A Dream for Humanity

It is time to forsake our obsession with apocalypse and destruction, our romance with death and despair, and instead look towards the heavens. It is time to embrace life and hope, and imagine the possibilities of a bright future. Dream with our minds so that we may create with our hands.

Let us dream of a world where we live in kindness. Kindness to ourselves, to each other, and to all Earth’s living creatures.

A world where we cherish community and creation and culture over profit and isolation.

A world where we recognize that the common good is not only right for others but right for ourselves.

A world where we learn from our own ancestors and from the ancestors of others, acknowledging our wrongs and seeking always to do better.

A world where every child has access to a quality education that teaches them how to think, how to dream, and how to be themselves.

A world where every adult has access to forgiveness and opportunities to change and grow.

A world where we use technology to make our lives better:

Generating electricity from clean, renewable sources so that our lungs and our waters and our lands are free from pollution.

Growing crops in fields and in public parks and on rooftops and on walls with sensors to conserve water and yield better and more reliable fruits of our smaller labors. Surrounding ourselves with edible plants both private and public, sharing and trading and breaking bread with our neighbors.

Building our homes and our workplaces and our community centers with the combination of ancient wisdom and modern tools so that we may exist in harmony with our ecosystems and so that we can breathe and feel freely where we rest our heads and cook our food and experience intimacy.

Gathering and sustaining local resources, embracing a wilder array of foods, cleaning and conserving the waters that fall from our skies and gather under Earth’s soil. Drinking first, washing second, refuse last, cleanse and nourish the plants.

Cherishing every single particle we use, fixing and transforming but never discarding, always eventually cycling back to the beginning.

Setting aside our robots of advertising and isolation and mass destruction, and instead using them to gather materials, clean our resources, and aid our peoples.

Using technology not to escape but to enhance and enrich our lives.

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We have the technology to solve the grand challenges facing humanity. We have the technology to build a beautiful and prosperous world for every single one of us. We have the technology to care for our home and all the creatures that rely on it for life, this pale blue dot in the vastness of space that contains, thus far, the only intelligent life in the universe. We have the lessons from our history and the knowledge of our ancestors, of what works and what does not work, of what brings joy and peace and prosperity.

We simply need to open our minds and our hearts and make the choice of what kind of future we want for ourselves and for our children and for humanity. Let us stand upright in dignity and confidence and love and take responsibility of our special status on Earth so that we may care for it and for all its life. Let us choose to live and let live.

This is what I choose: a bright, hopeful, egalitarian future in harmony with Nature, our birthplace and our backbone. I choose to recognize that it is a miracle we exist, that any living creature exists, and that all life is precious, and our actions and civilizations should reflect this.

Choose it with me and together we can build a better system, one step and one block at a time.