Our dilemma is that we live in a finite world, but behave as if it were inexhaustible. For a long time we have ignored the impacts of technological and social- economic progress, concealed the consequences of constant growth, followed the instruction multiply and subdue the Earth, put ‘having’ before ‘being’, and kept thinking as if there were still as few people on earth as there were 200 years ago.
In the meanwhile we are facing the Herculean task, to satisfy the basic needs of soon 10 billion people worldwide and at the same time to respect the ecological boundaries of our planet. The great fallacy of the environmental debate over the last 30 years has been the hope that an ecological turnaround can be essentially achieved with a technological innovation programme in the existing economic system.
So, future generations and other living beings therefore face drastic and irreversible disadvantages.
At the same time we are intelligent and conscious beings. Our consciousness consists of all normal human abilities and experiences, including emotion, imagination, anticipation, thinking, and purposeful action, involved in our consciousness of the future. The nature of consciousness is among the most profound mysteries humans have encountered. And yet, whether we think that consciousness reflects a fundamental feature of reality, or a mere illusion, we do know, at least in our case, that brains are involved. We also know that changes made to our brains correlate with dramatic changes in consciousness. As scientific and technological development continues, we’re likely to gain much greater ability to retune this biological instrument, and potentially gain access to a much broader variety of possible conscious states
Consciousness is the most empowering and distinctive capacity of life and the human mind, both unique and yet expressive of the natural process of the evolution. The creation of a sustainable future is achieved through wisdom. Wisdom is a holistic capacity that is a synthesis of a set of key character virtues and the highest expression of consciousness.
Flourishing in the flow of our own evolution: we can build images of possible, probable and preferable futures and paths to such futures. Underlying this effort is human consciousness of futures that is present in everyday anticipatory behavior and explicit foresight.
Consciousness is the capacity for considering future consequences, having a sense of empowerment towards influencing the courses of action, openly assessing alternative courses, approaching problems from a holistic and systemic point of view, and striving for a better future not only for the self but for all of humanity. Let’s finally start using our evolutionary and distinctive capacity.