Please consider gathering a small group of friends, family, or colleagues together to explore the following questions:
War: Have you noticed the unfolding international war in Ukraine, and other emerging hotspots, which could devolve into World War III? If there were a story deeper than what we are hearing in the media, what might the root causes and drivers be of the geopolitical conflict in our world?
Nuclear Threat: Have you noticed the saber rattling on the possibility of the use of nuclear weapons in Europe? How has the threat of mutually assured destruction evolved, and how have the capabilities the world's superpowers evolved?
Artificial Intelligence: Have you noticed Artificial Intelligence bursting onto the scene, and did you see todays letters from leaders asking for a draft 6 month pause in development? What are some of the potential consequences of a global AI race, and what are the potential cascading consequences of the rapid proliferation of what may become the single most powerful technology or weapon in human history?
Weaponization of AI: Have you noticed the intelligent voices warning that AI may be a far more powerful tool and risk than nuclear power and atomic weapons? What would be some of the consequences of militarizing AI and quantum superweapons?
Job Displacement: Have you noticed that the emerging advanced technology will make hundreds of millions or billions of existing jobs obsolete? As the most advanced technology is increasingly concentrated and accelerated in the hands of a few and the jobs we are trained for become obsolete, what might be the consequences for everyday Citizens?
Cybersecurity: Have you noticed the increasing frequency and severity of cyberattacks, posing risks to individuals, businesses, communities, and governments? What are the consequences of the mass proliferation of AI cyber weapons that will be far more powerful and intelligent that the technologies with which we have secured our institutions and infrastructure?
Digital Divide: Have you noticed the persistent digital divide, exacerbating inequalities in access to information, education, and opportunities? If advanced technology makes each AI equipped worker capable of the work of ten or tens of unequipped workers, what is the consequence for the hundreds of millions of people who struggle even with today's technology?
Disinformation: Have you noticed the rapid and intentional spread of disinformation, undermining trust and polarizing societies? What is the consequence to an individual or society of losing its commitment to Truth, and prioritizing the exploitation of attention and power over the long term good of the culture and society?
Bank Failures: Have you noticed the banks failing? What are the consequences of the United States "temporarily" breaking the gold standard and initiating the era of debt-driven central banking and the devaluation of fiat currencies? Why are local and regional banks struggling to survive, and what would be the consequence of their progressive demise?
Debt Trap: Have you noticed that humanity is now imprisoned by over $300 Trillion in debt, or 349% leverage on our collective annual production? What might the consequence be of recognizing that the last decades have been something like a massive fraud that has rendered humanity collectively bankrupt?
Inflation: Have you noticed that inflation is raging, and that currency is becoming worth less and less? What might the consequences be of progressively less stable and valuable currencies on the poor, the elderly, the middle aged, and the youth?
Interest Rates: Have you noticed that interest rates are rising? What might be the consequences of the end of the artificial era of zero and negative interest rate debt as the $300 Trillion debt bomb gets refinanced at higher rates?
Housing Crisis: Have you noticed the growing housing crisis, making it increasingly difficult for individuals and families to afford stable and secure housing? What are the consequences of a monetary and economic policies that make reasonable standards of living unattainable for tens of millions in the US and billions around the world?
Economic Cracks: Have you noticed how many people are warning of an unprecedented economic collapse? Having just survived the last financial crisis and the horribly flawed response to Covid, what would be the consequences of a once-in-generations economic shock?
Pensions and Retirement Underfunding: Have you noticed that state, union, and federal pension and retirement plans are underfunded by trillions of dollars, and that the benefits promised to workers and the elderly are unlikely to be available to them starting next decade? What is the consequence of our inevitable inability to meet the promises that previous generations made to themselves and to us? What are the consequences for rising generations of the Debt, Interest Payments, and Retirement and Benefit obligations that can never be met?
Resource, Opportunity, and Income Inequality: Have you noticed the dramatic inequality in resources, opportunity, and income, exacerbating social unrest and migration, and limiting economic mobility? What is the long term consequence of societies in which billions are kept poor and struggling for meaningful survival, while a few possess enough resources to virtually eliminate poverty and privation in all their forms?
Mental Health Crisis: Have you noticed the increasing prevalence of mental health issues, such as depression and anxiety, and the dramatically increasing population on psychoactive pharmaceuticals? What are the potential medium to long term consequences of a society that is allowing itself collectively becoming more psychotically split, anxious, depressed, and medicated?
Incarceration: Have you noticed the problem of mass incarceration, disproportionately affecting marginalized communities and perpetuating cycles of poverty and crime? What are some of the medium to long term consequences of co-creating societal conditions that inevitably perpetuate poverty and crime, while running prison industrial complexes for profit and mass incarcerating Citizens?
Longer Lives, Lower Birthrates: Have you noticed that people are living longer, and having fewer children, leading to cascading structural issues? How might the ability of our communities, states, hospitals, and utilities to meet their basic commitments be impacted by fewer and fewer workers supporting an aging population that is living longer and longer? Why are birthrates falling, and what systems and aspects of our society might be affected by birthrates?
Central Bank Digital Currencies: Have you noticed the rapid prototyping of central bank digital currencies? What is the consequences of delegating the sole right to issue currency to the largest federal governments in their current corrupted forms? How important is it for the Citizens of any community to be able to freely transact and make and keep commitments to one another? Once this freedom and responsibility is abdicated, what is the possibility and conditions of gaining it back?
Central Control Over Transactions: Have you noticed the use of federal power to exert control over the individual ability to transact? What are the consequences of a few dominant and corrupt superpowers possessing absolute control over the ability of Citizens to buy, sell, give, or exchange? What is the relationship between money, currency, and the making and keeping of commitments?
Food Systems: Have you noticed the way that Big Ag and Big Corporations have corrupted, poisoned and delocalized our food systems? What is the consequence of eating poisonous food from centralized giant corporations, and thereby fueling systems that are destroying the regenerative capacity of our planet with each bite? In the event that several of the issues of this list or others impact global supply chains, what is the consequence of not having vibrant and flourishing local food production, and lacking the local knowledge of how to feed our selves?
Food Prices: Have you noticed that food prices are skyrocketing? What are the consequences for the poorest and most vulnerable when we destabilize food prices?
Food Availability: Have you noticed that almost 1 billion people are trying to survive famine-like conditions around the world, a 10x increase from five years ago? Have you noticed that there is a land war being waged in one of the primary bread baskets of the world? Have you noticed that some of the most productive farmers in the world are being forced out of business by top down-government mandates, and beginning to protest in the streets?
Supply Chains: Have you noticed that supply chains are shaking, and how much less available certain items are? What did we learn through Covid about the fragility of the systems that supply our basic needs? How might global supply chains be affected as the Meta Crisis continues to unfold?
Migration: Have you noticed the rising tensions around human migration? What are the medium to long term consequences of hunger, war, poverty, and environmental changes that drive mass human migration? Why historically do the migration, pandemics, famine, conflict, and totalitarian control tend to go together?
Refugee Crisis: Have you noticed the global refugee crisis, with over 100 million now forcibly displaced by conflict, violence, persecution, privation, and environmental changes, seeking safety and a better life? Why has the number of forcibly displaced people skyrocketed the last 5 years? What are some of the medium to long term consequences of failing to solve this catastrophe and reintegrate our fellow citizens into flourishing and abundant community life?
Fascist Collusion: Have you noticed the growing collusion between state, media, technology, and corporate powers against citizens? What has led us to precipice of total authoritarian control, and how might citizens begin to rapidly take back up the freedoms and responsibilities they have progressively abdicated to central governments?
Regulatory Capture: Have you noticed that our regulatory bodies are now dominated by the corporate and special interests they are supposed to regulate? What are some of the consequences of the revolving door between regulators and the giant corporations they regulate? How might Citizens regain the integrity, independence, decentralization and right sizing of critical regulatory functions?
State Surveillance and Suppression: Have you noticed the trend towards universal state surveillance of citizens, and active and open suppression of free speech? What are the consequences of a society that allows collusive state, media, and corporate actors to surveil, suppress, and control the dialogue and expression of diverse ideas and perspectives?
Election Manipulation: Have you noticed the now obvious manipulation of national and international elections by collusive powers? What are the consequences of the United States, Russia, and other major superpowers consciously corrupting elections and government transitions around the world?
Concentration Camps: Have you noticed that there are still active concentration camps in our world? What is our individual and collective duty when we see entire people groups being rounded up and forcibly purged of their culture and identity? Who, if anyone, has the sovereignty and right to conduct such grotesque violations of the free will of others, and who, if anyone, has the responsibility forcibly intervene if necessary to cause such oppression to cease?
Intentional Killing of Over 1 Billion Unborn Children: Have you noticed that we have intentionally killed over 1.3 billion unborn children since the year 2000, and that we are continuing at the pace of 73 million per year? What are spiritual, psychological, social, and economic consequences of consciously exterminating over 1 billion emergent human lives? How can we drive the killing of the unborn towards zero over time without the use of top down force and compulsion?
Social Fabric: Have you noticed the tearing of our social fabric? How badly damaged is the social fabric in various areas of our society? How can it be repaired, and what are the consequences if it is entirely torn asunder?
Vision and Values: Have you noticed the loss of shared vision and values? What are the consequences of lacking overarching and uniting vision and values to guide our lives and society? How can we rediscover Vision and Values that are worthy and good enough to reunite us all?
Corruption and Deceit in Politics: Have you noticed the obvious corruption and deceit of our political parties? Now that we know that both sides of the duopoly are corrupt, collusive, and openly operating against the long term best interest of Citizens, our nation, and our world, what are the paths to transcend the rampant corruption and division? Knowing for certain that transformation cannot and will not come from within any of the corrupted and captured parties, how can Citizens forge new alliances and work together to right the ship before it is too late?
Toxic Rainwater: Have you noticed that all pure rainwater on earth is now toxically polluted beyond the levels the US government allows in domestic drinking water? What are the consequences of polluting the water that every living creature drinks to survive? What impact does toxic water have on the soil, microbiome, plants, animals, and humans?
Water Scarcity: Have you noticed the increasing water scarcity in various parts of the world, causing conflicts and threatening the livelihoods of millions? What is the consequence of shifting water and weather patterns, rising populations, and competition and capture of existing water flows by large corporations and governments?
Collapse of Wildlife: Have you noticed that global wildlife populations plummeted by about 2/3 over the last 50 years? Is it possible for us to co-create the conditions that lead to the death of 2/3 of wildlife without it eventually leading to large scale death of humanity? What role does a flourishing diversity of wildlife play in recreating the regenerative capacity of our planet? How can we co-create the conditions for flourishing and abundant life for humanity and all other creatures?
Collapse of Sperm Counts: Have you noticed that total sperm counts dropped by 62% over the last 50 years, and rate of decline is increasing? What are the ways in which we are destroying our own regenerative and reproductive capacity, along with the regenerative and reproductive capacity of our planet? How can we rapidly diagnose and reverse the decline in reproductive capacity?
Loss of Biodiversity: Have you noticed the alarming rate of species extinction and loss of biodiversity, threatening the stability of ecosystems and the humans that exist in them? What are the medium to long term consequences of destroying the biodiversity of earth and replacing it with humans and their monocrops and "livestock"?
Collapse of Planetary Organs: Have you noticed that we are intentionally destroying the heart, lungs, and many other vital organs of our planet? What are the consequences to the global flows of moisture, water, and clean air if we continue to destroy the Amazon and the other main organ systems that circulate life, water, and air throughout the planet?
Deforestation: Have you noticed the continuous deforestation, causing habitat loss, species extinction, and contributing to environmental degredation? What tipping points might be approaching, and if our ecosystems begin collapsing, how long might it take to rebuild these complex ecosystems that were thousands or millions of years in the making? How do we Value and give Voice to nature, and reflect the true planetary and social costs of environmental destruction in our economy?
Plastic Pollution: Have you noticed the massive problem of plastic pollution in our oceans, harming marine life and entering the food chain? What are the long term consequences of us filling our water, our food, and our selves with microplastics?
Corruption and Unholy Alliance in Religion: Have you noticed the corruption of religious institutions, and the unholy alliances between church and state? What are the medium to long term consequences of religious leaders who speak in the name of God, while lying to and deceiving their congregations to support corrupted power structures?
Corruption in Academia: Have you noticed the corruption of academia? What are the consequences of destroying the integrity and proper functioning of the institutions that we rely on to store and transmit wisdom and knowledge throughout the generations?
Corruption in Science: Have you noticed the corruption of science? What are the medium to long term consequences of corrupting the pure pursuit of Truth with false ideologies and power stuctures?
Drug and Substance Abuse: Have you noticed that drugs are now the leading cause of death among our children and young adults? What must be the state of our society such that our young people killing themselves with drugs is their leading cause of death?
Suicide: Have you noticed that every 40 seconds, someone commits suicide? What must be the state of our society such that in every moment, people are considering removing themselves from it through death, and every 40 seconds, someone does?
Doomsday Clock: Have you noticed that the Doomsday Clock, a measure of how close to self-inflicted catastrophe humanity is, just reached a new record: 90 second until midnight? What must be the state of our society and our world, such that our present moments are closer to catastrophic and widespread collapse, suffering, and death than any other time in our lives?
Forward to 1.4 The Meta Crisis as an unprecedented challenge
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