The Machine is on the fritz, it's out-of-order, kaput, busted, it's broken, cracked and needs repair.
And after only just one trip.
How stupid of me not to have brought back even just one newspaper – woops one MediaSlash - so I could figure out how to get rich with that knowledge.
Well at least I have my memories of the trip. Wait a minute. If I work with someone on an idea I saw there, will I be actually creating this future, or is it inevitable, no matter what I do?
How strange a concept. Almost as strange as time travel into the future itself. It really would be nice to go backwards but as we all know this contradicts several Laws of Science as well as the General Theory of Relativity.
The good news I am sure I can divulge here, is that I definitely saw a Future. This means we, as a civilization, did not perish in some kind of natural, or more likely, some kind of man-made disaster.
Without planting too many wondrous ideas in your head, I must say the Future as imagined by futurists like Jacque Fresco and Buckminster Fuller was indeed much different. Where have all the cities gone?
We somehow managed to get past our greed and our lust for power and wealth. It seemed like we had finally figured out that we benefit more as a species when we Co-operate rather than Compete with each other. The research facts were there for us all to see, and yet we continued to measure success by the Profit yard stick.
I wonder if it all started with those Likes and Thumbs Up we use in Facebook and other social platforms?
Trust – real Trust was evident in each small community I visited. I think the main reason this doesn't happen here right now is because we are just one huge community. We even have a sort of world government in the form of the U.N.
How could I ever really Trust someone I met online? It is unlikely I will ever be able to meet them face-to-face, to see perhaps the sadness in their eyes over their recent loss of a child in the war-torn region where they live. I will never know for sure if the Video I am watching was processed by Photoshop or simply posted by a good friend of mine living in a distant country.
You see the fact is we are all different. Oh sure, we are all Homo Sapiens with big brains and narrow set eyes that sometimes forces some of us to wear glasses. But we have roughly 7,000 different languages, thousands of different religions, and a host of ethnic and cultural differences too many to count. Is it any wonder we have difficulty living together peacefully in a world with global markets, where a couple of hundred national governments try to manage this huge diversity of people, with varying ideas and goals?
For some ten to twelve thousand years now, our parents – our ancestors have told us over and over again – to succeed in this world you need to have a good education and you must work hard. Then you will have lots of money and really be able to enjoy your life. Am I right?
And so we all grew up valuing money, wealth and of course the power and success that is expected to come with it. We understand and believe that Profit is what is needed. Grow a business, make lots of Profit – that is what we are all taught from an early age.
During my visit, I learned there is a second alternative that we all have long since forgotten. The Futurists I met reminded me that we all lived as Homo genus for some 2.7 million years before we started to till the soil and began putting up fences.
I never thought much about it before, but those hunting parties used co-operation and teamwork to provide food for their families. Usually the women, children and a perhaps few retired hunters would collect various fruits, vegetables and nuts to add to the community feast, assuming the hunters returned with something more to than just wounded pride to eat.
Today we call this Sharing.
This is were we work, grow, raise and make things and then just Share them with all the others in our small community.
Before I leave you now, as I must seek assistance in the repair of my Machine, I would like to pass on to you five words – all starting with the letter S for some reason. These five words, it would seem, were essential to the Futurists way of life:
Small
Simple (not complex)
Sustainable
Sharing
Yes, I said five words. You see, if you follow these ideas in everything you do – Planning, Design, Construction, Processes, Manufacturing and so on….you end up with almost the antithesis of Entrophy where things just keep coming apart over time.
But with these four “S” words combined you get number five - Synergy – where the whole is greater than the sum of its' individual component parts.
Perhaps I have said too much...about the future I witnessed.
I wonder if it was just as Simple as 'Likes' and the “Five S's”?
I think perhaps I will spend some time and look into this :-)