Can we imagine a new possibility for humanity? It may not seem probable or even plausible, but it remains a powerful idea, an idea that reveals a great deal that is positive about who we are. In a WorldThatWorks.org, we revisit the work of Buckminster Fuller, Werner Erhard, and others that suggests that we have the capability of embracing a… Read more →
Category: Conclusions
Breaking the Cycle: Toward an Evolutionary Leap
“Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing.” —Arundhati Roy The world today feels precarious, on the edge of unraveling. The war in Ukraine grinds on. The devastation of Gaza continues with heartbreaking intensity. Iran is under siege. Everywhere, the air seems thick with fear, suspicion, and anger.… Read more →
Epilogue: A Universal Appeal (Enhanced Version)
Can We Speak to Everyone? Humanity stands, once again, at a crossroads. This is not a metaphor. It is the reality of our time. We can continue to deny the scale of the planetary crisis, as some governments and institutions still do—insisting that things are fine, that growth will continue, that nature will adapt to our needs. But pretending has… Read more →
Looking Ahead
Nate Hagens is a futurist for our times. In his podcast The Great Simplication he interviews a wide range of experts on energy, the environment, and economics, and occasionally posts “Franklys” in which he shares his own views of what is happening, and likely to happen as the polycrisis unfolds. In a recent episode he interviewed Rod Schoonover, a national… Read more →
The Ultimate Mystery
Of course, none of this addresses the ultimate mystery of Existence. Why are things the way they are? It’s of no help to say that God made them that way. Why did He (or She) make them that way? (Incidentally, isn’t it blasphemous to claim we know what God was thinking?) We need to keep asking this question, not only… Read more →
Chapter 13: The New Transcendentalism
“There are no unsacred places; there are only sacred places and desecrated spaces.” —Wendell Berry It seems almost too obvious to need stating: humans are Earthlings. We are not aliens to this planet, nor visitors to it—we are born of its dust, shaped by its waters, and nourished by its air. We belong to the ancient and ongoing colony of… Read more →
Conclusions: Our Letter to the Future
A recent headline in the Washington Post stated, Writing to the future is one of the most powerful climate actions you can take Social scientists say writing a letter to loved ones in the future can overcome a critical climate problem: inaction. https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2025/04/29/climate-action-letter-to-the-future/ Apparently, having people write letters to their future children is one of the best ways to motivate… Read more →
Chapter 12: Changing Our Way of Thinking
Thomas Kuhn, in The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, reminds us that paradigms do not evolve incrementally—they break. They collapse when their internal contradictions become too great to bear, when the answers they provide no longer match the realities they seek to explain. This is very much the situation we find ourselves in today. Our dominant frameworks—economic, political, and cultural—are faltering… Read more →