From the cover of Wisdom, Consciousness, and the Future

To flourish is to grow.

Sustainability is not an option. We grow or we die. We embrace evolution as the only game in town. We increasingly learn to guide evolution—consciously, scientifically, ethically. We do not deny it or run from it.

Utopian visions frequently envision a “perfect society” as a static image (an eternal heaven on earth), yet the only ideal society is one that allows for its repeated transcendence. An ideal society supports the growth of individuals within it; and reciprocally, individuals who flourish contribute toward the evolution of society as a whole.

Evolutionary progress does not simply mean material progress. Our ideal of progress should be broadened to include the psychological, the humanistic, the ethical, and even the cosmic. Growth needs to be defined and pursued holistically.

Mind Flight: A Journey into the Future

We are part of the ecological whole, and hence, a flourishing earth means Gaia evolving (with humanity as part of it).

Humanity and Gaia are part of the cosmic whole—part of the cosmic evolutionary process. To flourish means to extend beyond, in mind and body, and reach out into the cosmos, participating in the ongoing act of cosmic creation.

To flourish means to aspire toward cosmic consciousness, to embrace the unending mystery and infinite adventure.

To flourish means to transcend. And to transcend again.

Tom Lombardo is the author of “Wisdom, Enlightenment, Science, and the Future,” a chapter in Science, Wisdom, and the Future: Humanities Quest for a Flourishing Earth, a Collins Foundation Press book (published soon). He is also the author of The Evolution of Future Consciousness (and Contemporary Futurist Thought and has just published two new books Wisdom, Consciousness, and the Future and Mind Flight: A Journey into the Future.

Tom Lombardo is the Co-Director, along with his wife Jeanne Belisle Lombardo, of the Center for Future Consciousness an educational institute designed to help individuals and organizations increase their understanding of the future and constructively approach its challenges and possibilities.

Original cover artwork for Tom’s books, shown above, was created by Ora Tamir (http://www.orasart.com)

For a flourishing Earth, we are called upon to integrate our current environmental ethics into an even larger cosmological ethics – one that possesses a strong sense of stewardship over a tiny self-aware part of the evolving universe.  Even if low level life is common, it’s possible that higher consciousness is uncommon, and that Earth is a rare outpost.  Whether or not this is the case, being a small piece of a universe becoming aware of itself means that we are challenged by deep questions of stewardship and responsibility toward our place in an evolving cosmos.

A new cosmological ethics also requires reclaiming an authentic and non-manipulated response to the cosmic – a kind of cosmological empowerment.  The cosmos has always engendered a sense of awe and inspiration.  However the role of cosmology in history reveals the extent to which cosmological symbols have been co-opted and used in the service of class and power.  For a flourishing Earth, we need to become conscious of this use of symbols.  We need to reclaim our own authentic relationship with the source of awe and inspiration.

Jack Semura is a theoretical physicist studying information at the foundational levels of physics and of the universe.  He is professor emeritus of physics at Portland State University.

This entry came from Nancy Abrams and Joel Primack. Nancy has a special gift for our readers–an MP3 of “The Fable of the Parrots” from her Alien Wisdom album.  The album is described as “Barbara Streisand meets Carl Sagan. Highly intelligent, playing with the border between science and spirit, this music is haunting, upbeat, provocative.”  Click here to listen.  Click here to download.

After thousands of years of mythological origin stories and a few centuries of scientific-sounding guesses, cosmologists are giving humanity its first picture of the universe as a whole that might actually be true.  Based on dark matter and dark energy and supported by voluminous cosmological data, it presents an enormous opportunity at a moment when our species is confronted with problems spread over such huge timescales that no one knows how to solve them, like global climate disruption or the unsustainability of economies requiring endless growth on a finite planet.  The opportunity comes through new concepts developed to describe cosmic evolution over billions of years but which also let us re-envision Earth in its cosmic context and think on large enough scales.  We can have a flourishing Earth if we begin to accept emotionally that this new universe, with its strange but well-supported laws, is real and that we are its intelligent life, possibly even the first.  People don’t change from learning facts, but they can change from discovering a big, exciting, attractive identity that is available to them.  This new identity is sharable by all, regardless of religion or nationality. It could be the foundation of an overarching vision that lifts our thinking to the level our times demand, motivates the difficult cooperation a sustainable world will require, and solidifies the bonds of humankind.

Nancy Abrams and Joel Primack are the authors of “The Epic of Cosmic Evolution,” a chapter in The Evolutionary Epic: Science’s Story and Humanity’s Response, a  Collins Foundation Press book.  They also co-authored The View from the Center of the Universe (now in paperback) and their new book just out, The New Universe and the Human Future: How a Shared Cosmology Could Transform the World.

Nancy Ellen Abrams, an attorney, philosopher of science, and lecturer at the University of California, Santa Cruz, has worked for the Ford Foundation and the Office of Technology Assessment of the U.S. Congress. Joel R. Primack, Distinguished Professor of Physics at the UC Santa Cruz, is one of the principal creators of the modern theory of the universe on the grand scale.

What would a flourishing Earth be like? What a great question!

A flourishing Earth would be one in which a significant portion of humanity comes to understand and appreciatively honor their physical, social, and interpretive instincts. In so doing, we would naturally and almost effortlessly work together to co-create a just and thriving future for the entire body of life.

Such honoring is only possible through scientific knowledge. We typically don’t honor what we don’t understand. And we certainly won’t honor what we judge or feel guilty about. This is why understanding evolutionary psychology and brain science is so vital. It is also why few things are more important than teaching the Evolutionary Epic/Big History and the findings of science in the most inspiring ways possible.

As the late Thomas Berry warned, “The world within and around us is an honorable world. To refuse this deepest instinct of our being, to deny honor where honor is due, is to place ourselves on a head-on collision course with the ultimate forces of the Universe.”

A flourishing Earth would be one where millions, even billions, of us support each other in living in right relationship to reality. This and only this, it seems to me, will ensure a mutually enhancing, symbiotic relationship between humans, human technology, and our venerable planet.

Michael Dowd is the author of “Thank God for Evolution,” a chapter in the The Evolution of Religion: Studies, Theories and Critiques (2008), and “Living in Evolutionary Wisdom,” in Science, Wisdom, and the Future: Humanity’s Quest for a Flourishing Earth (out soon) both of which are Collins Foundation Press books.  He is also author of Thank God for Evolution: How the Marriage of Science and Religion Will Transform Your Life and Our World.

Michael Dowd and his wife Connie Barlow have been “evolutionary evangelists,” on the road for almost a decade, traveling the United States and sharing the evolutionary story with all comers (www.TheGreatStory.org) They are well known for their work in translating the various evolutionary sciences into practical wisdom for meeting the challenges of everyday life and have created a FREE online teleseminar called “Evolutionize Your Life”  The Science of How to Decode Human Behaviour, Eliminate Self-Judgment, and Create a Big-hearted Life of Purpose and Joyful Integrity. 

The focus of their audio seminar will be, as they summarize it:

“Why the Stone-Age instincts we’ve all inherited can so often challenge us in our modern-day settings—and how new discoveries in the evolutionary and human sciences offer perspectives that are both practical and profound.”

How would you know an unsustainable business model if you saw one? Unfortunately, it would look like today’s take-make-waste norm, as portrayed in Figure 1.

Figure 1: Unsustainable, Linear, Take-Make-Waste Business Model

This model is not working.  It leads to our poisoning ourselves with waste, destroying Nature’s ability to regenerate resources we need for survival, and aggravating unacceptable social injustices. Unsustainable capitalism is a fun game for some, but it causes too much collateral damage in the environmental and social spheres. We need a more responsible game plan.

A sustainable economic model differs significantly from today’s model. Figure 2 shows how it honors Natural Capitalism’s four strategies for an authentically sustainable society: radical resource productivity; closed-loop ecological redesign; a service-based economy instead of a product-based, resource-eating economy; and investment in natural capital. It reduces consumption while improving quality of life.

Figure 2: Sustainable, Circular, Borrow-Use-Return Business Model

The take-make-waste business model is unsustainable. The new borrow-use-return business model is more environmentally and socially responsible and is better for business. Isn’t it time we tried it?

Bob Willard has authored three books, The Sustainability Advantage and The Next Sustainability Wave, The Business Case for Sustainability, and The Sustainability Champion’s Guidebook.  www.sustainabilityadvantage.com

Bob Willard is author of “How to Lead a Transformation to a Sustainable Enterprise… From the Middle” forthcoming in Science, Wisdom, and the  Future: Humanity’s Quest for a Flourishing Earth, published by the Collins Foundation Press (Early Summer 2010).

There seems to be a general consensus amongst those concerned with the subject of a flourishing Earth that the Earth will flourish only if and when the Western world goes through a transformation of consciousness. According to the latest social sciences’ perspective (1970s and beyond) this can only be achieved through a transformation of the culture’s shared, underlying, and semi-conscious, layer of meaning. Many also believe that the grounding of the Western culture’s transformation of meaning lies mostly in the latest advancements of science as well as in new perspectives brought forth by the social sciences (20^th and 21^st centuries). However, even if science is one of the most important sources for meaning-making in today’s world, science writer Connie Barlow warns us that “scientists can tell us what is and what was and perhaps what will be, but not what it all means.” Philosopher Thomas Berry believed that even if today we have the scientific data and “we can perform the magic,” we do not really understand the meaning or the potential impact of the latest scientific insights on the innermost soul of the Western world. In accordance with T. Berry, I believe that for a flourishing Earth to become a reality the latent mythical dimension contained within this knowledge has to be brought to the surface in order to engender a new sense of meaning as well as a postmodern sense of the sacred.

(References: Connie Barlow, 1997, Thomas Berry, Future Forms of Religious Experience)

Josefina Burgos is author of “The Necessary Flow of Wisdom” forthcoming in Science, Wisdom, and the  Future: Humanity’s Quest for a Flourishing Earth, published by the Collins Foundation Press (Early Summer 2010)

She is also author of “Imagination and the Epic of Evolution” in The Evolutionary Epic: Science’s Story and Humanity’s Response, published by the Collins Foundation Press.

Our food choices have a huge impact on sustainability of the planet.  A plethora of research shows that the best human diet for the outcome of our planet is plant-based, fresh (rather than canned or frozen), locally grown, and organically grown. Research clearly shows that this kind of diet requires less water, fertilizer, pesticides, packaging, transportation, and energy. A vegetarian diet not only requires fewer resources to produce, it is also kind to our bodies and to our fellow animals on this planet. A prevailing misconception is that only an omnivorous diet can make a person strong and healthy. Research shows this is an error.  A sensible vegetarian diet is easy to do and is very health-giving, significantly reducing rates of cancer, heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and other debilitating lifestyle diseases that have a massive impact on our bodies and healthcare system. In addition, organic, vegetarian farming contributes to the healthiness of the soil, reducing soil depletion and drought potential. Food prepared from scratch at home is more sustainable than eating out. For these and many other reasons, the plant-based diet of fresh, local, home-prepared, organic foods is a significant part of our vision for a sustainable earth.

Jack A. Palmer, Ph.D., Professor of Psychology, University of Louisiana at Monroe.

Linda K. Palmer, M.S., Writer/Editor, Jiva Institute & Collins Foundation Press

Co-authors: Evolutionary Psychology: The Ultimate Origins of Human Behavior (2001; Allyn & Bacon)

Jack and Linda Palmer are authors or co-authors of  “The Wisdom of Virtue: A Scientific Exploration of Honesty, Humility, & Love,” “Power & Restraint: The Question of Human Genetic Engineering,” and “Sustainable Eating,”  forthcoming in Science, Wisdom, and the  Future: Humanity’s Quest for a Flourishing Earth, published by the Collins Foundation Press (Early Summer 2010)

They are also the co-authors of “Transcending Cultural Indoctrination: Separating the Wheat From the Chaff” in The Evolutionary Epic: Science’s Story and Humanity’s Response, published by the Collins Foundation Press.

A flourishing Earth is one where all beings are recognized as unique and precious threads in the web of life, where all children are taught that they are a gift to the world, that they have a special way to contribute to the global family, that the Earth is recognized as our Mother from whom we grew out of and to whom we will return. The Earth flourishes when humans engage in an intimate and reciprocal relationship with the Earth and each other, when we realize that we are not the only weavers in the web of life, that we are also the woven. The Earth flourishes when all humans participate in the dance of life and sing the celebratory songs that are written in the winds The Earth flourishes when we listen deeply to each other, when we learn from other life forms, other cultures, when empty pleasures are replaced by deep fun and deep relationship.

How can we participate in the dance of life today? Where do we start? Post your comments below.

Rescue Joy, Pauline Le Bel’s most recent CD of uplifting and engaging original songs, celebrates our intimate relationship with the Earth. Available at http://cdbaby.com/cd/paulinelebel2. Or view her site at www.suncoastarts.com/paulinelebel.html.

Pauline Le Bel is author of “Sing Two Songs and Call Me in the Morning: Science and the Healing Power of Music” forthcoming in Science, Wisdom, and the  Future: Humanity’s Quest for a Flourishing Earth, published by the Collins Foundation Press (Early Summer 2010). She is also author of “Bringing The Universe Story Home: Engaged Cosmology and the Role of the Artist” in The Evolutionary Epic: Science’s Story and Humanity’s Response, published by the Collins Foundation Press.

A flourishing Earth would be one with a controlled human population. Philosophers and utopians have started from this premise. Plato advised correlating population to available land and nearness to neighbors and Aristotle wrote that the population of an ideal state should be “as small as we can make it without sacrificing independence.” In Utopia, Thomas More kept his cities manageable by strict regulation of family size. The French philosopher, Condorcet, envisioned a future in which “men will know that” their duties “consist not in giving existence to a great number of beings, but happiness. They will have for their object the general welfare of the . . . society in which they live and not the puerile idea of encumbering the earth with useless and wretched mortals.” William Morris’s nineteenth-century agrarian utopia, News from Nowhere, posited an ideal state where the population was stabilized and distributed evenly throughout the land. Crowding, slums, and urban blight were eliminated and the meadows and forests revived. Postmodern utopias, too, such as Robert Sawyer’s Neanderthal Parallax follow suit; in a parallel universe, the limits set on global population by the ecologically enlightened Neanderthals contribute to social order and existence in harmony with the natural environment.

How do you envision the population of our flourishing Earth? Post your comments below…

Jeanne Belisle Lombardo is Co-director Center for Future Consciousness, Scottsdale, AZ, www.centerforfutureconsciousness.com, and author of “Utopia and the Evolution of Wisdom” forthcoming in Science, Wisdom, and the  Future: Humanity’s Quest for a Flourishing Earth, published by the Collins Foundation Press (Early Summer 2010).

My vision of a flourishing future earth assumes some system of global governance that precludes war and requires conformance on environmental and related issues of vital concern to the planet as a whole. The current nation state system would continue under a federal authority with limited powers, guaranteeing the constituent states considerable autonomy, and allowing wide diversity in manners, customs, and political organization. Basic human rights should be ensured primarily by guaranteeing every individual the right, and ability, to emigrate to a different and more compatible society, if that individual chose to do so. This would largely eliminate the problem of “who guards the guardians” and encourage continued evolution of human cultures based on competition between many diverse elements. It also has the advantage of being a realistic possible outcome of present trends and conditions.

What are your thoughts on such a system of governance? Share in the comments section below.

Carl Coon is a retired US Ambassador and Advisory Panel Member of the American Humanist Association (AHA). He is also the author of “Humanism and the Future Evolution of Religion” in The Evolution of Religion: Studies, Theories, and Critiques published by the Collins Foundation Press.