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Where are we going? By this I mean, what is humanity's goal? Is there one? If we don't know where we are going, how will we get there?
In almost every aspect of life humans develop goals, individual or group, and takes steps to achieve those goals. Leadership can be defined as the acts of establishing direction, aligning intent and motivating action in the intended direction. We can see this all around us in our human activities and systems. However I see no evidence of a common goal for humanity, or even much thought or conversation on the matter, yet it may be the most important question of our time. Security and comfort seem to be priorities (with misguided means of attempting to achieve them) but, and perhaps this reflect some limits to human consciousness, no one seems to care much about what the world will look like in 100 years.
I suspect that ethnocentric consciousness and short-term desires have retarded this important conversation, but enough people are now world-centric in awareness that perhaps this conversation can begin.
Where do you want us to end up, and where do we begin?
Closing Statement from Mike Robinson
Thank you everyone for sharing your thoughts.... sorry I got distracted trying to debate religion with some of the posters!
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John Dunbar 10+
In fact I think the only way in which you could see a unified human population would be under external threat from, say an asteroid, or something of this nature. I am a pretty firm believer that nothing changes until there is an absolute lack of pleasure to ease the anxiety of life.
Carl Rogers said "when I look at the world I'm pessimistic, but when I look at people I am optimistic". I find this to be true and I believe the only possible way to reach a goal amongst all people has to come from the individual on up. If every person focused on compassion and understanding towards there fellow man I think you would see some real change come about. The Stanford Marshmallow Experiment is an awesome example of what were up against when thinking about change of this magnitude(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_marshmallow_experiment ). How do you get individuals to focus on the long term vs the short term? I think the answer lies in self awareness and maturity of the ego. If we started teaching introspective techniques, as well as healthy coping skills starting at a young age in schools i think this could be small step towards a better world.
Also by identifying those who are at risk to be consumed by their ID driven impulses at a young age, could hopefully prevent some future problems while attempting to unify people. However that opens a door for an absurd amount of government involvement in the raising of children.
The truth is, being on TED and asking these questions are luxuries afforded to us by resource hoarding and economic security. How could someone living in an impoverished, or war torn area even begin to ponder anything except their own survival?
Great question mike