Europe in The Now: A Hopeful Fiction

Here’s a future news story we may read someday:
The awakening of consciousness has a new ally, Rick Steves. The entertaining and eloquent host of the show “Rick Steves’ Europe” is teaming up with Eckhart Tolle and Oprah Winfrey to create a show called “Europe in The Now”.

Rick Steves

Rick Steves

Steves who describes himself as “fanatically positive and militantly optimistic” already embodies many of the personality traits associated with living consciously and mindfully. As an author, TV & radio host, business owner and NORML board member, he has a large following of individuals attracted to his positive energy. “Rick can reach a particularly receptive audience to these messages”, said one producer.

The new show retraces some of Ricks travels through Europe with an emphasis on lessons learned from history about living in a more conscious way. Eckhart Tolle, Oprah Winfrey and others will join Rick for dinners and discussions about the evolution of consciousness in a historical context at locations around Europe. Parts of the show will be filmed in front of audiences and double as helpful seminars on mindful living. “Europe in The Now” will air on most PBS stations and Oprahs’ networks.

 

More Inventions We Would Like to See

Who knows what the future will bring. But here are a few more inventions that I wouldn’t mind seeing.

Grow Your Own Home
Archer Daniels Midland is getting into the housing market. Utilizing expertise gained from genetic engineering in the farming industry, they’ve come up with fully organic homes. Fruits and vegetables grow inside on the walls. And in a pinch, yes, the walls are edible too.

organic-house

The house feeds on sunlight, compost, your waste and CO2. The roof grows over time to maximize solar intake and rain water capture. It even heals when cracked or broken. The electricity captured by the modified chlorophyll gets converted to usable voltage via cells grown from electric eel DNA.  Plumbing is taken care of by a series of “bladders” and “stomachs”. The bladders hold water and the stomachs purify used water and waste into pure H20 which is then pumped back into a bladder. Housing extensions or extra rooms will be grown on farms, made to order. Attachment is easy because the organic walls grow together when in contact with one another

All you will need is a plot of land, some water, and a seed. A typical seed takes 5 years to grow into a standard 4 bedroom, 2.5 bath house. If you want to spend extra, you can purchase fertilizer that quadruples the growth rate.

 

The Google Presidential B.S. Meter
With the presidential election in full swing, it is only fitting that Google would release its latest breakthrough. It’s called the Fact Finding Heuristic Algorithm. Also known as, the Presidential B.S Meter.

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Here is how it works: It scans every instance of a candidate speaking, their posted writings and what other people say about the candidate. The algorithm then determines how many times the candidate had conflicting statements and gives you details. Utilizing facial microexpression technology, the system also gives you extensive statistics on every speech and interview telling you how many times it detected the candidate lying.

 

Tuneable Magnets
Scientists have figured out a way to make magnets that they can tune to attract/repel nearly any substance. Most people are familiar with magnets attracting metal. But now, magnets can be tuned to attract or repel plastic, glass, air and organic materials. The number of applications are astounding.

Tuneable Magnet Repels Ground

Tuneable Magnet Repels Ground

Those long sought after hovercrafts could soon be a reality. Attaching magnets to the bottom of any vehicle and setting them to repel the ground provides lift. Or imagine you need to hang something on your wall. No need to make a hole, no need for adhesive that will eventually fail. Simply tune the magnet to bind to your wall and you are done. Companies such as Waste Management will be able to integrate these magnets into their sorting facilities. Thereby, eliminating the need for recyclable materials to be separated by consumers before disposal. A magnet that attracts plastic could also be helpful in removing the large amounts of plastic in our oceans.

 

Follow Up Post on Dysons Spheres

In March 2013 I wrote an entry here called “A Few Dyson Spheres in Every Galaxy“. A few days ago there was an article about KIC 8462852, or Tabby’s star. There is a mystery as to what is causing the star light to partially blink at regular intervals. They have ruled out obvious candidates such as planets, comets or other natural astronomical phenomenon. Some scientists  are playing with the idea that we may have discovered our first Dysons Sphere.

Dysons Sphere

Dysons Sphere

What Mental Operating System Do You Use? Eckhart Tolle 101

When talking about the future many of us concentrate on technology. The most profound breakthroughs will probably come from innovations to how we manage our internal mind states. If you think about it, everything in our modern world is a result of the thoughts that led to actions in the minds of people. We create the world around us. That world reflects the inner state of the collective consciousness which itself is a collection of individual mind states.

Just as literacy was quite uncommon centuries ago, so too are ways of managing your internal mind state. Otherwise known as your Mental Operating System. It’s a loose analogy to a computer operating system that manages files on your hard drive. Some operating systems are more efficient than others. Some operating systems are more user-friendly…and so on.  Our brains/minds are more complex than the most sophisticated super computers. Yet, very few of us have any training on how to manage this complexity. Fortunately, the knowledge exists and has existed for thousands of years. Like the spread of literacy, is it reaching the masses. It’s know by many names: a new consciousness, awakening, enlightenment, spiritualism…..a new “mental operating system” for us techies. Imagine something like a factory reset button for your mind where you remember the knowledge but let go of all the useless files, junk mail, spam, recycle bin contents, pain etc. What you are left with is a clean, efficient, more benevolent to yourself and others, internal mind state.

At the forefront of this is Eckhart Tolle. Oprah Winfrey has called him a “rock star” of sorts. Progressive companies such as Google have had him as a special guest speaker for their employees. See the talk below.

There are more in depth talks by Eckhart Tolle available on Youtube and on his site

Happier people being kind to one another and progressing in a way with very little conflict does not make for a good scifi action movie. However, it would amount to one of mankind’s greatest achievements.

 

Follow Up Post on Clouds Showing Climate Change

Back in February 2013, one of the first posts I made was in regards to clouds showing signs of climate change. http://thehumblefuturist.com/do-the-clouds-forecast-climate-change/

At that time there was no proof and I was hoping that the process might take centuries to unfold. However, a recent study published in Nature verified that, in fact, the clouds are now showing signs of climate change. http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature18273.html

nature18273-f1

The image above shows change in observed and simulated cloud amount and albedo between the 1980s and 2000s.