The Simple Story of Civilization | Frankly #22
With Guest Thomas Murphy
This week, I’ve invited my colleague and friend Tom Murphy, professor of physics at the University of California, San Diego, to share a unique perspective in understanding civilization based on a recent essay he wrote. Tom compares the vast timescale of human life on Earth to an average human lifespan. We’ve seen many of these ‘history in a minute’ sort of visuals - e.g. world population through time, deep time through a drive from LA to NY. Tom’s is another angle with which to view humanity’s arc over time. Can technology redirect civilization from its destructive course? Is optimism näive or is it necessary in order to make the hard decisions within us?
I’ll be taking a couple weeks off from Frankly’s due to travel, but next up will be on: nuclear myth/reality, probability vs doom/certainty, and a Flow Chart of the Future. Stay tuned, and share…
I’ve had to watch this “Frankly” several times to make sure I didn’t miss the salience of all of the main ideas presented. I’m not complaining...just saying the density of the information required it. Also, I’ve downloaded the article to read to make sure I grasped the import of the various hypotheses presented. Thanks again for giving us such thoughtful and carefully presented material to digest and add to the array of complex thought processes we need to consider when thinking about where we humans stand in relation to our continued presence on this planet.
Hey Nate,
Listening to Thomas Murphy is a downer. He's mostly correct of course but offers a weak answer to your second question "how do we get there from here..." at best. Especially with eight billion humans on this planet.
There is a way forward and it is rooted in culture. Here is a quote from our site at: https://newtomorrow.ca/why/
"It is culture that holds civilizations together. But it’s also culture that traps us in outdated thinking and isolates us into our protective bubbles. Culture can reinforce our habits, make us feel safe inside our prejudice and validate our behaviour. And yet, it is our culture, our collective worldview, the promise that we make to each other, that creates the “political will” and offers us the opportunity to embrace and shape a future where all life on this planet can thrive."
Most people are already paralyzed with fear about the future. Would it not make sense to empower them to act by exploring ways to re-calibrate our cultural framework?
Cheers,
Thomas Teuwen
Champion of https://newtomorrow.ca/
building the foundations for a new way of being, a new way of acting, a new paradigm for a New Tomorrow.