The Neonaissance

The choice now facing America’s four generations ultimately comes down to a single question: What kind of future do we want to bequeath to our kids and grandkids?  We can continue with the behaviors that have produced the Titanicity – the convergence of the Technological and Climatic Singularities.  We can accept the unconsidered introduction of super-capable machines (SCMs) and the near universal unemployment that will cause, and we can ignore the unconstrained devastation of our home planet and the near universal ruination that will result.  Or, we can make the difficult decisions and take the uncomfortable steps required to change those behaviors and reset both the American world of work and the way we care for the Earth.  We can invent a new American experience. 

There is no minimizing just how tough that choice will be.  It will force us to weigh life and business as usual against a future that is profoundly different and unusual.  It will set up a stark comparison between the comfort and ease of what is familiar and the discomfort and even fear generated by what is unfamiliar.  And yet, living with unfamiliarity is an integral part of our nation’s genome.  We created a democratic form of government that had never before existed among the peoples of the Earth.  We explored and settled a new frontier and took humankind’s first steps on a celestial body beyond our own.  Americans don’t shy away from the unfamiliar, but we do have to believe that the effort involved in passing through it will be worthwhile.  We must be absolutely certain that the sacrifice and commitment required to tame the unknown will produce something better, far better than what we had before.

Establishing the world’s first democracy created an imperfect union but one that was nevertheless devoted to Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.  Settling the new frontier created a nation of almost endless bounty amidst a breathtaking tableau of natural beauty.  Landing an American on the moon provided a glorious example of what can be accomplished when the power of science is melded to the imagination and courage of individual men and women.  And, overcoming the Titanicity – transforming the Technological and Climatic Singularities into passages of great human accomplishment – will produce an extraordinary new era in history.  By once again taking on the unfamiliar, Americans will introduce the Neonaissance (neo nay sance) – a “new birth” for humankind and the opening of the Age of Self-Ennoblement.

This era will be founded on two historic commitments:

• First, it will recognize that intelligent technology can only be introduced in a way that both improves the productivity of commercial enterprises and advances the quality of life for individual Americans if it is accompanied by a fundamental resetting of the country’s economic and social structures.

The pace of development in intelligent technology will be too fast for humans to reeducate and reskill themselves for the new jobs the technology creates.  Employers will fill the vacuum with yet more SCMs, leading within decades to the end of paid work and near universal unemployment.

To ensure the American people can continue to meet their basic and psychological needs, the federal government will have no choice but to introduce a Universal Human Initiative, funded in large measure by a tax on the artificial intelligence systems that companies will employ to replace working men and women.  This commitment will provide both universal healthcare and a universal basic income, not as a supplemental form of financial support – employer’s paychecks will have disappeared so there will be nothing to supplement – but instead to provide every American with a middle class standard of living as a right of citizenship.

• And second, it will acknowledge that the continuing growth of the human population and the economic development of its communities can only unfold in a way that avoids irreversibly harming the Earth if each and every person works to protect and preserve its air, land and water.

The unabated pollution of the biosphere and in particular the accelerating rise of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere will provoke a new norm of severe weather, injuring or even killing millions of Americans, damaging or destroying their homes and businesses and subjecting them to unending emotional and psychological stress.

To repair the damage already done to the Earth and avoid the nightmare of a hothouse planet in the future, the federal government will have no choice but to launch a Universal Earth Initiative, funded by the introduction of a carbon tax as well as increased tax revenues from higher productivity among SCM-enabled companies and a higher marginal rate for the wealthy.  This commitment will introduce a universal service obligation among all young Americans to contribute to the planet’s defense by working on projects that will reduce global warming and preserve and protect the Earth’s natural beauty.

These two commitments will position Americans to achieve a heretofore unimaginable state.  They will open the door to Unconditional Actualization For All.  Just as Unconditional Surrender served as the vision for victory in World War II – the end state the country could rally around – this ideal provides both the justification for and the final outcome of the nation’s passage through the challenge of unfamiliarity and change.  It is the animating purpose and defining benefit of the Neonaissance.

The Renaissance looked backward to the ideals of Greece and Rome for its inspiration.  Its philosophers and scholars, artists and sculptors took that earlier period’s concept of humanism and extended it to create the exemplar of a “universal man,” a figure of great intellectual and physical prowess.  The Neonaissance will look forward to realize a more fulsome expression of America’s democratic birthright and thereby introduce a “noble person,” one with the drive to reach for the epitome of being human – self-actualization.  The great artistic and scientific accomplishments of the Renaissance were produced by a select few.  The extraordinary advances in every field of human endeavor brought on by the Neonaissance will be created by all the people of America.

To fulfill that role, to establish that legacy for our kids and grandkids, today’s four American generations will have to reimagine how we can imbue our lives with purpose and worth.  We will have to dedicate ourselves to the discovery and development of the talent with which we are each endowed – our inherent capacity for excellence – and to the application of that capability in the service of others and our home planet.  Without the daily obligation of nonvoluntary work, we will be able to devote ourselves to missions we consider meaningful and important and from that experience we can attain fulfillment, the essence of self-actualization.  That state is something only humans can experience.  No other species and certainly no machine – regardless of its intelligence – can be fulfilled.  It is our defining attribute, and it is what grants us our nobility.

Nobility in America, however, will be unlike that in every other country where it currently exists or ever has.  It will not be reserved for some small and select group of people.  It will not be defined by hereditary or bestowed titles.  And, it will not wear a crown.  American nobility will be self-defined, self-achieved and self-celebrated.  By making the choice to overcome the Titanicity – by launching a campaign of both human and biospheric actions to resolve the mega-crises of the Technological and Climatic Singularities – America will establish the first noble democracy in history.  It will open the Neonaissance as a time of fulfillment for all, an era when every man and woman is empowered and encouraged not to be simply who they are, but instead to become the best of which they are capable.