Last month the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists moved the hands of the Doomsday Clock closer to midnight. This annual action is based upon their measure of risks which they have done since their formation in 1947 by Albert Einstein and other scientists involved in developing nuclear weapons.
Their assessment of risks
include not only the potential use of nuclear weapons but also global pandemics, climate
change, artificial intelligence and the spread of disinformation, misinformation,
and conspiracy theories.
Almost simultaneously the Global Risks Report from the World Economic Forum was being released at their annual meeting in Davos.
Secretary General Guterres noted the following at its release:
“Yes, we all understand the nature of an existential threat. Those of us who lived through the Cold War remember the decades spent living under the constant shadow of nuclear annihilation. Of course, the nuclear threat is still with us. But when it comes to existential threats, nuclear is no longer alone. Today we face two new and profound threats that demand far more global attention and action because they threaten to upend life as we know it: the climate crisis and the ungoverned expansion of Artificial Intelligence.”
You can hear what he said in full here. These risks are real, and the new U.S. administration seems to be making almost all of the risks these two reports list worse!! Whether or not this is intentional or not, doesn’t matter. The data and the risks it represents is indeed Doomsday-ish. There are many thinkers, scholars, pundits etc. offering partial remedies as you can see from my own current reading stack (a mere teardrop in an ocean of possibilities).
I keep
searching for some solid answers and some sense
of direction to use in my final years. From that pile, most of which I would
recommend as good and thoughtful reads so far, are two that I want to highlight
here. The first is Jeremy Lent’s “The Web of Meaning”. I finished reading this
before Christmas, but have found it so engaging I’m jumping back in to absorb
some more of his wisdom. Lent offers not only tons of references, but also a
highlighted list of resources for each chapter. I tracked down the other title
I want to share from that list – Riane Eisler’s “ Nurturing Our Humanity". I had read
and enjoyed her 2007 book, “The Real Wealth of Nations: Creating a Caring Economics” and was familiar with her highly acclaimed work “The Chalice and the Blade”.
Eisler’s
latest, co-authored with anthropologist Douglas Fry "Nurturing Our Humanity: How Domination and Partnership Shape Our Btrains, Lives and Future" published in 2017 lays out a different, and to my slowly awakening mind, a unique perspective with which to look at
our societies both in the past and into the future. They make the penetrating distinction
between two types of societies – one built on domination and the other built on
partnerships. They look deeply via anthropology, economics, politics, neuroscience and other disciplines
in building the scaffolding for this crucial insight. If one looks at the risk
reports noted above and then overlays Eisler’s and Fry's analysis of human development and
possibility, it appears crystal clear (to this soul’s mind) that their diagnosis
is spot on. The current
administration is using the thoroughly discredited approach of domination which
can only exacerbate the risks reported in the last month.
I haven’t concluded any of the books in the pile (except Lent’s), but there is real harmony with Eisler’s diagnosis without necessarily a specific reference to her. I have more to read of her thinking in the days ahead. I note that she is a young 93! A short clip I saw of her speaking at some big event just a month ago, demonstrates an agile and fertile mind. Or you can view this podcast from last year to get a brief taste of her ideas. Let’s hope she’s allotted more time to share her insights with the rest of us before it’s too late for all of us!!
