Just like AI, the tools, actions, rules and infrastructure of tomorrow will be good or bad for us depending upon who and what is in control

Perhaps the greatest disadvantage from the absence of critical thinking as we try to absorb the constant flow of information from the world, is the assumption that words, ideas, actions, rules and tools of any and all kinds that we associate with anyone or anything that we do not like are automatically worthless. And that as damaged goods, they cannot be used for any purpose that we might consider to be correct.

This is an enigma that has significant cost for everyone. Not least of all as politicians and those with their hands on the levers of power have been consumed by this dangerous lack of objectivity too.

In a period of human history where lies, myths and narratives rule our lives, and the absence of original thinking is being excused by the manipulative story that in the near future, ‘thinking’ is something that only the new generations of AI will do, the information overload from digital devices certainly compounds the terror of anyone who tries to wrestle with solutions for the future in the same breath. Often finding themselves concluding that what we are experiencing today, is the only way.

That not-so-obvious feeling of isolated helplessness is real to many. It is no small part of the reason that ‘populism’ has been gaining momentum in the ways that it has.

People feel alone and under threat, without doing a thing wrong. Worst of all, People genuinely believe that those who should be looking after them are actually acting against them.

Yet these imposters seem to stubbornly able to remain in control.

When terms such as Great Reset, Net Zero, Sustainable Development Goals and the many straplines and sub-versions of these same narratives (like Local Traffic Neighbourhoods or ‘LTNs’) come flying out from International Organisations, Government, Councils, the Public Sector, NGOs and even Big business, it is as such unsurprising that very few People outside of them could believe that there is anything good for anyone other than the elites and beneficiaries contained within.

The problem the fear of normal People is creating, is we cannot see that many of the things that in the hands of greedy, selfish or bad people, that will certainly be used to hurt and control us, could also be highly beneficial and promote freedom and much better lives for everyone, IF they are driven and motivated by good leaders instead.

Sustainability today is all about societal control to benefit the few. In Our Local Future, Sustainable Living is a tool of liberation and freedom for ALL

Appreciating the difference in outcomes from using the same tools, actions, rules and infrastructure differently, isn’t the easiest idea for many to get their head around.

Many genuinely overlook the reality that the different uses of different things are hiding in plain sight. Depending upon what our experience or interpretation of them has or will be.

For example, a knife can be a tool for food preparation in the hands of a chef. Just as a knife can be a weapon in the hands of a violent criminal.

A rule can be used to stop one group of people from expressing their feelings, thoughts and fears about a certain issue. Whilst that very same rule can be reinterpreted to allow another group to express whatever they want to, whilst encouraging them to criticise the group that the rule has been used to ‘close down’ and control’.

Likewise, AI could be one of the greatest tools ever created to improve and benefit life for all of mankind. Or it will be used to destroy employment opportunities, devalue human life, and as a tool of fear and control – as will be the outcome from what businesses and government are doing and saying right now.

Reinterpretation of what is important. Rediscovering Values and Changing the way that We Think

Yes, it is exceptionally difficult to see that so much good can be hidden behind so much that we now know to be bad.

But darkness is always extinguished by light. And this is perhaps the simplest way to begin thinking about using much of what we have available to us today, for the better of everyone, by using it in Our Local Future in a very different way.

We don’t need to travel across the world, to have our own car, to have the latest fashion or gadget, to have a big public following, or to have anything that makes us believe we are better than others in some way, to have great lives and great experiences that are available to All.

Happiness is a gift that comes from within. It is an experience that can never be bought.

Sadly, the Old World of today is completely obsessed with making profit. Whilst nobody with responsibility has stopped to calculate the real cost.