From 600+ conversations with the world’s leading thinkers.
We must stand up and say that a business model based on secretly tracking us in order to find, and exploit, weaknesses in our attention is not acceptable. It's immoral.
If someone consistently films artillery strikes from their home, not only can we geolocate where the strikes are occurring, but we can also pinpoint the filmer's residence. If an unfriendly state actor would rather not have such footage made public, they could easily direct their artillery towards the identified filming location. This situation underscores the importance of witness protection.
What we have isn't superior intelligence — it's superior destructive reach, enabled by technology. The story we've told ourselves that we are categorically separate from nature is the destabilising force, because every species is constrained by nature and is part of a system.
GDP mostly measures how money changes hands. War boosts GDP. Oil spills boost GDP. Cancer, bushfires, drug addiction, gambling addiction, health crises — these all boost GDP. It still rises when society is suffering immensely. We can put a carbon market on top of that, but we're still operating within an economic system built on a logic of destruction.