Thursday, January 15, 2015

Twenty Ideas that are Changing the World

 Twenty Ideas that are Changing the World
New ideas continue to revolutionize the way we live. All of us young and old, rural and urban, in all walks of life.
 Dr Abe V Rotor
Living with Nature School on Blog
Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid with Ms Melly C Tenorio
738 DZRB AM Band, 8-9 evening class, Monday to Friday


We are summarizing the top ideas that are currently changing our world, the impact of which we can only guess and project with anxiety and awe and fear. These are ideas forged by modern man, ideas born from a foundation of knowledge and wisdom, ideas spawned by serendipity and unexpected events - nonetheless all reflecting the richness of our cultures amalgamated globally by no less than our inventions that have shrunk the world into a village, a village whose scale keeps us closer and united which is the essence of humanity.

1. Common Wealth - National interests aren't what they used to be. Our survival requires global solutions.The defining challenge of the 21st century will be to face the reality that humanity shares a common fate on a crowded planet.

2. The End of Customer Service - With self-service technology, you'll never have to see a clerk again.

3. The Post-Movie-Star Era. Get ready for more films in which the leading man is not"he" but "Who?"

4. Reverse Radicalism . Want to stop terrorism? Start talking to terrorists who stop themselves.

5. Kitchen Chemistry . Why the squishy art of cooking is giving way to cold, hard science.

6. Geoengineering . Messing with Nature caused global warming. Messing with it more might fix it.

7. Aging gracefully . Forget conventional wisdom; grtay-haired societies aren't a problem.

The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway.

8.Curing the "Dutch Disease." How resource-rich nations can unravel the paradox of plenty.

9. Women's Work. Tapping the female entrepreneurial; s[irit can pay big dividends.

10. Beyond the Olympics. Coming: Constant TV coverage of global sporting events.

11. Jobs Are the New Assets. A sampling of fast-growing occupations - Actuaries, financial analyst, computer programmer, fitness trainer, biophysicists, translators, maniucurists, marriage counselors, radiologists.

12. Recycling the Suburbs. Environmentalists will celebrate the demise of sprawling suburbs, which left national addicted to cars. Infrastructures will be converted in favor of "green", town centers, public libraries, museums, sports centers, parks.

13. The New Calvinism. More moderate evangelicals are exploring cures for doctrinal drift, offering some assurance to " a lot of young people growing up in sub-cultures of brokenness, divorce, drugs, sexual temptations, etc."

14. Reinstating the Interstate, the Superhighways. These are becoming a new network of light rail and "smart power" electric grid. This is the alternative to car culture that thrives on fossil fuel and promotes suburban sprawl.

15. Amortality. Amortality - "non-moral sensitive" or "neutral morality' - whatever you may call it, this thinking has revolutionized our attitudes toward age. There are people who "refuse to grow old," people who wish to be resurrected from his cryonized corpse.

16. Africa , Business Destination. Next "economic miracle" is in the black continent. Actually it has began stirring the economic consciousness of investors and developers.

17. The Rent-a-Country. Corporate Farming, an approach pioneered by the Philippines in the 60's and 70s, is now adopted by giant companies to farm whole valleys, provinces, island, of countries other than their own. Call it neo-colonialism, - these are food contracts, the latest new green revolution, more reliable food security.

18. Biobanks. Safe deposits - freezers full of tissues for transplants, cryotude for blood samples, liquid nitrogen storage for sperms and eggs, test-tube baby laboratories and clinics. Welcome, surrogate motherhood, post-menopausal technology, in-situ cloning, multiple;e birth technology, and the like.

19. Survival Stores. Sensible shops selling solar panels, electric bicycles, power generators, energy food bars, portable windmill, etc. Attributes: living off the grid, smart recycling, sustainability, consume less, self-sufficiency, basic+ useful, durable lifetime guarantee, hip + cool community, independent, responsible, co-op, brand-free, out of the oven, goodness-driven, health fitness, meditation, bartering, sharing, socialistic capitalism.


20. Ecological Intelligence. There are guidelines now available to judge products on their social and environmental impact. This is new culture characterized by environment-consciousness, environment-friendliness. Here life-cycle assessment and clean-up corporate ecology become an obligation. We are going back - happily and beautifully to a simple and natural lifestyle.

Assignment: Explain what each of these ideas is all about - its relevance and application, impact and consequence - actual and projected; how one is affected according to his field and status. It would be good to cite actual cases, and relate the same to local conditions.

Assignment in photography: present a photo or two that best illustrate each idea. Briefly explain each photo in relation to these ideas. 

Reference: Time Magazine, March 24, 2008 and March 23, 2009

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