We have not been smart in managing our species in the context of the planet. Buckminster Fuller once said

We have the planet and X billion people. Putting them together is just a design problem.

Can we do it? I suggested in the last post that we see ourselves as problem solvers. But problem solving creates new structures that are – let’s face it – problems. Proof? Look at the state of the world. D- at best would be our grade. Think population, pollution, warming, lack of meaning, reduction of people to consumers. The march from feudalism to democracy has taken bad turns.This is not smart. The danger is we will turn this into – you guessed it – anther problem to solve.

I have often said that at Stanford where I spent the last dozen years undergrads are taught  (and grad students have already learned) that the world is an ensemble of problems any one of which can be solved in three years with a grant.

But this time problem solving tends to imply a centralized authoritarian capital intense approach that keeps the flow of money to the 1% intact.

At what level do we rethink? Technology? – no. Tech is going to be important, but for what is not a tech problem.