Thursday, August 18, 2016

Olympic Measures

Aim High!
While watching the Summer Olympics in Rio de Janero this week, I'm reminded of how humans can put forth such amazing effort to accomplish things that we value in the abstract. Sure we can wag a scathing finger at the scandals fueled by drug testing, corporate sponsorship, financial corruption, and even the global nation-state model itself (and well we should to foster improvement at each opportunity).

Still, the grand symbolism of human beings from diverse and distant places worldwide competing together peacefully easily outweighs these issues, taking leaps beyond any medal count statistic. Similarly with great mindfulness, training, and visionary heart humanity as a whole can restore, and augment, the Earth toward a fuller majesty, a state that strains ever to reach the epitome of natural, ethical, and artistic beauty for all denizens of the world.

Give us time and we'll earn the Gold!

Friday, August 5, 2016

Millennium Vision Project - Reflection Point

The dog days of August have arrived (note to self: check if Sirius is barking in the night sky tonight). Alas, with metaphorical dogs nipping at my heels, I find this a good moment to reflect on how Goodness First progress proceeds regards to its 2016 project: The Millennium Vision.

This year I have published twenty-eight articles here on Goodness First to date.  A few, like this one, have been self-referential and self-motivating, yet most have been to the heart of the goal: envisioning a thriving, sustainable world system that includes humans a thousand years from now.

Planetary Thinking Inbloggate
Arguably humanity has been a largely destructive force on Earth for the past hundred thousand years, spreading like a self-serving wildfire through the many ecosystems of the planet.  In the last century of human world domination the exponentially growing human population has reaped physical and cultural wealth for our species though at great cost to thousands of other species and the environment at large. Nevertheless, by thinking big ideas and extending them with empathy to all of life and the world, the next thousand years has the potential to improve civilization's behavior as a whole, with the Earth reaping the benefits.

I have striven with integrity and compassion to highlight the biggest issues (internal and external) on hand today alongside transitional hurdles to come. My readership, according to Google Analytics, is on the order of 1500 per month; I sense 10% of which may be legitimate. The active feedback I have received online and in person has been helpful to keep my idealism, my writing style, and my motivation in check.  I am realistic.  My opinions, anecdotes, and representations of the world on Goodness First reflect how civilization can implement best scientific and ethical wisdom toward the most hopeful vision of the future world.

Finally, note that it is my intent after another month of Millennium Vision articles to begin the process of collating my 2016 Goodness First writing into an aggregate manifesto.  The Millennium Vision project isn't meant to be either a scientific treatise nor an exercise in irrational idealism; it is intended to marry current human understanding with compassion toward a realistic, sustainable future.  Importantly, even in its final form, The Millennium Vision is intended to be a solid beginning, not an end, to expressing a desirable place where the world can be in a thousand years.  That place is a world system that includes a healthy environment, a wealth of natural biodiversity and select spot for human culture to thrive beautifully.

(Submit suggestions for individual Millennium Vision topics and overall project goals via comment, email, or in person as you feel appropriate.  Thanks!)