It is hard for me to understand why people always try to make every country like America. This is where most of the problems in the first world seem to come from. You would do well to read Vandana Shiva's Reith lecture on biodiversity.
In it, you can read read why the indebtedness of rural farmers in India is linked to the promotion of monoculture-based American agritech and how they actually have a traditional way to farm that *works* which doesn't involve getting mortgaged up to the eyeballs to "get better lives".
But I do agree with you in that social change and green tech will probably come from the third world but it will not involve "lower taxes" and similar simple capitalist agendas. Tax is mainly a corporate problem, not a private one..
Please go to the Fund's homepage, read and understand it, then read Shiva's lecture and tell me what you think.
There are some people working on just the kind of tech you mentioned, tho.
http://humanityfund.org
It will be hitting the markets in a few years and should just the kind of progress Bucky was on about. True progress, not just more gadgets and consumer junk.
What we really need is a new way to live and new forms of government, with small, independent communities empowering higher levels by direct democratic voting using consensus decision-making technology.
Without those kind of changes all the bullshit gadgets in the world aren't going to prevent us from suffocating in rubbish and being disillusioned, disconnected little sheep whose only purpose is to vote for a different bunch of idiots with way too much power every few years.
Not to worry, there are a lot of people working toward positive change, it just upsets me that so many people define progress by the amount of gadgets or tech we have. "Social Technology" is a lot harder to define yet more likely to improve all our lives.
The Humanity Fund is working on precisely the tech that will enable social change. Go the Fund, I say! They are looking for investors, btw...
Slashdot Mirror
In it, you can read read why the indebtedness of rural farmers in India is linked to the promotion of monoculture-based American agritech and how they actually have a traditional way to farm that *works* which doesn't involve getting mortgaged up to the eyeballs to "get better lives".
But I do agree with you in that social change and green tech will probably come from the third world but it will not involve "lower taxes" and similar simple capitalist agendas. Tax is mainly a corporate problem, not a private one..
Please go to the Fund's homepage, read and understand it, then read Shiva's lecture and tell me what you think.
There are some people working on just the kind of tech you mentioned, tho.
http://humanityfund.orgIt will be hitting the markets in a few years and should just the kind of progress Bucky was on about. True progress, not just more gadgets and consumer junk.
What we really need is a new way to live and new forms of government, with small, independent communities empowering higher levels by direct democratic voting using consensus decision-making technology.
Without those kind of changes all the bullshit gadgets in the world aren't going to prevent us from suffocating in rubbish and being disillusioned, disconnected little sheep whose only purpose is to vote for a different bunch of idiots with way too much power every few years.
Not to worry, there are a lot of people working toward positive change, it just upsets me that so many people define progress by the amount of gadgets or tech we have. "Social Technology" is a lot harder to define yet more likely to improve all our lives.
The Humanity Fund is working on precisely the tech that will enable social change. Go the Fund, I say! They are looking for investors, btw...