Watch this video or read the transcript of the kickoff talk for a new series of physical events about how to build off all the key ideas in our series so far & lead others into The Great Progression
With every little discovery in the lab or every unique situation that occurs, I always glimpse a little bit of magic. Today, at the exact moment I started reading your article, my Spotify, which was on shuffle mode, started playing Neil Young’s “Heart of Gold” (1972)—as Neil Young’s voice echoed through my mind, it seemed like the perfect soundtrack for the moment.
As I here in Brazil do my best to participate in the biological revolution, I imagined myself surrounded by the minds of the 250 innovators—the dreamers, the builders, the tireless seekers of what’s next—the vanguard of possibility—who were at the beating heart of San Francisco, ground zero for AI and all the frontiers that stretch beyond it.
I dared to dream of something deeper than just progress. I dreamed of a future where innovation doesn’t just move fast, but moves right, where technology aligns with humanity’s greatest hopes, not just its most eager markets, where we mine not just for profit or power, but for purpose. For wisdom. For a kind of progress that truly feels like a heart of gold.
I hope that infinite wisdom continues to guide me forward and that in the future, we can sit down and share our ideas. Thank you for the opportunity to learn from you. I’m also aware that the “heart of gold” I’m searching for is the one within me.
Thanks for that reflection. It happens that the first musician that I really fell for was Neil Young. And that album was the album that did it back then. There is some alignment going on, as you say.
What "morality" will guide us? This is my concern. Will we pursue "individual liberty", a "nanny state", theocratic ideals, maybe give the utopia called "equity" another try (ala USSR, Cuba, PRC)?
A lot people seem to have a lot of opinions without understanding the track of human governance to be found in historical records...
Thank you for your heartful ideas once again. :) I'm trying to figure out where the broligarchs, Palantir and Thiel figure in to this narrative since they seem to be building and lighting the stage for all of the shows going forward.
Unfortunately, the tech right, like Thiel and Elon and a handful of others, have been the ones to jump into the limelight by tying themselves to the Trump train in politics. And the media tends to make them the spokespeople of all tech. That is very far from the truth. I am going to write more about this, but tech since I've been here in the 1990s has been about an 80/20 split on those left of center (80%) and the right of center (20%). That has shifted somewhat in the last five years or so. It might be closer to 60/40 now, but still the ballast of tech people in the region is on the center left. So some of what I was appealing to in this call, and this talk, was to people who tend to be left of center, and are not Trumpies. We need a more balanced way forward that is distinct from what Tech Right is putting out, in my opinion. More will come on this.
How does overshoot figure in, where as we act out in the progression you have dealt with so astutely there is a very intelligent cadre pointing to how, even within five years, "collapse" will be sending us back to the Stone Age?
Nothing in politics is inevitable. So there is a possible scenario that would be totally disastrous like you seem to allude to. But I think the odds of that are way overstated because most people tend to be fearful first. We need to lay out the positive ways forward to counter-balance those fears.
With all respect, you seem frighteningly out of touch. Fear is well-founded, with no positive ways forward that can mitigate against it, so at least it can be the driver to wake up to do the best we can. Substack abounds with well-researched material that you must not be familiar with, much of it even stating that no matter what we do it’s too late and we should be concentrating on how to run a world where industrial civilization has collapsed.
You need to educate yourself. Look up Richard Crim’s Crisis Report for just one good source of how terrifyingly positioned we are: https://substack.com/@smokingtyger/posts. I write from a different angle, where who knows but that a miracle could occur - the “nothing is inevitable” angle - where I posit that the best we could do is wake humanity up to its next rung of consciousness where we are cooperative instead of oppositional, but that is a hard sell to the people who are steeped in how far the breakdown has gone to where nothing will save us from a a civilization where degrowth has the survivors in a very different world.
With every little discovery in the lab or every unique situation that occurs, I always glimpse a little bit of magic. Today, at the exact moment I started reading your article, my Spotify, which was on shuffle mode, started playing Neil Young’s “Heart of Gold” (1972)—as Neil Young’s voice echoed through my mind, it seemed like the perfect soundtrack for the moment.
As I here in Brazil do my best to participate in the biological revolution, I imagined myself surrounded by the minds of the 250 innovators—the dreamers, the builders, the tireless seekers of what’s next—the vanguard of possibility—who were at the beating heart of San Francisco, ground zero for AI and all the frontiers that stretch beyond it.
I dared to dream of something deeper than just progress. I dreamed of a future where innovation doesn’t just move fast, but moves right, where technology aligns with humanity’s greatest hopes, not just its most eager markets, where we mine not just for profit or power, but for purpose. For wisdom. For a kind of progress that truly feels like a heart of gold.
I hope that infinite wisdom continues to guide me forward and that in the future, we can sit down and share our ideas. Thank you for the opportunity to learn from you. I’m also aware that the “heart of gold” I’m searching for is the one within me.
Thanks for that reflection. It happens that the first musician that I really fell for was Neil Young. And that album was the album that did it back then. There is some alignment going on, as you say.
"I dared to dream of something deeper than just progress."
> how do you separate deeper from shallower other than imposing your preferences?
"I dreamed of a future where innovation doesn’t just move fast, but moves right,"
> if humans adopt an innovation, how is it judged to not be "right"?
> do you reject the "wisdom of the masses"?
"where technology aligns with humanity’s greatest hopes, not just its most eager markets,"
> aren't "eager markets" aligned with humanity's hopes?
> it is impossible to separate "economics" from innovation.
> hopes are based on some morality... which do we use?
"where we mine not just for profit or power, but for purpose. For wisdom. For a kind of progress that truly feels like a heart of gold."
> profit is a reflection of value as depicted by the consumers which are "the people"...
> value is a reflection of purpose...
> define "heart of gold". it varies by culture...
All in, Peter!
What "morality" will guide us? This is my concern. Will we pursue "individual liberty", a "nanny state", theocratic ideals, maybe give the utopia called "equity" another try (ala USSR, Cuba, PRC)?
A lot people seem to have a lot of opinions without understanding the track of human governance to be found in historical records...
Thank you for your heartful ideas once again. :) I'm trying to figure out where the broligarchs, Palantir and Thiel figure in to this narrative since they seem to be building and lighting the stage for all of the shows going forward.
Unfortunately, the tech right, like Thiel and Elon and a handful of others, have been the ones to jump into the limelight by tying themselves to the Trump train in politics. And the media tends to make them the spokespeople of all tech. That is very far from the truth. I am going to write more about this, but tech since I've been here in the 1990s has been about an 80/20 split on those left of center (80%) and the right of center (20%). That has shifted somewhat in the last five years or so. It might be closer to 60/40 now, but still the ballast of tech people in the region is on the center left. So some of what I was appealing to in this call, and this talk, was to people who tend to be left of center, and are not Trumpies. We need a more balanced way forward that is distinct from what Tech Right is putting out, in my opinion. More will come on this.
that sounds pretty judgemental Peter. if the mix is 80/20 left, or now 60/40 left how is that "more balanced"?
the "left" comes with many of its own flaws, its own foibles... careful...
How does overshoot figure in, where as we act out in the progression you have dealt with so astutely there is a very intelligent cadre pointing to how, even within five years, "collapse" will be sending us back to the Stone Age?
Nothing in politics is inevitable. So there is a possible scenario that would be totally disastrous like you seem to allude to. But I think the odds of that are way overstated because most people tend to be fearful first. We need to lay out the positive ways forward to counter-balance those fears.
With all respect, you seem frighteningly out of touch. Fear is well-founded, with no positive ways forward that can mitigate against it, so at least it can be the driver to wake up to do the best we can. Substack abounds with well-researched material that you must not be familiar with, much of it even stating that no matter what we do it’s too late and we should be concentrating on how to run a world where industrial civilization has collapsed.
You need to educate yourself. Look up Richard Crim’s Crisis Report for just one good source of how terrifyingly positioned we are: https://substack.com/@smokingtyger/posts. I write from a different angle, where who knows but that a miracle could occur - the “nothing is inevitable” angle - where I posit that the best we could do is wake humanity up to its next rung of consciousness where we are cooperative instead of oppositional, but that is a hard sell to the people who are steeped in how far the breakdown has gone to where nothing will save us from a a civilization where degrowth has the survivors in a very different world.
like i wrote above. Malthus would be proud...
But we wouldn’t need legislation to control population if we pay no attention to the overshoot that will reduce the population for us.
Malthus would be proud of you.