Power to the People💥
The Third Industrial Revolution is coming
Good Morning Earthlings🌍,
2022. Amidst a swarm of bad news—omicron grinching Christmas, the doomsday glacier beginning to melt, Alaska reaching 20°C in December, Don’t Look Up showcasing how manipulated our media is…It seemed like a daunting start to the year.
Yet, during my daily walk it hit me, we’re actually quite a fortunate generation. We get to be a part of a wonderful albeit existential transition. It’s almost as though we’ve been walking through thick grime, and now we get to clean it off, and live a more connected and fulfilled life instead.
A couple of year’s ago a friend and I were wondering how such clever species hadn’t devised a new economic “system” that saves us from extinction. Yet all the while, right under our noses the system was already changing, into what economist Jeremy Rifkin dubbed the Third Industrial Revolution. With our generation’s culture tuning into the Biosphere Consciousness and the Sharing Economy growing, we are propelling our species into exciting times.
So to start the year, I recommend you this insightful talk, hopefully it will inspire you to kickstart your own participation into this new economic paradigm.
And please remember #StickItToTheMan #PowerToThePeople💥
*if you have friends in politics please share this talk with them^
Here a quick summary if you don’t have the time to watch Rifkin’s talk:
The Third Industrial Revolution
Through the internet of things we get to transfer value. Right now you might be producing your own solar power, through an energy network you’re able to sell your surplus energy to your next door neighbour—imagine how pissed off big oil is going to be when slowly they are dethroned from their energy monopolies? This system is literally giving power to the people—and it’s happening already. It’s decentralizing our electrical grid thanks to blockchain technology.
Rifkin analyses the previous Industrial Revolutions, and explains that we need 3 things to happen in order to kickstart the third:
New technology: the internet of things
New source of power: renewables
New logistics & transport infrastructure: more efficient transport thanks to data sharing
What’s fascinating about his vision, is that it talks to the current political class, why? Because a Third Industrial Revolution implies more jobs and a growing GDP. Two factors that are always a priority for our lovely political class.
The Biosphere Consciousness
It’s not only an industrial revolution that we’re are witnessing, but also a cultural awakening. People are realizing that we are inherently a collaborative and kind species, and that actually we thrive and crave communities. That having a slower, simpler life closer to nature is healthy, and that all living beings live together under one biosphere. Whether the Amazon Rainforest is burning in Brazil and you live in Europe, still affects you—we are all interconnected, and finally we are realizing this and acting upon it.
The Sharing Economy
Consumerism is being replaced by sharing. Share your toys, share your car, share your flat. We are beginning to realize that the real value in objects is actually in their experience. Once that is over there is more value in sharing it with others, rather than throwing it away. It has changed our generation’s value system, and it is radically changing one of the largest problems in pollution: our consumerist trash culture.