03/17/2008: "Use It or Lose It"

When it comes to getting people to change in a significant way there is hardly anything better than a new artifact. A transformation of our systems or institutions can also do the trick. However, such a feat can take a lot of time and effort and is subject to the stultifying forces of partisan bickering. But a good artifact – boy, there’s hardly anything like it to get people thinking and acting differently regardless of their ideological differences.

Which is why it was so disappointing that our government virtually ignored the emerging artifacts of wave four over the last eight years – those artifacts being the convergent products of bioengineering, nanotechnology, machine cognition, macro-robotics, new materials and new energy. Rather, we seem to have been encouraged to pursue a reverse march towards the nineteenth century. And while this has been very profitable for a few, it will eventually spell disaster for the rest of us.

Fortunately there seems to be a tipping point occurring in the American meta-mind regarding environmental sustainability. And the artifacts that are associated with restoring the environment and ending the energy crisis are coming on like gangbusters. One of the better resources for revealing these artifacts is a new book from Environmental Defense Fund entitled, “Earth: The Sequel.” It’s a grand read from start to finish and is very up to date, which is a difficult feat in the world of books, especially those pertaining to new technologies. It is also a valuable read in that it gives us a sense of hope, something that has been missing in the American psyche for a while.

Paradoxically, these new technologies, and the artifacts that they create through their convergence, have been languishing under the polemics of political and economic special interests. But with new policies that support restorative technologies, and remove the subsidy of destructive and antiquated technology, they might just have a fighting chance. (They might even become viral and take over anyway.) And you can bet that waiting in the wings will be similar tipping points and artifacts for promoting economic, social, and human sustainability.

But it is important to note that there is a profound difference between an implicit understanding of something and an explicit demonstration of it. We can realize that we need to do something different, and we can even know what to do, but in the final analysis we must marshal the will and the resources do it. In other words, we need to create a context for using the “next great things” to our advantage and then we need to use them. All artifacts can be profoundly influential whether they are a new energy source or a new mode of transportation or a new and creative form of architecture. But the old adage still holds, we must use it or lose it. And what we will use or lose in this next iteration of human history will be of planetary consequence.