The rest of us, who have a more balanced view, are compelled to roll up our shirt sleeves and actually do something to improve the world.

As a thought experiment, I’m going to write three posts in which I will attempt to prioritize the top five global to-do list items for a ten year, one hundred year, and one thousand year time frames.  Nothing in particular qualifies me to make such a list, except that it’s a question that interests me.  The results might influence the future choices I make about charitable giving, writing topics, etc.  Maybe some of you will be inspired to make your own similar lists (which will no doubt be different).  The main criteria I’m going to consider will be protecting and improving quality of life for the most possible people.

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On Video Games, Motivation, and The Psychedelic Realization

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On August 29

In Gaming, Mental Health, Metaprogramming, Utopian Speculations

Is the cake a lie?

Jane McGonigal has some provocative ideas about the potential benefits of video games.  Her TED talk is a good introduction to her thinking, which can be summarized as follows:

  • Young people in countries with strong “gaming cultures” (think U.S. or South Korea) put some serious hours into gaming (especially MMORPGs like World of Warcraft) — hours roughly equivalent to total secondary school education.
  • The massive amount of time invested in virtual game worlds causes a permanent shift in psychological makeup, generally for the positive.
  • The qualities developed in these uber-gamers include a sense of “urgent optimism,” the ability to “weave a strong social fabric,” the enjoyment of “blissful productivity,” and the experience of “epic meaning” (she explains all of these terms in the TED talk linked above).  All in all video games create “super-empowered hopeful individuals” (at least in the context of their games worlds).
  • These positive qualities can be harnessed and used to solve real-world problems, via the use of “world-saving” games that promote social awareness and include real life actions (one example is a “peak oil” game designed by McGonigal that encourages players to make changes in their real lives that will reduce their real life oil consumption).

I found McGonigal’s talk to be thought-provoking and refreshing.  I think she may be on to something, but overall I find her views to be Panglossian.  McGonigal sees the millions of hours we collectively spend in game worlds as an escape from real-world problems and suffering.   She seems to overlook the possibility that video games themselves might be a causing real problems.

Gamers, hard at work solving the world's problems.

Well-designed video games can be so addictive that susceptible types (myself included) can be pulled in to a degree that will appear, to any dispassionate outside observer, to be excessive, destructive, and possibly demented.  More so than other forms of entertainment (novels, movies, magazines, etc.), it is easy to lose entire work-weeks to video gaming.

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