For the times they are a-changin’.

Bob Dylan

The truth about our uniquely human way of being in the world is that our times are always changing. The only difference from time to time is in the details.

Today, our details are mostly about Space.

For time immemorial, humanity has lived as if upon the creative edge of an infinitely receding horizon, out of which we could always take more, and into which the consequences of our taking would disappear, without consequence.

This has been the defining moment of our human experience, the place where we could find all our new possibilities for making a future history of more that is better for all. Until now.

Today, we are living on the creative edge of a New Frontier, a frontier of new learning about living well and pursuing peace on earth as the place where all our possibilities for living well are to be found.

In 1960, United States President John F. Kennedy committed his Nation’s resources to the mission of putting a man on the moon within this decade, and brining him safely home again.

Nine year later, on July 29, 1969, United States Astronaut Neil Armstrong, Mission Commander of the Apollo 11 Spaceflight, stepped out of the Eagle Lunar Landing Module onto the surface of the Moon taking his historic:

“One small step for a man. One giant leap for Mankind.”

But the step Neil took was not the leap we were expecting. Humanity ventured into space expecting to find a New Frontier for exploration and colonization as a truly infinitely expanding horizon, out of which we would actually be able to always take more, and into which the consequences of our taking would truly disappear, without consequence.

Instead, the leap we took was into a New Reality. When we ventured into Space, all we found was rocks. And a vast, unrelenting coldness and emptiness, totally devoid of life, and the essentials for living.
And the earth.

We discovered that we have the earth, and it is well and truly ours.
Also, we discovered that the earth is what we have.

Space flight was made possible by computer technology, and computers are also creating the new reality of a globally evolving, adaptive networks economy for us in the 21st Century, and beyond…

This is our future. This is our new frontier.

The earth is our garden. We have to become good global gardeners.

The finance we have now was created by design to finance prosperity within a reality of infinite expansion. That is not the reality we live in today.

We have a new reality. We need a new finance that is created by design to finance prosperity within that new reality.

This changes everything about our sense of place, our sense of history, our sense of community and our sense of the possibilities.
It also changes our sense of who we are, as humans, and a new story of the history of humanity’s pursuit of prosperity.

Turning The Page To Start A New Chapter In The History Of Humanity’s Pursuit Of Prosperity

We are taught today to talk about the economy in industrial terms. We are taught to talk about scale, about efficiency, about production and about productivity as indicators of how well the economy is doing; and to talk about growth, in GDP (gross domestic product) and NPV (net present value = corporate share prices) as measures of how well we are prospering.

Why do we want growth?

Because growth is perceived to be the pathway to prosperity in an industrial economy, expanding into an infinitely receding horizon for geophysical expansion, out of which we can always take more, and into which the consequences of our taking will disappear, seemingly without consequence.

But our economy today is no longer really industrial.  It is less about factories, and more about the internet; less about centralized, standardized distribution, and more about de-centralized, self-organizing computer transactions that are not so much industrial as global in scale.  

Times change. We must adapt.  The received wisdom of an industrial past cannot guide us to prosperity in our new computer connected future.

We must find a new pathway to prosperity in our new computer connected, globally evolving adaptive network economy of the 21st Century.  

As Carol Gluck, Professor of History at Columbia University, teaches us:

“The twentieth century is definitely behind us, and there is little doubt that we need a new and better considered past for the sake of a new and better imagined future.”

As we consider the history of humanity’s pursuit of prosperity, we see that we are living today in a special moment of suspense, at a time when the current chapter in that story is ending, and the page must be turned before the next, new chapter can begin.

It is our task to turn that page.

In the old, industrial economy, we valued the values of industrial prosperity. These are the values of scale, efficiency, production and productivity; of growth, in GDP (gross domestic product) and NPV (net present value = corporate share prices).

In the new computer connected, globally evolving adaptive networks economy of today, we are on a different path towards a different prosperity. We need to be valuing the new values of that new path.

The new values on this new path are the values of peace, not just as stillness, and the absence of conflict – of withdrawing from the world – but also as success living in the world, evolving prosperous adaptations to life’s constant changes through inquiry, insight, enterprise and exchange that collaboratively co-creates surpluses that are sufficient to their times, and circulates sufficient surpluses sufficiently, within the population and across the generations.

These are the values of good stewardship of the social contract between enterprise and popular choice that flourishes for a time, then fades in the fullness of time, as times change, and people evolve prosperous adaptations to life’s constant changes, making new choices more popular as better fit to changing times, and letting previously popular choices fade into history.

They are the values of peace in four dimensions:

Peace with ourselves – lives lived in peace;

Peace with each other – a culture of peace:

Peace with our planet – the business of peace:

Peace with our future – investing in peace.

These are the building blocks of a safe house for humanity in the 21st Century, and beyond…

We are living at the end of the current chapter in the history of humanity’s pursuit of prosperity. This is a story that:

• began with the earliest aboriginal economies of subsistence living organized by consensus decision-making within extended family groups, and then 
• evolved into the temple economies of centralized redistribution with the invention of large scale grain agriculture, that
• evolved into the palace economies of localized craftsmanship and trade within the estates of the landed aristocracy, that
• evolved into the colonial trading empires of free market economies of port cities and sailing ships, that 
• evolved into the industrial progress of railroads and factories, that 
• has been evolving since the post-War years into the modern computer connected, globally evolving adaptive networks economy that we are living in today.

Each of these different forms of economy evolved its own unique pathway to prosperity, and its own unique set of values that it valued on its journey towards a future of more that is better. 

Each also evolved its own unique social structures of Finance; of value-recognizing patterns, pattern languages, places and professionals through which the populations decided for themselves what their future could, should and would be made to be.

All of these social structures continue to exist and to function in modified form today. Each continues to be useful for making the right choices for our future, at the right time.

Also, there is a new one that has evolved in our times.  This is the pension plan as an actuarial risk pool that uses the science of statistics, the mathematics of probabilities and the laws of large numbers to programmatically provide certainty against certain of life’s uncertainties; specifically, to provide income to live on in retirement.

We currently have this new form of Finance through pensions trapped in the old form of Finance through speculation. We have to set our pensions free. That is the next chapter in the history of humanity’s pursuit of prosperity.  It is the chapter that we are writing, in these, our times.