The 20th Century was the century of domination of planet earth by a single species. Human activities have become all pervasive and clusters of human constructions have replaced the natural world in all habitable regions of the planet. Human events are deeply troubling overall but at the same time, much has been accomplished in reaching for a sustainable, good life for all.

The 20th century will be remembered as the century of waking up to the universe as it is. We woke up to our own nature and responsibility and can no longer plead ignorance   We have changed the face of planet, driven animals and plants into extinction, invented hydrogen bombs and other sophisticated killing machinery. We have fought wars, experimented with different social, political and economic models of society. We survived two world wars the great depression, and some of us now enjoy unprecedented security and prosperity.

So far, we have survived American-Russian roulette, the insane game of mutually assured destruction with hydrogen bombs. However, the bombs have not gone away and the threat of horrible destruction will recur unless a New World order is successful in creating a more rational and compassionate world with enforceable laws against weapons of mass destruction.

Order Books: Click the green order button on the left for printed books. Click the yellow download button on the right for eBook download orders.

Surviving Human Nature

We have experimented with international coalitions and dreamed of a benevolent world government. We understood that persistent and unreasonable conflict is characteristic of Homo sapiens. We have proliferated beyond reasonable numbers and despite amazing advances in science and technology; we have not achieved sustainable levels of population, food and energy production. Our infrastructures are temporary and vulnerable.

Most reasonable people now know that we can no longer rely on our instincts and let nature take its course. Nor can we carry on with outdated social, religious and economic ideologies based on misunderstandings of human nature and planet ecology. We have to become better informed and more deliberate.  We have to think ourselves out of some dangerous predicaments and we need new ideas of social organization. We need to teach each new human that arrives on the planet how to transcend innate behaviors that are self-destructive and harmful to our species.

The character of the 21st century will be dominated by unsustainable population growth and migration, conflict, climate change, accompanied by shifts in wealth, power and influence. Recurrent human conflicts appear to be inevitable and challenge the most intelligent humans who imagine relief from a long history of the human abuse of humans.

Some humans have become better informed, more realistic and more deliberate in their analysis of human affairs. Others, including leaders of important countries, appear to remain ignorant of human nature and repeat old strategies of intervention that have failed before and will fail again. You can argue that human rights and lawful conduct are obvious and desirable goals, but in practice, humans are critical, argumentative, and competitive; they cannot agree on a universal definition of rights and lawful conduct.

The 21st century philosopher's task is to update our descriptions of ourselves to accommodate burgeoning scientific knowledge and an increasingly sophisticated understanding of human behavior, the brain and complex systems in general. We suddenly have new and revolutionary knowledge about human beings, their languages, arts and culture; about information gathering, storage and retrieval; about computation, communication; about the transformation of energy and materials; about molecular biology, genetics and the evolution of life on earth.

We have to re-examine what we care about and advance new vocabularies that allow us to proceed into new domains of thought and understanding. There seems a critical lag in the assimilation of new knowledge into the culture and a rapidly widening schism separates the few who know how things really work and the majority who do not.

In this century the rapid development of science, communications and culture exchange is unprecedented in the history of the planet. The smart, kind-hearted subtype of humans has flourished despite the persistent presence of crude-thinkers and killers. The smart kind-hearts have powerful tools to shape the future in a constructive manner.

The actions required are:

stop population overgrowth

eliminate pollution 

stop resource depletion

reduce burning of fossil fuels

eliminate poverty and malnutrition

stop habitat destruction and extinction of  fellow creatures

defend against emergent diseases

eliminate stockpiles of nuclear weapons and weapons-grade plutonium

eliminate biological weapons

stop humans killing humans

promote civil rights and freedom

develop renewable sources of energy

rebuild energy and communication infrastructures

eBooks and other digital documents are downloaded from Persona Digital Publications and can be delivered to any destination on the planet.  Printed book orders  are submitted to Alpha Online; physical shipments  are limited to destinations in Canada, Continental USA, Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and US Military. Persona Audiovisual Productions and Persona Digital are divisions of Environmed Research Inc., Sechelt, British Columbia, Canada. In business since 1984. Online since 1995.