Welcome and thank you for taking the time to read our inaugural post here at The Story of Us. Before we dig in and begin our journey…
I invite you to close your eyes. Relax your jaw. Ease the tension in your forehead. Let your shoulders fall. Take a long, slow, deep breath > In through the nose and out through the mouth. Let your breathing flow as it normally would > focus your full attention on it. Now, pause for a hot second. Just become aware of the thoughts currently racing through your mind. Disengage with them. Recognize the cluttered mess and allow it to float off like clouds in a beautiful blue sky.
Take another deep breath > in for 4 beats, out for 8. Clear your mind – Now. You’re ready. Let’s begin.
Q: Does anyone else carry with them a heavy knapsack of worry, anxiety and unease?
Q: Does anyone else sense that the Earth and all its inhabitants are trapped inside a giant pressure cooker poised to explode at any time?
If you do, I understand how you feel. You are not alone in your suffering. Billions of others feel the same way you do (and for good reason). We’re literally packed on top of this planet like a bunch of canned sardines.
The earliest known Humans emerged on the scene around 300,000 years ago and for much of human history, the population was relatively stable. Estimates suggest that around 180 million people inhabited this planet in 1 CE. It took another 1,800 years to reach one billion people. Then… cue the Barry White soundtrack… we got it on. Procreation rocketed in the 1800’s – population doubled in only 123 years between 1804 and 1923. We reached 3 billion people in 1960, doubled again in the next 39 years to 6 billion and hit the 8 billion mark in 2022. The UN estimates that the population will continue to grow, reaching around 9 billion by 2037 and 10 billion by 2057. Modern humans are undoubtedly the most evasive and egocentric species the Earth has ever accommodated. If you feel like your jostling for space in a global mosh pit, its because you are.
And its not just that their are shit tons of us on this tiny ball hurdling through space.
Take a moment to ponder, what it truly feels like living in the Year 2025 Anno Domini:
We are bombarded with lethal doses of information. Humans today are flooded with data. It’s simply too much information for a reasonable human to digest. Making matters worse, the rapid spread of misinformation, disinformation and false information (often amplified by the algorithms fueling digital platforms) is undermining our trust in our institutions and each other. It’s making us distrust each other and just about everything we see. It’s escalating societal tensions. Humans can no longer hold the meaningful conversations that are the lifeblood of healthy democracies. Polarization is paralyzing us as a species – not just in the US but across the Globe. Our deepening political and social divides are eroding the cohesion necessary for collective action – all of this at a time when the Earth needs us more then ever.
We are living in a World still fighting ancient geopolitical conflicts. Humans remain locked in ongoing conflict and protracted wars over myths and stories that were narrated and heavily edited (Telephone Game -style) over 1,700 years ago. We hold tight to these original stories because religion has given us no way to amend them as the times and circumstances change. God simply didn’t grant us the power to add an 11th or 12th amendment to the Ten Commandments. We’re trapped in a corner. The mythologies of Christianity, Judaism and Islam have been passed down to us from antiquity and are still stoking the fires of hatred, not just in the modern cities of Mesopotamia, but in the Americas, Europe and throughout the World. Humans by nature are grand storytellers and we hold tight to the notion that our story is the true story. So much so that we are ready to kill each other to protect its truth.
Climate change is no longer a distant threat but a present reality. Immediate and coordinated global action is essential to safeguard our planet’s future. Science is somehow becoming politicized. If you identify as a Conservative you may choose to disagree but, scientific projections indicate that without significant coordinated mitigation efforts, the planet is on track to exceed the critical 1.5°C warming threshold within the next two decades. We are living in the hottest decade in the Earth’s history and it’s progressively getting warmer. We face rising sea levels and unprecedented coastal threats. Weather is becoming more extreme including stifling heatwaves, mega storms ,historical floods and prolonged droughts. Our fragile ecosystem is faltering, the loss of biodiversity is alarming and water scarcity is intensifying with over 5 billion people projected to face water shortages by the year 2050. Climate-induced displacement is also becoming a significant global issue. By 2050, the number of climate refugees attempting to migrate is forecasted to soar to an estimated 1.2 billion people. We can’t change this trajectory while siloed in echo chambers. We must find ways to have real, meaningful conversations.
The cataclysmic rise of Artificial Intelligence has hit us like a tsunami. AI poses a range of potential threats to humanity—some already present and others more speculative but very plausible as these systems grow more powerful and impossible to contain. Throughout history, major technological advancements brought change at a much slower rate. Humans were able to adapt. This isn’t true for AI. We are already overwhelmed and feeling the impacts. Most of us don’t even understand the basics of this technology but the emerging algorithms are nonetheless controlling our lives, the ways we communicate and the decisions we make on the daily. Our brains can’t fathom the realism of machine generated Deep Fakes. Systems trained on biased data are reinforcing societal inequalities in hiring, policing, healthcare, and lending. Automation of routine and even skilled tasks is just beginning to affect unemployment or underemployment in some sectors. Our privacy is eroding – AI is enabling mass surveillance and data exploitation at an unprecedented scale. The long term consequences are unknown but include: the real possibility of autonomous weaponry that can make kill decisions without human oversight, massive amounts of wealth generated by those with AI superiority that leads to deeper economic inequality, societal unrest and huge power imbalances, loss of human control when advanced AI elects to pursue goals misaligned with human values, misuse by bad actors , terrorists, rogue states and criminal networks. For those that understand even the basics of AI – This is all easy to imagine. Our societies are in a fragile state of disrepair and on the verge of collapse – AI is poised to be the “straw that breaks the camel’s back”.
We are running out of the juice necessary to power the 21st Century. The current energy crisis is a complex, global challenge driven by a messy combination of geopolitical conflicts, climate change agendas, aging and overburdened power grids, and the painfully slow transition to and integration of clean, renewable energy sources. Scientists project we will run ourselves dry of oil reserves in less then 50 years. Humanity stands at a crossroads: either accelerate the clean energy transition intelligently and equitably, or remain caught in the current cycle of crisis, inequality, and environmental damage. Today’s energy crisis is not just a technical challenge—it’s a test of political will, cooperation, and long-term vision. Humans have picked a really bad time to divide and not conquer. We need real conversation around plans to modernize and expand our power grids. We need to cooperate globally to raise the capital necessary for massive investments in renewable infrastructure and accelerate deployment of energy storage. If not, the future will be characterized by unimaginable increases in prices for electricity, food and goods. Inflation and the cost of living will go way up. Progress will slowdown or stop and energy poverty will affect our health, education and productivity.
Dare I keep going or should we take a few more meditative breaths before we gain some perspective?
In for 4 – out for 8. Repeat as necessary.
Continued in Part II…
The Story of Us. 
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