Like I was Saying
In Part One of my State of the World Address, I was talking about how traveling has given me hope. Traveling has contributed to my belief that we, as humanity, may actually survive this mess. My hope is founded upon the observation that the majority of people in the world (about 5/6ths) are basically doing OK and are good people. Somehow, this was news to me. Unexpectedly, while traveling, I was encouraged by the general goodness and well-being of humanity. This general goodness and well-being provides a necessary foundation but not a sufficient condition for hope. The sufficient condition for hope has to with developments in world history that are unique to our time. In my view, the real reason for hope is that the conditions necessary for a global transformation of consciousness are being put into play for the first time in history, courtesy of globalization.

The Noosphere
Globalization is a big word signifying (in part) a whole series of social, economic, cultural, and especially technological developments on a global scale that are making our world smaller and faster. A global infrastructure of systems of information, communication, transportation, and commerce is being put into place, and the velocity of its implementation is increasing. The Internet, mobile phones, satellites, and electronic media are nearly ubiquitous. We are saturating the planet in a web of global interconnectedness. Continue reading →