It’s Not Technology That Will “Save” Us: It’s The Consciousness That Operates It

The bard Robert Anton Wilson said, “Anybody who tells you that we’re running out of resources or that we’re in a terrible mess–they are idiots. We can’t run out of resources. Resources exist when the human mind sees how to use something. To say we are running out of resources is like saying we are running out of brain cells.(1)”

If necessity is the mother of invention, it is safe to say she is finally giving birth. Despite the relative mismanagement of our “resources,” the growth of affordable green energy industries and countless prototypical inventions are arriving right on time. Moreover, these new inventions have the potential to single-handedly replace conventional methods for dealing with systemic environmental problems.(2)(3)

But what if our problems are not technological, but cultural? What if “the west” has been so blinded by abstraction that the first glimpse of hope offered in the form of a band-aid is immediately heralded as a cure, all without even recognizing that process is occurring?

After all, what good are solar panels on every house if we use them to power 500-channel televisions feeding you anxiety and smut and alienation?

…or electric cars if we don’t have to worry about paying for gas while being stuck in rush hour gridlock on the way to an uninspiring job?