When I was invited to give this speech, I was asked if I could give a simple short talk that was “direct, naked, taut, honest, passionate, lean, shivering, startling, and graceful.” No pressure there.
Let’s begin with the startling part. Class of 2009: you are going to have to figure out what it means to be a human being on earth at a time when every living system is declining, and the rate of decline is accelerating. Kind of a mind-boggling situation… but not one peer-reviewed paper published in the last thirty years can refute that statement. Basically, civilization needs a new operating system, you are the programmers, and we need it within a few decades. This planet came with a set of instructions, but we seem to have misplaced them. Important rules like don’t poison the water, soil, or air, don’t let the earth get overcrowded, and don’t touch the thermostat have been broken. Buckminster Fuller said that spaceship earth was so ingeniously designed that no one has a clue that we are on one, flying through the universe at a million miles per hour, with no need for seat belts, lots of room in coach, and really good food—but all that is changing.
The next visionary featured here is Elora Hardy...only now Elora's visions are now based in physical reality; she left her successful career in fashion to design and build bamboo houses with her family.
Watch Elora's TEDtalk below!
When we think of an advanced civilization we don't envision an exclusively technological world of shiny futuristic buildings and flying cars. We see a beautiful green world with the presence of humans and technology so subtly woven into the landscape that one would think that the earth is sprouting abodes for people. After all, humans are nature and all materials that we often berate as unnatural, like plastics, are all from the earth. The question is: how do we make use of it all more intelligently? Here are some concept drawings from the VEGETAL CITY website.   
Below is a TED talk given by the artist himself. Click on the 'CC' (closed caption tab) on the bottom right, as the talk is given in French.  Click image to visit site It has been ten years now since Lorenzo Hagerty created the Psychedelic Salon. This courageous 73 year old has maintained and continues to host a donation supported podcast (online radio) series featuring brilliant minds speaking on such topics as philosophy, the art of living, the art the dying, psychedelics, plant medicines and many underrepresented news updates. Nothing is too taboo to discuss if coming from the heart. The mp3s are available as free downloads thus making for an illuminating, educational car ride whenever you choose to tune in!
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