“What is your inspiring 500-year vision for humanity?”
By far, this was the most common follow-up question I got after sharing my latest 12 Favorite Problems. There’s much to say but what comes up isn’t words, only a blurry mosaic of images and feelings from personal experience and various schools of thought.
I guess this is the reason why I have it on my 12 Favorite Problems list. I want to inspire you with my 500-year vision! But first, I want to explore the context for this question.
Humanity Needs a Pep Talk
If we could use Freud’s Pleasure Principle to put people on a spectrum of what drives their instinctive motivations to satisfy biological and physiological needs, there would be Pleasure/Reward-chasers on one end, and Pain/Punishment-avoiders on the other end.
Practically speaking, these two camps would need very different motivational speeches. If you tell a Pain-avoider that the Doomsday Clock is 100 seconds to midnight, and humanity needs to turn itself around or we’d all be doomed, they would likely jump into action. And fortunately, we have activists, scientists, politicians, and ordinary people whose life work is to avoid our imminent doom.
But for a Pleasure-chaser, “We’re all going to die!😱!” is a terrible motivator! As captain of Team Pleasure/Reward-chaser and I cannot tell you how many times I have been paralyzed with despair and hopelessness from humanity’s real and imagined existential threats.
That’s not to say facts and a realistic assessment of the current situation aren’t important, but the reason why I don’t watch the news anymore is because it’s doom and gloom, then end program. Imagine if they followed up the morning news segment with a motivational bit, how that could not only lighten the anxiety of existence but actually motivate and inspire us.
Out of the Pits of Paralysis
Fortunately, I’ve had enough practice with humanity doom dazing to now know that a compelling vision of hope is the secret to lifting myself out of the pits of paralysis. It’s like in the climax of 5th Element, when Bruce Willis asks Mila Jovovich to save the universe, and she responds with “Why?” save humanity and all its war, destruction, and crappy people?
By the way, this is one of my favorite movies of all time, you should definitely watch it. Without spoiling all of it, the answer he gives her activates her Ultimate Light Beam to obliterate the Ultimate Evil.
For me, what activates my own Ultimate Light Beam is my 500-Year Vision for Humanity.
Marching Towards Our 500-Year Future
Five hundred years is about twenty generations. It’s long enough for humans to completely change the landscape of the world, yet not so long that the past is completely lost or lost to translation like how Ancient Egypt appears to us.
At a 500-year timescale, the small details of my life don’t matter anymore, only my legacy does. This gives me serenity to truly let go of that which I cannot change, recognizing that the only thing I can change is myself and my actions.
This gives me focus and hope that what I am building today are indeed the seeds for a better 500-year future.
I know, I know, I didn’t actually tell you my 500-year Vision for Humanity. Stay tuned! Meanwhile, it’s your turn! I’d love to hear what comes up for you when you think about a 500-Year Future.
The word that stood out for me is Legacy. Only legacies survive 20 generations. This is powerful priority-shifting perspective, helping filter out so many bs excuses for all kinds of behaviour that we otherwise tolerate due to short term disease. I have to think about what I want my 500y legacy to be now...
what a cliffhanger!