It would be naïve to say that the times we are going through are not as bad as they seem. Millions are hurting, many are hurting badly. The global financial crisis is a tragedy of uncommon proportion. But the fact is, things will not be as bad as they now seem. I’m not being optimistic, I’m being realistic. As I watch my own savings depleted by the slumped stock market, and my own business slammed by loss of clients and contracts, I have to somehow remember that I am a professional futurist, and in that role I don’t have the luxury of wallowing in my own troubles. I have to look out over the horizon, and see what comes next. And what comes next is pretty amazing.
There is a cauldron of new scientific advances brewing that will transform the failing businesses of the 20th century into the growth industries of the 21st. What we are feeling now is not just the culmination of greed, or home buyer overreaching. It is the pain of leaving behind what we knew — the financial systems, the health and education systems, the life cycles and expectations of certainty that went with being middle class — and growing into what we will become. The world is growing older, and people are living and working healthier and longer. So government social nets are being bankrupted by health care systems and pension systems that are poorly designed for the 21st century and that are beginning to eat more money than we can feed them. Those systems will now have to be redesigned with new realities and new technologies. We focus our scholarly energy on teaching, when new technologies will provide a host of new learning opportunities that will increasingly engulf us all the time, all of our lives. We are moving quickly forward in the area of brain imaging — mind mapping — that will allow us to manipulate our moods, needs, experiences and well-being. In the virtual world, we can drive a sports car without ever owning one. Design is becoming green, and will lead to new frontiers, from urban farms with recycled water and energy, to the utilization of renewable resources that will employ many without harmful exposure to the toxic chemicals of the past.
This is not about a utopia. This is about what companies and industries and societies will do to retool and survive after the current calamity. It frequently takes crisis to bring about transformation. The bigger the crisis, the bigger the transformation. We could not get on with the future while so many were so comfortable with the present. That’s the sad part of all of this. Instead of being exhilarating, change is frightening to so many people. And so-called leaders become complacent because when the system is working for them, they don’t have the motivation to create a better world for everyone else. As a result, portions of the population suffered in near silence, from the kids who could not find a decent place in the economy to the displaced workers who slept in their cars or were forced to move in with family or strangers. Now the system isn’t working for anybody, and from that pain will come real remedies, not the band-aids, that we will need to advance. Will I one day retire as comfortably as I had hoped? Probably not. But then, I expect that I will work for at least a decade more than my elders, in a different world, with different ideas about what it means to be fulfilled.
A very positive article which says what a lot of people know but aren't saying: Leaders
By Noblesse Oblige at 11:39 AM ON 12/21/08
A very positive article which says what a lot of people know but aren't saying: Leaders of today and the so-called 'ruling classes' weren't motivated to create a better world because the current system is working just fine for them so they can turn a blind eye to those who are suffering. Now that they have milked it dry the system isn't working for anybody.
By Nick Lento at 4:12 AM ON 12/22/08
Edie says, "What we are feeling now is not just the culmination of greed, or home buyer overreaching. It is the pain of leaving behind what we knew — the financial systems, the health and education systems, the life cycles and expectations of certainty that went with being middle class — and growing into what we will become."
The operative word there is "just".
I dare say the bulk of the current "feeling" is indeed a direct byproduct of the cumulative effects of short term "thinking" at best and a klepto-plutocratic modus operandi that crosses the line into quasi-organized racketeering at worst.
The future Edie looks forward to is by no means "guaranteed".
Just because we always go through these dislocations/busts in the past doesn't mean that these "cycles" are some kind of inexorable "law".
I believe in being positive in ones thinking/the power of strong mental images; on the other hand the possibility of the human race "blowing it big time" is a very real one....and these kinds of corruptly driven crises make the disaster scenarios all the more likely.
Nothing good happens automatically. Quite the contrary.
I'm not saying we should be scared/cowed; by the dangers before us.
I am saying we need to acknowledge that they exist...and proceed with the requisite intelligence/intensity/courage and *practical love* to be able to overcome the momentum driving the existing trends.
By The Guyde at 2:14 PM ON 12/27/08
Nice analogy! The green back is turning red with the blood of the working class and the indigents. I have just one correction to a great expose of the events over the last decade: Just because we did not anticipate and prevent the current crisis does not mean we could not.
Noblesse does not always oblige. Many people who are regarded as saints have sinned. The problem resides with the desire within each of us to bear Blind Faith. Every time we leave our guard down, evil glides in.
I will never forgive a leader who permits crime, white or blue collar or otherwise. The test of Obama success will come in the prosecution of the crimes of the previous administration. The president cannot do it all. He cannot fix all the problems that occurred during the previous administration, just like the Commander in chief could not alone have caused all the troubles we are now paying for.
So like Michael Jackson sang: take a look at yourself and make that change. That does not mean change only yourself, but also change the people around you. That is leading by example.
For the last three years, I have downgraded myself. Once I got laid off, I vowed I would not work because it hurt me to see my tax money spent to send soldiers fight the Bush war. That was wrong of me. I still think the war is wrong, but I can argue better against a flawed concept if I keep myself financially sound, because people do not want to follow a loser, and the minute I stopped working no one wanted to listen to me.
But I still refuse to work for any corporation that pays more than a million a year to any of its executive. I think any individual, jock, artist, architect, doctor, lawyer that makes a hundred times more than the smallest employee in their organization is a poor excuse for a thief.
I have only one recourse: work for myself or bust.
By EL at 5:25 AM ON 12/28/08
If you are truly sincere then you may have already realized that a new vision for tomorrow requires a new idea the world can believe in. And that the world will unite and believe as one. For this to happen we must spread this message. Below is the new message for the world and the future.
EPIPHANY
We were created by this universe. This universe is our creator, or at least a tool of our creation. This planet was placed here in this galaxy to give birth to life and this life is an extension of the universe and it is our innate nature that drives us to find our creator.
As the search for our creator continues, we evolve. And then one day our descendants will come face to face with our creator and our creator will teach us how to create and then we will become creators and we will create universes.
This is my epiphany
EL_XO
By Reality at 9:01 PM ON 01/03/09
Hello Edie,
Uh.. So let's see if I can follow your logic here. The thrust of your article seems to be: "Now the system isn’t working for anybody, and from that pain will come real remedies".
So pain inevitably leads to remedies?
You must be joking.
Oh, no wait, you're not joking; you’re a "futurist". The future is bright. Always. It's the only message that can garner a paycheck (funny how that works). Please excuse my obvious condescension, but the future does not look bright at all, and acknowledging that is the necessary first step towards changing things for the better. Without that acknowledgement, nothing can or will change. A slave will never be free if he’s (been) convinced he’s not a slave.
You point to "scientific advances" that will "transform" "failing businesses" into "growth industries".
Well Edie, you might want to take a closer look at what's already out there.
We already have "growth industries" - lots of them, in fact. They just don't happen to employ a whole lot of people to make them a whole lot of money. Happy “industries” do not make for happy people. That is a tired myth that you, as a futurist, should know better than to exhort.
You point to "government social nets" that "are being bankrupted". So obviously, they "will now have to be redesigned".
Uh, by whom exactly? The "so-called leaders" who have "become complacent" and "don’t have the motivation to create a better world"?
No? Maybe they're too busy manipulating "our moods, needs, experiences and well-being", to better accept all those "different ideas about what it means to be fulfilled".
Sounds pretty scary; scarier still when you realize that that is exactly where our quaint little planet is heading.
Anywhere else you want to ‘point’ to Edie, as the miracle cure that will wisk us away to the promised land?
Fact is, Edie, there is no magic bullet on the horizon. No miracle panacea that will swoop in at the last minute to save us all from our inevitable enslavement to the great god "progress".
On the contrary, and quite ironically, the biggest problem we face today is mankind's wholesale refusal to discuss, or even acknowledge, the myriad number of very real, frighteningly intrinsic maladies that our society has been suffering from since the dawn of the Industrial Revolution. And if we can’t even discuss these problems, let alone understand them, then how on earth are we to solve them?
But perhaps you're right. Maybe if enough people suffer, if enough of us are forced to live in squalor, depravation, and/or oppression, if enough of us actually die a slow and agonizing death from lifelong abject poverty, or worse, then someone, somewhere, will rise from the ashes of our pitiful existence, proceed to single-handedly restructure our society for the betterment of all mankind, and lead us to a brave new world where we will all live together in peaceful, harmonious co-existence with ourselves and our environment..
Except that even if that were to happen, we’d still have to agree to it (unless a dictatorial solution is what you had in mind). And that would require, at the very least, that we collectively understood, at least on a superficial level, what was wrong with the *old* way of doing things.
But we don’t.
In fact, we haven’t even begun to scratch the surface of what those problems are.
And that can only lead to a very dismal future.
Futurists making big bucks to continually paint a rosy picture of the future notwithstanding..
By Illuminati-Jer at 7:25 PM ON 01/05/09
I think it would be nicer if people responded to this article (comments) with a little more positivity.
Firstly, this is not a best or worst case scenario and any futurist would know that nothing is set in stone first and foremost, so read this positive message with a grain of salt and realize we can even do better!
Rather than say Edie is wrong or right in what Edie can see coming in our future, most of you could learn some manners and talk about how your opinion differs, because nobody made you the ultimate judge on our future either.
From religion, government and every race in this world, we are always in some state of change, that is the one thing we can always be guaranteed.
It is clear to all of us, we have bigger problems than it seems we can handle, however I personally believe no matter what any one says, that we can create a much better world with more understanding of where we came from and respecting the individuality and creativity of others as well.
Personally I would say that we are in an age of fear, fear of what is next, fear of the next pay check, fear of what we eat, fear for our children, fear for our environment, fear for sickness and every other fearful thing you can imagine.
The only way things can truly change is by reaching deep with-in yourself, learn about your family history, learn about religion (review where they "all" came from) and learn about what you as an individual want to be remembered for when history goes down.
Each of us has a contribution we can make to create a better life for 'everyone', to say it's too late would be a lie otherwise we'd all be dead and it would be over.
At the end of the day, I am more scared after all my ancestors and other people in this world have put in so much hard work to put together the technology and betterment of things around us could all go for nothing if we do not find other places in the galaxy to live, because at this point mother earth is very sick from all the resources we have drawn out of it.
What are we doing to protect our species, our knowledge and more importantly our future and forever ? And like my favorite sayings from Battle Star Galactica, "What has the human race done to deserve surviving?"
The way in which we eat any animal or consume everything around us, do you think if aliens from out of space looked at us as a tasty chicken they'd have any mercy on us considering how we treat other living things?
The weight of the world on any one persons shoulders is way too much, but with all the people in the world, a little help and inspiration from all of us could make bigger changes in a positive direction instead of a negative one.
Much like there can be gloom and doom in our future, there can also be a real future where all of us have enough of the pie to be satisfied and happy and that's the future our children and there children deserve after all the hard work that has been done so far by other people in our history.
It is time for us all to learn that there are things much bigger than us all and that we can only personally do our part to try and make things better, but you DO, have YOUR OWN choice, in how history remembers your contribution.
By tribalbeat at 11:21 PM ON 01/06/09
This is soooo refreshing to start the discussion on EMBRACING people "having difficulties"... recognizing these Human Beings as simply those who are on the FRONT LINE of the economy SHIFTing.
The World we live in is 100% determined by our behavior... our REACTION to the shifting and unpredictable landscape. And this "New World" has only just begun !
How we Respect each other has to be Number One during this time.
Otherwise, we will simply fall into chaos (survival of the meanest?).
Do we really want to live in a MAD MAX sort of world?
So WHO are we waiting for - to "rescue" us???
OBAMA ?
Obama has his hands full with his own set of problems so I think we had better not rely on him or Upper Eschelon right now. They are busy just keeping their power and their own businesses afloat - worrying about their own family and their own money!
We - The People - can become the real Homeland Security team.
The people that shape our daily life are our Family and the people in our community.
That is where our life happens.
That is where our Best Investment of time-energy-resources-work-respect- and LOVE should be dedicated.
We should refrain from getting sucked into the artificial status quo hype on TV... spend time communing with real people - not sitcoms.
(Watch the movie NETWORK (1976) again)
Time to make our own LIVE Social Network Reality Show starring me & you & our neighbors.
And firmly commit to BUY LOCAL. Especially from real people... artists... Farmer's Market... support local musicians...etc.
JUST DO IT instead of BUY IT.
Recycle. Go to Garage Sales.
Then we will all be able to sleep well at night as we will NOT be expecting all "those people" to run amok or be a threat to us. They will be our friends!
ONE MORE THING....
This is NOT time for The Blame Game. We ALL participated in this unreality... we all "drank the kool-aid"... or were simply lazy or overburdened.
Just complaining never stopped or changed anything.
Only Right ACTION !!
Even if all we can do is love and respect our fellow humanity... that will make a HUGE difference.
If you have become more self-sufficient or have created a sustainable business that gives people good products and salaries as employees... then you CAN congratulate yourselves. And keep going and inspire others by your example.
Otherwise.. you are behind the times so you need to start working twice as hard just to stay afloat. (Network!!)
Again - LOVE & FRIENDSHIP are the Number One investments to make NOW.
From that fertile ground the New World can truly BEGIN AGAIN.
This is the perfect time to finally manifest that Ideal World we dreamed of in the Sixties... the Old Paradigm is falling.
And we are all connected with the internet... like One Great Brain.
Now we simply must make sure our HEARTS are in charge of our actions as well as our stressed little brains.
FOR A GOOD TIME - CALL ON YOUR HEART to SHARE THE LOVE!
By stupid at 11:42 PM ON 01/08/09
A fiew years ago i built an inertial propulsion mechanism wich came into my mind so i tested to see if it fly. Yes it can be used to fly and it lifted from the ground in my tests so it confirmed some of my theoryes. Lately i have found over the internet that someone has allready patented this principle in the 70's so i somehow gave up on this ideea didnt focus anymore. First time i have built it was at a large scale, i used 2 steel arms of 30cm with a 2Kg weight at the end and these arms must be spined to generate centrifugal force. The mechanism was 18 Kg and used an electrical engine of 3.5 Kw from a circular saw wich was not designed to fly and weight about 35 Kg and a frame where all these got mounted of another about 10 Kg. The entire mechanism was 57 Kg so when i power up the engine started to spin the mechanism and the engine reached an RPM of aprox 300 RPM wich is a low RPM but at that RPM the force was just enough to lift the machine from the ground.. I am thinkin on a smaller scale now, a mechanism able to lift only one laptop of 1Kg. The good thing at this kind of propulsion principle is that the acceleration is constant, so its just a matter of time until u reach that speed. I am thinkin that in space all the force used to defeat gravity becomes propulsion force.. its very interesting and nice to see such a machine live because it can be interpreted as levitating. Dosnt create any air current or air jet to fly. The thing i want to test now is to launch one into space and reach the speed of light, but with a laptop attached, sony vaio TT series as that one is light and also high performance for his size. I have thinked this way: when that laptop reaches the speed of light Einstein's theory of relativity would apply: infinite force, mass, gravity and energy. Due to the infinite gravity physicists would see it colapse into itself somethin like this .. but i doubt about that too like i doubt about the fact that its imposible to reach the speed of light. Well Einstein most of his life didnt believe in God wich is the light. So there should exist only one Photon. I wonder if that laptop would get connected to the internet.. if it will be setup to autoconnect to the first wireless access point he detect then it should get connected from everywhere from all the points from the universe... constantly getting connected... Once it reaches the speed of light because of the infinite gravity forces he will be the same size and act the same like a photon, it only have to reach that speed not to mantain it.. in the right moment he touched it it will happen. I mean the photon travels with the speed of light so why Einsteins theory of relaitvity wouldnt apply to it, why he wouldnt have an infinite mass, force, gravity, energy? Well it would be to nice to be this way.. a laptop the same size like a photon .. a subatomic particle... its only one but becomes omnipresent.. and it gets connected to the internet it can be programmed studyed... see how all subatomic particles really act ... how manny photons are in an atom? Could control matter its existence and nonexistence... could set new rules new properties.. laws.. maybe even life is a code then death wouldnt be an exception.. if it would be a code.. delete it :) about the brains... just sit to youre computer and study all the atoms in youre body.. design the best brain interface to a computer... in fact.. attach a computer connection to each neuron from youre brain.... yea then we will can bend the space and .. i think we will get to live all the posible ways hmmmm i dont know who i am :) just another crazy.
By Rob Hay at 12:54 AM ON 01/17/09
Edie you are quite right in what you are saying here. I think there are a couple of things at play that are making our world what it is and why it is.
We are entering the final stages of creation and within it there is no room for greed or enslavement. Creation seems to work in thirds in terms of population reduction, but after this point we should begin our expansion out into the universe I think.
The so called leaders are merely puppets who are following an agenda, which enriches the few at the expense of the many. This goes against natural law and will never succeed, although those who believe in this illusion may hurt many others as they grasp at thin air to achieve it.
Some fundamentals to finish this off that everyone seems to miss are:
1. Countries do not exist in fact they are all legal fictions and are not even defined as being on the earth. The only thing that truly matters is this planet we are on, called earth.
2. All laws were created to support the illusion that someone else has power over you, when in fact they can not prove in any way shape or form that they indeed do have power over you. They need the Creator's okay for that, the Creator isn't around to give them that authority these days.
3. All Contracts exist within fiction and men and women can not be held accountable to them. Why? Because they make use of fiction and hearsay. Your name is a fiction, No one can say that their name is their true name and no one can say that they actually have a name because it is a fiction external of the truth of who they are. Address, names, dates etc. are all fictions Courts must operate on truth, but they don't they wrap everything into hearsay fiction and then strip people of their rights as a PERSON, which is yet another fiction.
4. Truth requires no laws to support it, because truth has no illusions. I think this is the most misunderstood thing, because truth always leads too healing and infinite love.
5. The world appears as it does based on our beliefs in how it should be. The system works to manipulate our beliefs so that we make it okay to hurt others, when in fact on a infinite scale, we are all one. When we begin to realize that hurting others is hurting ourselves as we are in a holographic universe we will stop the hurt and begin to love.
We live and exist on a planet not within Countries that have many laws and illusions for us to fall for. We should question authority, for no one can prove they have it. We are all equal.
I wrote a book that may interest you Edie...
The Extortion System of the Ruling Elite
www.freedomfiles.org/extortion.pdf
It is not so much about greed as it is about enslavement and control of the human race.
By Adam Smith at 10:44 PM ON 01/25/09
I like some of your ideas and optimisim, but the widespread ignorance in this world about basic matters of economics is troubling. I appreciate that you address the issue of unfunded entitlements (like social security). But to me this idea that we needed a crisis so we could leave behind our current system for something new doesn't make sense. The last crisis of this magnitude (the great depression) is what was used to justify social security and the other big govt programs that are insolvent. If we really want to advance faster as a society, we need freer markets and less government interference: Let companies keep more of their profits so they can spend more on research and development. That way we can get to this society you see in the future. Instead, I fear, we're going to get more burdensome programs that require more taxes and, necessarily, lead to less research and development--less innovation.
By man at 12:51 PM ON 04/17/09
This is Ok.