The Earth Needs a New Operating System and You are the Programmers
Posted on Tuesday May 26th 2009
Paul Hawken is a personal hero, someone who has led the way in progressive thinking and action for an ecologically sound world. In terms of ecological intelligence, he’s a genius.
I was deeply moved by the address he gave to the University of Portland graduating class of 2009, and want to share it:
“…You are going to have to figure out what it means to be a human being on earth at a time when every living system is declining, and the rate of decline is accelerating. Kind of a mind-boggling situation – but not one peer-reviewed paper published in the last thirty years can refute that statement. Basically, the earth needs a new operating system, you are the programmers, and we need it within a few decades.
This planet came with a set of operating instructions, but we seem to have misplaced them. Important rules like don’t poison the water, soil, or air, and don’t let the earth get overcrowded, and don’t touch the thermostat have been broken. Buckminster Fuller said that spaceship earth was so ingeniously designed that no one has a clue that we are on one, flying through the universe at a million miles per hour, with no need for seatbelts, lots of room in coach, and really good food – but all that is changing.”
To read more: http://www.up.edu/commencement/default.aspx?cid=9456&pid=3144
Welcome to the website and blog of psychologist Daniel Goleman, Ph.D., author of the New York Times bestseller Emotional Intelligence and Social Intelligence: The New Science of Human Relationships. Dr. Goleman is an internationally known psychologist who lectures frequently to professional groups, business audiences, and on college campuses. Working as a science journalist, Goleman reported on the brain and behavioral sciences for The New York Times for many years. His 1995 book, Emotional Intelligence (Bantam Books) was on The New York Times bestseller list for a year-and-a-half; with more than 5,000,000 copies in print worldwide in 40 languages, and has been a best seller in many countries.
Ray Scott
We have Mac OS X, we’ll be fine.
posted on May 26th, 2009 at 1:45 pmRay Scott
Did you lose your sense of humour on the way back from the publishers?
posted on May 27th, 2009 at 8:55 amSteve Hemmady
How about we as programmers work towards building this new operating system as an open source project? I mean start this as an open source science project on opensourcescience.net site where people can share innovative ideas to make earth a better, cleaner & more livable place?
Steve
posted on May 27th, 2009 at 11:58 pmDan Romescu
I think what we need is to build a “Verantworung” based Society, to have a total transparency of our day per day action. We have enough Computational Power to build a Ecological Navigator on our socio stream.At this moment we have completely lost our contact with nature, our naive consideration of interaction must to be transformed in a “bewusst”one.
posted on May 29th, 2009 at 9:16 amSundaram
It’s an interesting thought – a new earth OS
but again here, this needs to happen in the regions that are the new economy today
these new economy regions today are doing exactly what the developed economy countries did a few decades back
the practices there have shifted here..
it has always been that the developed countries invented better ways of life though that got lost along the way somewhere in the whole drama of consumerism but now the consumers are in the new economy nations and they are rushing at consumerism akin to how prisoners react to a jail break.
the new ideas wherever they come from have to be powerful at the political level and leverage the new political balance of power on the planet – SOONer than even a couple of decades…
posted on June 10th, 2009 at 3:08 am