In the decades ahead, we can count on incred­i­ble highs and dev­as­tat­ing lows. Suf­fer­ing occurs on the path to any inno­va­tion or pos­i­tive out­come. An alter­na­tive meta-par­a­digm will come about by deal­ing with its cor­re­spond­ing stress—it’s nat­ur­al, and vital, for the next wave of inno­va­tion to improve upon.

We need to let go of many of the trap­pings of suc­cess that we have come to think would pro­vide improved liv­ing con­di­tions every­where. Our cur­rent era of expo­nen­tial indicators—like Moore’s Law, the the­o­ry that the num­ber of tran­sis­tors on a microchip dou­ble almost every two years—are lead­ing to expo­nen­tial eco­nom­ic suc­cess for those at the top, yet this kind of expo­nen­tial­ly ground­break­ing phe­nom­e­na is not what will cre­ate bet­ter con­di­tions for all peo­ple and the entire planet.

On indi­vid­ual and col­lec­tive lev­els, we can learn to let go of what no longer serves us. A blind faith that tech­nol­o­gy will be our sal­va­tion is one such belief we need to imme­di­ate­ly aban­don. Let­ting go of false assump­tions and reestab­lish­ing the neces­si­ty of human val­ues like respect, sol­i­dar­i­ty, and coop­er­a­tion will allow human­i­ty to reclaim author­i­ty to cre­ate a bet­ter future. By free­ing up con­sid­er­able ener­gy toward this pur­suit, we can bet­ter focus on what res­onates with our intu­itive impuls­es toward well­be­ing. This means plac­ing the intent of the forces with­in us toward con­tribut­ing to a greater good for all to take part in uphold­ing. But that begs an impor­tant ques­tion: How can we acti­vate this deep trans­for­ma­tive potential?

We bear wit­ness to a time of rad­i­cal trans­for­ma­tion through cul­tur­al­ly, soci­etal­ly, and envi­ron­men­tal­ly extreme con­di­tions. With ris­ing exam­ples of author­i­tar­i­an deci­sion-mak­ing, a call to action in sup­port of equal­i­ty and inclu­siv­i­ty must become more ampli­fied. We believe the extreme ten­sion cur­rent­ly being expe­ri­enced will not result in a break­ing point, so much as a mas­sive glob­al shift. This shift will account for a reshap­ing of soci­etal orga­ni­za­tion, main­ly through a dif­fer­ent dis­tri­b­u­tion of wealth. Yet, per­haps the most sig­nif­i­cant shift that will enable all ensu­ing change, will begin with a col­lec­tive shift in consciousness.

From now into 2030, we expect the dis­trust between peo­ple that con­tin­ues to sur­face will con­tin­ue to express itself. Between 2035 and 2050, we expect that the fight for the free­dom to live through authen­tic expres­sions of work­ing in har­mo­ny with one anoth­er and nature, will begin to flour­ish. With this momen­tum, the tran­si­tion to a pos­i­tive meta-par­a­digm of col­lab­o­ra­tive part­ner­ships between indi­vid­u­als, com­mu­ni­ties, com­pa­nies, and even oth­er species, will help renew every imag­in­able rela­tion­ship on our planet.