Project Vision 21

I have a limited understanding of what it means to live in a post-truth era, that is, at a time when we only pay attention to our own ideas and never analyze them. And I also have some understanding of what it means to live in a post-democracy world (many examples around us.) But, what does it mean to live in post-planet era? Is Start Trek becoming a reality?

Perhaps. Or perhaps it is closer than we think. Or perhaps that “future” is already here and we don’t know it. So, what does it mean?

During a recent online presentation, Dr. Otto Scharmer, of MIT and founder of the Precensing Institute, shared three megatrends now impacting “our current collective condition”. Those are the three trends mentioned above.

Scharmer said that post-truth means to live “trapped” inside our own “digital echo chamber”. And post-democracy means “societies breaking apart” and “blaming others”.
I have some understanding of those two trends. But, what about a “post-planet” era? I initially thought that it was about space travel. And I think it is, as we will see below. Yet, according to Scharmer, a post-planet time is not to go to space, but to live unconnected from this planet.

In other words, I feel the race to get space, both by nations and by private companies, from space stations to trips to Mars, is not based on our technology to go to space, but on our desire to leave the planet. But, why should we leave the planet? Is this planet in such a bad situation that we can’t save it?

Sometime ago, a person from a Latin American country told me, “My country is in such bad shape that it will be cheaper to buy a new one than to fix it.” I wonder if this new post-planet era, the one Scharmer describes as a “lost connection”, means that we are becoming aware that it will be “cheaper” to leave our planet than to save it.

Perhaps that’s why Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos are interested in space travel and in colonizing the Solar System. Perhaps that’s why countries and companies want to go to the moon and to Mars. And perhaps that’s why Orion Span has no problems in finding space tourists for the Aurora Space Station, to be launched by 2021.

According to information published by Orion Span last week, 12 days in space will cost $9,5 million. And they are already taking reservations, with a deposit of $80.000. They expect for the Aurora Station to eventually become a condominium in space, with people living in Aurora and buying, selling, and renting apartments at the space station.

So, is the post-planet era only for multimillionaires who can afford to pay their tickets out of this planet?

It is frightening to think we are about to witness a “technological rapture” taking a few selected ones to the “heavens”, while the rest of us will be left behind, facing the tribulations of this “abandoned” planet.