This Is What The Inflection Point Looks Like
Counter-intuitively, the reason upheaval seems to be everywhere is NOT due to mistakes we made on the way here. Rather, it follows the evolutionary trajectory of ALL natural systems. We just happen to be alive at the exact moment of our species’ inflection point, between Epoch A and Epoch B. What we do next will save or kill us.
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If it feels as though every system on the planet—both man-made and natural—is at an inflection point, and that the decisions we make next could deliver us to long-term, sustainable prosperity or result in the collapse of our species, it’s because that is exactly what is going on.
Right. This. Very. Minute.
The good news is that the reason the world is topsy-turvy is not only because we screwed the pooch on our way here. That notion is at least partly a human conceit. Rather, from the 50,000-foot view, we are little different from fruit flies, trees, or yeast. All living systems follow the same general path as we have: one that starts flat, incubating kinetic potential; then uses that energy to fuel explosive growth and prosperity, slowing some point due to either external limits (fuel) or internal ones (choice); and then finally—once the fuel is spent—employs one of two forces to establish what comes next: resistance, followed by collapse; or re-invention, which ushers in a period of equilibrium.
If “what comes next” is a question we are likely all pondering right now, we’re not alone. An unrelated pair of philosophical luminaries whose work I recently read has advanced our collective thinking on the matter. Theirs are ideas worth sharing.
The Sigmoid Curve
Just 40 years ago, Jonas Salk (of polio vaccine fame) and his son Jonathan employed the use of the sigmoid curve in a neat little book called A New Reality, to demystify the complex trajectory of our species.
The Salks’ principal goal was to help us understand how the choices we make today will either result in our collective long-term prosperity tomorrow (which I have represented in dark…
