FUTURE
What Extinction? Around 2028, We Have a Magic Renaissance
Anticipate the Fourth Turning
Chaos is ruling the world. And then The Spirited Man on YouTube explains a book to me. Written in 1997. The Fourth Turning.
An Overview: Seven Cycles of Generations and Turnings.
The Anglo-American Saeculum.
By William Strauss and Neil Howe.
The Spirited Man says it turned out to be his favorite kind of book. A mindblower! And I watch.
How and when history repeats itself.
A short summary?
History repeats itself in blocks of 80 years. Saeculum. We call them history blocks. Not exactly 80 years. This is history, not maths. But roughly the span of a human lifetime.
Within these 80 years, we have 4 turnings. Of around 20 years.
We call them generations. This book calls them turnings. They are like seasons. Spring, summer, fall, winter.
- High — an upbeat era
- Awakening — a passionate era
- Unraveling — downcast era
- Crisis — upheaval era
And yes, this current era sucks. We are in the fourth era right now. The Crisis. The American history blocks are explained in The Spirited Man’s video. The interesting fact is that the book is written in 1997. During the Unraveling. And it predicts… accurately what’s happening now…
Now it’s our turn to save the country…
What’s our role? It depends on what generation you belong to.
- Boomers — the Prophets
- Gen-X — the Nomads
- Millenials — the Sheroes and Heroes
- Gen Z — the Artists
The Fourth Turning says that the Millenials will be the WWII heroes of our history book. And Gen Z will be inspiring us all.
Who am I? On the edge of Prophets and Nomads. A mermaid with my feet in the sea and inspiring from a place of travel. Inspiring about shapeshifters in time and space. Inspiring about journeys, rivers, and fluid information.
Through water. And through the air.
What generation do you belong to?
Who are you?
Positive Perspective
The interesting thing about this book is that it gives us a positive perspective. And that’s what is needed for people to find their roles.
And get into action.
Why do we need a crisis? Crises are like forest fires. They clear the woods for new growth. And every 80 years we get the opportunity to make the fourth turning a good one. A marvelous one. A successful one.
“But the victory is not guaranteed. Each of us needs to rise to the occasion during this crisis. We need to develop and fortify our virtues and pursue a greener pasture” — The Spirited Man
We all know much of the trouble now is caused by the economy. Our longing for money. Our manipulations to get more. To get to the top of the pyramid. Well, I’m often writing about how there is no pyramid.
We are born naked. And we die naked.
And at minute 8.35 in this film, it becomes clear. When a book is added to the stack of other interesting books.
Life after Google. The Fall of Big Data and the Rise of the Blockchain Economy. Written by George Gilder.
I think I’m gonna like this book. Haven’t read it (yet).
“Nothing Mr. Gilder says or writes is ever delivered at anything less than the fullest philosophical decibel… Mr. Gilder sounds less like a tech guru than a poet, and his words tumble out in a romantic cascade.” — Wall Street Journal
“The system of “aggregate and advertise” works — for a while — if you control an empire of data centers, but a market without prices strangles entrepreneurship and turns the Internet into a wasteland of ads.” — Life after Google
But although I haven’t read it, I do know that THIS is the Big Turning.
The Blockchain Economy.
Inspired by nature, we are going to have fully distributed systems. Nature organizes systems over nodes. It gives resilience when one node falls out. And used for economic, societal, and business systems, it’ll make the world fair and adaptive.
And you know what I normally say.
Adaptive species are thriving species.
The New High
The Spirited Man wonders… what is his role? What verse must he contribute to help extinguish the crisis? He’s a Gen-X. And he has a talent for repairing and fixing.
And I wonder too…
I’m a Nomad with a talent for nature knowledge and storytelling crafts. A visionary, they often call me. And I have enough human vice and pride to be glad they call me that.
So, I look into my tea leaves and predict that the new high will be a Renaissance Period.
A period of joyful repair. A period of creating healthy landscapes. And oh, yes, we create food at the same time… A period of rediscovering the joy of community. A period of artistry.
Music. Dance. And Love.
Quite practically, there will be many more shifts in this era.
- We go from mining to phytomining. Growing our resources locally
- We go from polluting, industrial production to additive manufacturing. 3D printing our dresses with colors like butterflies. No need for toxic inks. We’ll use structure and light reflection
- We go from shipping food around the world to local food together with nature. It can easily be done. I’ve seen yields of +50% ditching the chemicals
- We go from toxic chemistry to healthy biochemistry produced from abundantly growing materials, such as thistles
- We won’t have flight shaming because Boeing will give us airplanes like birds. With antennas instead of engines. The technology is already existing. And you won’t be surprised if I say that it has been inspired by nature and our planet
- Science will relate everything to nature, our planet, and our universe and we’ll figure out how to live on a liquid planet
And in 2222?
I put on my glasses to better read the tea leaves when Merlinda enters the room. Through the door this time. The closed door.
She’s looking radiant, my great-great-great-granddaughter who lives in the year 2222. She’s alone. No Emerald in sight this time.
“Where’s Emerald, my dear?” I ask her.
“He’s gone to 2268. The next turning. He had to inspire some people there.
But I’m coming to you because of this beautiful story. The Fourth Turning. I like it! So positive. Full of Sheroes and Heroes. Full of people finding their immense courage to speak up and embody their role in life.
Every year, every decade, every event is just a node in time. Do your readers realize that humans have been roaming this earth for only 300,000 years? That we are a toddler species? And that Gaia herself is 4.6 billion years old? That the Sun has another 5 billion years to go before he dies?
Yes, the planet will go more liquid. Yes, the bushfires will extinguish homes. But, as you always say, when we think long and hard about ownership of land and the fact that the earth belongs to Gaia, it’ll be easily solved.
The American States will divorce each other.
And their children will live happily ever after…”
With a puff, she’s gone.
And I rise to make myself another cup of tea.
I deserve that mind-chill.
Metaverses and NFTs
And if you wonder about the Metaverses and NFTs, they are happening big time now. Forget Facebook and Meta. They are old news like Google. Manipulating us with ads. There’s life after Google.
Forget the centrally owned systems. Go for the decentralized and distributed Metaverses fueled by blockchains. The abundant communities. Enjoy yourself creating mind-blowing new futures in the Renaissance of our time.
Here’s an example. I love the shapeshifting faces that merge into full diversity and acceptance of each other.
Happy exploring, my friends.
Thank you, Gaia, for giving me Wild Writing. © Désirée Driesenaar, 2022
