Dr George John

“The world is changing: I feel it in the water, I feel it in the earth, and I smell it in the air” – JRR Tolkein

The changing world is so unbelievably interconnected in such a way that the flutter of butterflies in the Amazonian rain forest makes rain in Africa. If the real answer to the rhetorical question “where do our lungs start?” is “atmospheric air”, our physical bodies also started from where the world originally started. Yet it is staggering to think that in a changing world, we are intellectually challenged to pick a side in the debate about the nature of change. But we can find comfort in knowing that a smile can still change the world and we shouldn’t worry about changing our smiles, because of the present sorry state of the world. Instead what we should really do in a world, that is changing, is to get on to its transition team. Those who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world are actually the ones who do.

The world that we have made as it is today is a process of our thinking. It cannot really be changed without changing our thinking and managing success is all about learning as fast as the world changes.

Within the latter half of the last century and the first couple of decades of the 21st Century, the nature of concepts about work, technology and callings have changed. During that period, there was increasing emphasis on the role of social determinants for the physical, mental, societal and spiritual health of individuals. As a result, philosophers, thinkers and visionaries regained an interest in the biological-psychological-social (bio-psychosocial) axis of our existence which offers us fresh perspectives of our lives. Whereas there has been criticisms levelled against such an integrated model, as its advantages become clearer, it is now becoming increasingly obvious that the training of the future practioners of the healthcare, philosophy, physical and social sciences, psychology, psychiatry and maybe even priesthood, need to change in order to accommodate the new emerging ideas that is sure to shape our future world.

In the post-Covid world the nature and necessity of work has already changed and I suspect it will continue to change in quantum leaps in coming years, just as we were all promised at the start of the present technological revolution that in a technology driven world there will be more leisure time as the tech driven machines will increasingly do the ‘work’ that humans did. And I suspect that along with changed work ethic, notions about nationality, nationalism and exclusivity of the different religions will also change as we all start thinking about ourselves more as global citizens. However the question remains as to whether such fundamental revolutionary changes in thinking will result in a change in our established ideas of morality and what is right and what is wrong?

The old idea of a ‘uni’verse is giving way to how we see the humongous nature of the multiverse and one of the tiniest part we humans occupy in it, as fascinating never before seen images of what the infinity of the cosmos looks like through the lenses of the James Webb space telescope. Will this new awareness, give rise to more radical thinking about the current ‘established’ order in religion, theology, politics, philosophy and psychology about the nature of the world and humans in it? Now that science has started showing us how insignificant we truly are in the grand scale of the cosmos, the 367 year delayed apology by the church to Galileo must serve as a salutary lesson.  Is it possible for us to still continue as if it is business as usual while other important questions remain?

How much will the present emphasis on moving away from fossil fuels to various forms of renewable self-sustaining sources of energy to power the world, change the way humanity thinks about important issues like morality and social justice?

And as a result of it or along with such changed thinking, how much will our current efforts to make the world greener and more gender equal, affect our immediate and long term future?

How much and to what extend will compulsion to become more socially inclusive affect our various societies as they are currently becoming more and more divisive, tribal in the paradoxical attempt to make all societies in the same country look the same? Can there still be unity in our diversity?

Will the present attempt to make one homogenous culture, through a culture war, help break down present barriers of caste, class, social status, occupational and gender inequalities?

These are merely some of the questions that the world’s thinkers need to grapple with as our world continues to change. If at all when the present political and religious leaderships realise that irrevocable changes need to happen in the opposite direction to the one we are currently travelling in, how likely are they to make an attempt at reputation laundering OR will the present and future political and religious leaders prefer to swap their current illusions to engineer making a world in their own image with another faulty vision of the future?

With the rapid expansion of artificial intelligence (AI), serious thought need to be given to what may happen if there is conflict between mankind and technology. The Internet was supposed to make the world a smaller place. But it actually feels smaller even without it. I cannot help feeling that we have made the primary use of science and technology for profit making by its commercial applications. As a result proliferation of erroneous lies and untruths may have become the unintended consequences and thereby increasing the reach of ignorance instead of knowledge. Nevertheless with the development of stronger AI, is it possible that a future created human brain could be self-sustaining and capable of the same or even enhanced emotional expressivity and self-awareness?  And although no one can yet prove that they are indeed self-aware, it looks possible that the AI of the future may lead to significant advancement in neural engineering with a distant dream of a thinking computer. In such a process will the journey become more important than the destination?

What we now see in the current state of the world is a power struggle camouflaged as an ideological war between so called ‘democracies’ and dictators in world governance as well as in politics and in religion. Everyone is expected to declare which side they are on. When the existing systems are failing humanity a new concept of “Inter-generational justice” is gaining traction as a better way of producing a more equitable world order, even as the breakneck speed of destruction of the planet is gathering momentum. We should perhaps discourage today’s young people from following their elders, whose ways of working has caused the problems of the world but instead give them the freedom to decide what sort of changing world of the future they would like to live in.

There is little doubt that the biggest step for those of us still here, to take in this rapidly changing world, is to first try to change the world within us. Some of the world’s foremost business leaders have already recognised the speed at which the world is changing, tomorrow’s world is already happening today. They say that BIG will not beat the small any more. Instead and the fast is likely to beat the slow. In fact, I think those of us currently living in this fast changing world, will find that the only way to survive is that we too have to change with it. New technologies causing new awarenesses, including explosive growth of artificial intelligence have advantages as well as disadvantages. The late Professor Stephen Hawking’s prediction that if we don’t change the future of humanity on the face of this earth is doomed is still hauntingly real.

An anonymous wise old sage once said, “To improve is to change; to attain perfection, is to change often”. And in the process, we are being encouraged to give up the good of today in an attempt for the great of tomorrow. The truth in “Yesterday, I was clever and I wanted to change the world; today I am wise and I changed myself” is becoming resoundingly clear to most people.

“You must be the change, you wish to see in the world” said Mahatma Ghandi. Whilst change is the law of life, it now looks as if those who are guided only by the past and the present are sure to miss the all-important future. “If you don’t change direction, you are at risk of ending up where you are heading” said Lao Tzu. The unmistakable reality is that it is we, who we have been waiting for as we are the change we seek. If you don’t want to change in a changing world, the chances are that you wouldn’t be able to continue and consequently will be left out. Instead if you wish to change the world, the first thing to do is to change yourself and the only place to begin the process is where you are right now and the best time, is also right now. That is the way you will discover what courage looks like.

The man or woman who is good for anything ought not to calculate the chances of him living or dying in a changing world. All such a person need to do is to consider whether what he or she is doing now is right or wrong. That is a measurement made by ones moral compass. We really ought to stop being afraid of what could go wrong and instead we should start feeling excited about what could go right. Nevertheless, one should also heed the words of the 18th Century English-born American political activist, philosopher and theorist, Thomas Paine who was heavily influenced by Jefferson and Lincoln, who said “A long habit of not thinking a thing is wrong, gives a superficial appearance of it being right”. Leo Tolstoy once famously said about a world that is changing and the people in it don’t like change, “everyone at some point or the other think about changing the world; but no one thinks about changing him or herself”.

We should ask ourselves whether we are changing as fast as the world around us is changing and if the answer to this question is “No, we are not”, it is worth remembering that with change come opportunity.   More than half a century ago Albert Einstein opined that new thinking is necessary if mankind is to survive and advance and it couldn’t be more relevant in today’s troubled and changing world.  “We don’t need magic to change the world. We already carry in ourselves all the power we need to do it. If only we had the power to imagine better” – JK Rowling.

docgjohn@aol.com