During the early part of the decade i spent a long time working toward creating a media platform that was candidly biased toward futures that work. Toward that end, we elected a Global Vision statement:

In fifty years we hope to have a stable, peaceful, prosperous, diverse global civilization, which honours freedom of personal belief, and in which democratic political processes dominate, with a high level of universal education and health care, and a genuinely impartial and accessible system of justice, and in which both advanced and basic technology is applied in ways that are in balance with the natural environment, and produce an equitable distribution of social benefits. - Hardin Tibbs

That global vision was then divided into several, more manageable categories each with it’s own mission statement and to-do lists so that, as a global community, we would know the things we were working toward on a daily, weekly, monthly, yearly, and millenial basis. Two of those categories were Environmental Sustainability and Space Exploration (which was really a hidden pointer towards space migration).

If we’re going to actually survive and prosper as a species, we need to get beyond the myopic habits and rigid reality tunnels most of us hold so that we can recognize the possibilities for catastrophe and for success.

Howard Bloom, one of the smartest men i know, does both of these things in what is the most astute and sensible assessment of where we need to start sustainability from.  Check it out.

Moving beyond the “i’m a scientist, NOT an artist” aesthetic of the site’s owner, this page really puts things in perspective. Check it out.

Right Now:

The Earth is revolving around the Sun at a speed of about 18.5 miles/sec (30/km/sec).

At the same time, the Milky Way, of which the Earth is only a microscopic element, is traveling at about 155miles/sec (250 km/sec).

The Milky Way is only one in a group of galaxies called Local Group. The Local Group is traveling at close to 185 miles/sec (300 km/sec).

That means that even when you’re sitting still, you’re moving faster than you can comprehend.

“We are just an advanced breed of monkeys on a minor planet of a very average star. But we can understand the Universe. That makes us something very special.”

Stephen Hawking

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Der geniale Stephen Hawking hielt einen kurzen Vortrag (10 min) bei der diesjährigen TED-Konferenz. Ich will hier nicht allzuviel vom Inhalt verraten, nur soviel: Die Zukunft der menschlichen Rasse über die nächsten 100 Jahre hinaus liegt im Weltraum. Nirgends sonst.

Beeindruckend (wie die meisten TED-Vorträge):