None yet exist, at least as we define it. My allies and I regard our model as the best example, because of the following attributes: 1) Non-utopian. We are well aware of our own limitations. Perfection is an aspiration, not an attainment. 2) Evolutionary. Given that there are and ever will be mistakes and possible […]
As I’ve written elsewhere, my life has been inspired and guided by a vivid and detailed dream I had at age 14, over half a century ago. While many people have such dreams, this was the only one in my experience that was confirmed by empirical evidence. Five years after my dream, I discovered another […]
The most substantive criticism of a Celebration Society is that such societies will take too long compared to how fast accelerating automation will eliminate jobs. It has long troubled me. If major think tanks like Brookings, Nomura, and others are right, we’ll start seeing massive displacement of workers in the 2020s, reaching permanent Great Depression […]
In their recent book Warnings, former US national security advisors Richard Clarke and R.P. Reddy take an evidence-based approach to identifying persons they call Cassandras. Cassandras are credible forecasters, with solid track records in their fields, who warn of coming existential threats, based on irrefutable data. The book combines case histories of previous Cassandras who […]
A recent misstatement of this book’s title in a public forum got me thinking. Could there be such a thing as a “celebration economy”? In a sense, it already exists. Tourism is the 6th largest industry worldwide, and tourism is often interwoven with celebration. From that standpoint, a case can be made. On the other […]
A Celebration Society has always been about encouraging discussion. I don’t want to limit this to my point of view, and so we are now opening the blog for others to contribute. Good topics might include: How to start a movement What will enable a Celebration Society to manifest Technologies that are especially relevant or […]
Researchers have recently figured out how to impart hive learning capabilities to robots. It’s particularly applicable to the kinds of complex tasks that require observation, trial, error, learning and further trials. This will enable them to collectively learn, in weeks, tasks that would have individually taken the robots years. Essentially, a group of identical robots […]
Shock therapy is a concept proposed by some economists before the Soviet union collapsed. Essentially, it’s the idea that a command and control economy should be immediately dismantled, to be replaced by market mechanisms. Adam Smith cautioned against this, and it was a disaster in Russia. People who lack a culture of individual responsibility will […]
As I was watching The Late Show with my wife, the topic of the Brad Pitt/Angelina Jolie divorce came up on the show. I realized that this is a traumatic event for many people. Then I wondered why. The only explanation that makes sense to me is that people longed for this to be a […]
Recently, a prominent architect informed me that he is an ally of ours. I expect that he will in future help to guide us as we organize teams of people to build the first Celebration Society, either in simulation (as I have proposed) or in physical form. I also expect that he will eventually blog […]
