Nature has hit the "reset" button. It must change us. Forever.

[TygrBright]

This blue marble is only one node in an unthinkably vast network of life-nodes, each one unique and, probably, unfathomable to the others. (I cannot begin to imagine the life of a benthic organism among other benthic organisms...)

Homo sapiens is one species, one manifestation of life in this node, but we have had an outsize impact on the entire node. Anyone who doubts it, look at the air quality measurements over Milan the last two weeks.

Evolution has brought us to a point where our potential to live in dynamic equilibrium in this complex network has greatly outstripped our will to do so. We COULD be forming beneficial, comensal relationships with so much other life on this planet. We COULD be creating communities and networks of communities that support and benefit all members, and make the network of life stronger and more resilient.

Our intelligence, our invention, our altruism and compassion are there. Anyone who has felt the warmth and support of an amazing community experience, anyone who has stood on the edge of the Grand Canyon and watched a full moon rise, anyone who has experienced a surprise encounter with a joyful and welcoming cetacean, anyone who has developed a reverence for the divine diversity of life understands the potential rewards of such an existence.

Instead, we have chosen a distorted, pseudo-Darwinian individualism as the lodestar for human culture. We have prioritized hierarchy over collaboration, competition over cooperation. Our concept of "reward" is defined by two things- power and stuff. Neither of which will ever light up with joy at the sight of us entering a room.

And so we have degraded our planet, damaged its web of life, seriously harmed thousands of other strands in the web, to the extent of unbalancing the fundamental sustenance of all life- our climate, our air, our soil, our ecosystems, our water... everything.

But it's a resilient system. Complex, balanced, interwoven. There are millions of paths of impact for every action and reaction. Like all resilient systems, it has self-repair mechanisms.

And so it has, effectively, hit the "reset" button.

To prevent further damage, we need to go back and change system configuration, or we will get more and more Blue Screens at a faster and faster pace.

If we’re LUCKY, this will change our lives forever. It will make us think about how we look after one another, what we prioritize in shaping our economic structures, how we build a reward system that rebalances to “us” rather than “me”, and even redefining “us”.

We have a chance to change the system config.

If we’re smart, we’ll take it.

And yes, it will change our lives forever.