barring social apocalypse, this is our future. that being the case, I do wonder if our political and social institutions can handle this kind of power, it’s like strapping a Falcon 9 rocket on your back and hoping you’ll end up on the moon – alive.

We’re struggling to solve the problems of the day from global warming to gun violence. Rational, reasoned debate…. ugh, not so much. And if Church and Venter and Kurzweil and all the others are right, or mostly right (and I think they are), then we’re going to have a Falcon 9 rocket strapped to our back in 15-25 years.

We better learn how to control that thing.

Which is why Stuart Brand revised his original dictum from, “we are as gods and might as well get good at it.” to, “we are as gods and HAVE to get good at it.” Now is the time. but what —- exactly —– does it mean to get good at it?

My take:

We need leadership, perhaps in the form a Russell-Einstein Manifesto for our era. But I can’t think of a single scientist or intellectual who rises to the level of Einstein (or Russell), someone whose words could cut through the confusion and partisanship and catalyze a new consensus.

And we need new institutions of social decision making. New ways to support the Article 21, Section 3 of the Universal Declaration of Human Right – “the will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government.” Only 11% of the world population lives in a “full democracy.” 2.6B are under authoritarian rule.

Democracy, in a new form, not the jaundiced version that we have in the US, is needed. In part because Regenesis raises foundational issues of equity. How will this bounty – genetic (re)engineering, extended/indefinite life, etc… be distributed? There’s a fundamental difference between porsches only being accessible by the wealthy and death only being an issue for the poor. We need to decide, together, how to cope with the coming abundance.

Interesting times…

-Chris