These are some of the ways I look at our world that help me keep it in perspective. I think it’s important that you know where I am coming from, so take this as at least a partial definition of what I mean when I say “world”.
1. Our world is a human invention
Our planet is a messy and inconsistent place. There are some places where there is an abundance of food and water and life thrives. In other places life suffers in scarcity and harsh conditions and fights to survive. This isn’t just the human condition; it’s the reality for all life on the planet. Plants and animals adapt in many ways to this reality, evolving characteristics that allow them to live in desert conditions for example. We humans have responded by creating our world.
The world, as distinct from our planet Earth, is a human invention. It’s made up of buildings, cities, towns, dams, farms, roads, governments, iPods, hair clips and all the other things we humans have thought up and created. It includes all the great ideas that we call civilization, but it also encompasses all our not-so-civilized ideas like war.
The primary purpose of the human-designed world is to ensure our survival, both individually and collectively. It’s designed to make what we need to survive — food, water, shelter, and protection — more consistently available. Of course, it has extended beyond that for many of us and now supplies us with entertainment and a great many other things.
2. Our world depends on Earth
Our world evolved during a time when the climate has been relatively stable. As a result, the world’s design assumes that it will continue to be stable.
Buckminster Fuller suggested this when he talked about the planet as “Spaceship Earth”. Earth manages our life support systems and without it we are lost.
3. Earth does not depend on our world
Without getting too doomsday about it, I think it’s safe to say that Earth doesn’t need us. The natural systems of Earth will go on working whether we are here or not. We run the risk of changing those natural systems so much that they no longer support human life, but even if we kill ourselves off, chances are there will be life remaining that will be able to survive in harsher conditions than we can.
It is common to hear people talk about “saving the Earth”, but let’s be clear: the reason to save Earth is so that we can survive.
4. The world is evolving
The world is a complex system and it is subject to the process of evolution in much the same way that a living organism evolves.
5. We can direct the evolution of the world
In natural selection, change is at the heart of progress, but change doesn’t necessarily bring about progress. We like to think of evolution as a linear process where each change brings about a greater ability to succeed, but evolution is much messier than that. The changes that come about can just as easily be regressive, leading to the destruction of the changed organism. The reason for that is that natural selection is a process of trial and error with no memory. Changes occur randomly and if they can survive, then they are presumably better and stick around. No one is keeping track of the changes that worked and the ones that didn’t, so the failures have just as much chance of reoccurring as untried changes that might be better.
Our world is different in that we can make conscious decisions about what gets changed and in what ways which means we can direct its evolution. Individually and culturally, we DO have a memory. We can learn from our mistakes and communicate the things that work to each other. As a result, we can ensure that progress is made.
6. There’s lots of room for improvement
When I was younger, I remember feeling like everything was already figured out about the world and that there was nothing left to do. It may be that more recent generations have a different sense of things. With all the talk about climate change and other environmental issues, they probably have a stronger sense that things could be better. But the opportunities for improvement are not just a few problems that need to be ironed out. Literally EVERYTHING can be done better.
7. You can make it better
The world was not invented in the same way that say, the mousetrap, was invented. It is a collective invention that has evolved over time to become what we see now. It is changed by individuals, not institutions. The institutions are part of the invention, not the inventors.
We built many of our institutions, like our governments, to guard our civilization, but we have come to depend on them too much to solve the problems that have come up. The problems we face are the result of design flaws in our world, some of which may be integral to the very institutions that we are depending on to solve them. True improvements to our world have always come from individuals, and it is up to individuals to resolve our current crises.
That means that you can have a part in the solution. That is the good news.
