Kindle Notes & Highlights
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March 24, 2022
Norman Lear, the famous American TV producer, said: “We just may be the most-informed, yet least self-aware people in history.”
Knowledge cannot tell us what is worth doing, or what is right morally and what is wrong. Rational logic does not explain why people are altruistic or selfish, kind or cruel, enlightened or ignorant. Knowledge can never replace love, wisdom or a guiding vision.
The conflict over these complex issues seems overwhelming because, once again, they are beyond knowledge. They hinge on stark differences in consciousness.
knowledge? As Chapter three will explain, everything beyond knowledge is consciousness. This historic shift in social evolution is illustrated by the graph below.
Roughly four million years were needed to found Agrarian Civilizations. Nine thousand years to invent Industrial Society. One hundred years for the Post-Industrial
Today, the world is poised at the cusp of transformation from a society based on knowledge to one guided by consciousness. This extraordinary acceleration through previous stages reveals how the planet suddenly came alive in a flash of awareness.
But the Knowledge Age began when digital technology matured about two decades ago into the most powerful force on Earth, occupying the bulk of the labor force, and our very minds.
This historic transition also poses enormous threats that seem almost impossible. Climate change and the entire constellation of end-of-the-world challenges comprise what I call the “Global MegaCrisis,” or the “Crisis of Global Maturity.”
The late Stephen Hawking worried about “widening inequality, climate change, food, decimation of species, epidemic disease, acidification of the oceans. This is the most dangerous moment in the development of humanity, and our species must work together.”25
but also the enormous problems of “eating fruit from the biblical Tree of Knowledge.” Smart cars, for example, will pass on the faults of smartphones.
The world is being forced to grow up and to develop a sustainable global order – or perish. This passage to maturity is more than a historic challenge; it is also a historic opportunity. Like adolescence, surmounting this painful process can lead to a better future. How could we let this singular moment pass?
The main chapters outline how shifts in public consciousness are transforming the major organs of society – government, business, universities, religions and other institutions.
As my graph of the LCE lays out visually, we are now in the beginning throes of what I call a “Mental/Spiritual Revolution” to kick-start the Age of Consciousness.
In short, it appears the world is heading toward some type of historic shift in consciousness, a collective epiphany, a new mindset, code of global ethics or a spiritual revolution.
We can now envision renewable energy replacing oil, medical control over the genetic processes of life, self-driving “green” cars, computer power that is almost infinite, mobile communications at lightning speed, robots serving as helpers and much more to come.
unprecedented havoc. It would be nice to trust in what Richard Brautigan called “being watched over by machines of loving grace,” but all technologies incur dangers. As we have seen, the smartphone is flooding the world with information overload, while social media is polarizing politics. Freedom House warned: “The future will be about controlling the masses through technology.”
This chapter examines the shift in consciousness underway as virtual education (VE) enters widespread use. We will see how this transition drives the rise of student-centered teaching, new educational technologies, future career opportunities, games and visualization and changing university structures.
And since belief in higher powers, the soul, the purpose of life and other spiritual matters can so profoundly shape our views of life, spirituality could become the most powerful technology of consciousness, leading to a Mental/Spiritual Revolution.
world is also being pulled forward by the Technology Revolution, the rise of women to power and a new breed of young people who seem remarkably united across cultures. In the chapters ahead, we will see numerous examples forming the rough outlines of a global civilization. The alternative is too grim to bear.
Information is also unique as it can increase exponentially. Unlike the diminishing returns of the Industrial Age based on physical assets (For instance, factories), a knowledge economy draws on intangible knowledge assets that grow faster with each advance, creating increasing returns to scale.
invokes the Biblical story in which Adam and Eve eat fruit of the Tree of Knowledge and are banished from paradise. The message is clear – knowledge exacts a heavy cost and demands responsibility.
However, quantitative methods also involve uncertainty: They require underlying assumptions that often are doubtful, so results vary widely.
At the same time, globalization is expected to almost double the number of people living at industrialized levels, producing commensurate increases in energy demands, pollution levels, and global warming. The Earth experienced its 400th straight month of above average temperatures in 2020, and carbon emissions rose 3 percent, up from 1.6 percent in 2017. At this rate, global temperatures are likely to soar by 3 to 5 degrees C by 2100. The lower US, Central America, the Middle East, India, and China seem doomed to drought, extreme weather and rampant disease that would make them uninhabitable
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Artificial intelligence should automate 30 percent of routine tasks by about 2025 (+/- 3 years). Smart robots have pervaded factories and are now creeping into homes, offices and the battlefield.12 The US military expects to have more combat robots than human soldiers by ٢٠٢٥.13
“Within a generation, you will have a hard time explaining to your children how you lived without a 3D printer.”19
A respected medical journal, The Lancet, projected that most babies born since 2000 in industrialized nations will live to celebrate their 100th birthday.
combustion engine has about 2000 moving parts, while EV engines only have about 20 parts. EVs are also expected to last 600,000 miles, and the cost is likely to fall to one-third of an ordinary car, with half the operating costs.
Space may be an exciting new frontier, but only if we first resolve the Global MegaCrisis now blocking the path to this future. Otherwise, we may never reach the Space Age.
the rise of alternative energy, the spreading of knowledge, women gaining power and young people becoming the first “global citizens.” TechCast’s studies reveal a surprising but intuitive trend of movement toward social responsibility, transparency, environmental concern, diversity, global ethics and the like.31
They attribute these failures to a lack of leadership, political will, vision, and cooperation, offering little hope in finding a way through this impasse. There is a pervasive fear that we can’t get our act together and that events could spin out of control.
