Globe of Villages

Translated draft of a text by Franz Nahrada, on the topic of an emerging 'utopia' of networked global villages.

Provided in January 2023.

Franz explains:

"The following text was edited by Thomas Diener based on original ideas of Franz Nahrada, but also merged, amended and supplemented with some specific timeline assumptions which try to introduce a credible historical dynamic."

Text

Franz Nahrada:

We need narratives that motivate us to act.

We always recognize times of upheaval by an increase in doomsday scenarios.

In fact, we are currently experiencing an inflation of dystopias. The dimension "future" has dramatically shrunk. This results in paralysis. What we urgently need today is an attractive image for the era that is to follow the industrial age, together with a narrative that describes a viable path to get there. The following text is an attempt to provide the frame of a new utopian narrative.

Many people today are convinced that we are living at an epochal crossroads, in a "Great Transformation." We believe, with Peter Pogany, in the need to transform the "chaos of the present" constructively through a new "strong multilateralism" or "Global System 3" (https://wiki.p2pfoundation.net/Peter_Pogany), although we see this global system change not only based in the reemergence of cultures and socio - cultural thinking, but also in radical decentralisation

The following Future Draft (TD) builds a bridge to science, which not only addresses our restrictions, but also our room to maneuver in the "Anthropocene". In that sense, it is about science fiction in the best sense. We want to have the possibility space close to reality and yet far ahead of todays limited prspectives.

The world in 2170

- The main story (new actual time) takes place in a world that is far enough away from today to be utopian, but close enough to still evoke memories of today. We go about 150 years into the future, or about 5 generations.

- Global warming has continued for a long time. The sea level has risen by x meters ( "x" means: we still need scientific input...to build a realistic scenario.), the map of the earth therefore a different one than today. The average temperature has risen by 3 degrees increased. Vast areas of land have changed their character and are partly no longer habitable for many mammals. The diversity of species has further decreased. The earth's population has decreased by x.

This sounds like a distopic scenario. A painless transition would seem seem too idyllic and naïve from today's point of view. At the moment, we are heading unchecked into catastrophe, and a scenario with a warming of 3 degrees seems rather optimistic. In terms of climate change, for example, we can imagine the following: The predictions of the research were too cautious, the heating was first stronger than the rather cautious forecasts of climate of climate research (so much for "prophets of doom"). But how quickly even small changes could destabilize our extremely interconnected and maximized economic system, was also surprising. Just think of the impact of the low water level in the Rhine or the impact of the Corona virus on globalized logistics. Another crisis on the scale of the banking crash of 2008 could not cushion the global economy. The recession that emerged in 2031 was more effective in curbing CO2 emissions than all previous regulatory efforts.

Regional structures - from the margins of society now almost in the mainstream - were, however, fortunately already tightly woven. The recession therefore was not a depression everywhere. Initiatives that a hundred years earlier could still be mercilessly stopped (e.g., "the miracle of Wörgl") quickly spread across entire regions this time. spread. A part of the population was thus rather inspired than depressed. And this had amazing overall effects,

- Humanity as a whole has learned from its mistakes and has gone through a phase of active "reparation." Reforestation, rescue and nurturing of nearly extinct animal and species and other global efforts have largely stabilized the biosphere and contributed to a new global consciousness.

- Capitalism has perished in crisis; humanity, in a sense, has emerged from the hypnotic fixation of a global megamachine. destroying all living structures.

- In the new "actual time" (around 2070), more than 80% of humanity lives in relatively self-sufficient communities, villages and small towns, which act more or less networked on different levels. Energy and and material cycles are to a high degree locally and regionally closed and sustainable. Working with nature is generally experienced as more satisfying and meaningful than fighting against it.

- With the megamachine (The term megamachine was coined by Lewis Mumford in his work The Myth of the Machine and taken up by Erich Fromm and Rudolf Bahro, among others. ) has also put an end to the breathless rush and acceleration that has captivated mankind since the industrialization. Genuine creativity, mindfulness and inner development take on a new significance.

- Communities liberated in their self-development develop a multitude of new living structures and cultures and in turn enable innumerable new development opportunities for individuals.

- Philosophically, his new world stands on a new foundation. From the ontology of the mega-machine, that of the unifying system, thinking shifted and now revolves around concepts such as: living structures, freedom, multiplicity and hermeticism.

- The poles "local" and "global" are restructured in it. Global no longer means forcing everything local into a comprehensive horizon. Precisely because all local structures are societally released and empowered into their self-development, the global consensus is that each culture can only be understood from within and not and not from the outside.

- Overarching values such as: Humanity, freedom and justice remain globally valid. However, these concepts can be so differently concretized in each local domain that they appear as contradictions in the comparison between cultures. The idea of an absolute truth and especially the idea that it is legitimate to spread it with force ("western value community") has been abandoned in favor of many concrete truths. Concreteness has become a key word of the new age.

- Technologically, the world has developed only to a limited extent. Drivers of technological development, such as the industrial-military complex, as well as the large corporations, have dissolved or been disintegrated in the turmoil of the transition period. In the new, small-scale structures, technology takes on a playful playful touch and a human dimension. Interest has largely shifted to biological fields and into the study of consciousness.

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The history of "GLOBE OF VILLAGES" (in short lines)

2020 - 2030

Much continues as before. Whereby crises like Corona or now currently the war in the Ukraine, already at the beginning of the 2020s these events testify to great upheavals. Democracy will become even more become a staged pectacle. Globally, the trend toward totalitarianism continues. Surveillance and control are being expanded. At the moment, events are coming to a head. Corona was still an virtually unknown virus in China when I started this text in late 2019.

Thomas Diener writes: The following text I wrote a week before the war in Ukraine started:

Europe will become aware, after the sanctions against Russia and the thereby effected Russian dependence on China, that it no longer makes sense to use China and many countries of the South as a workbench. As a result, Europeans are becoming somewhat more modest, but bring the key technologies, solar, wind and also computer technology / chip production / production back to Europe and invest in a circular economy and the expansion of democracy in order to democracy to become a credible counterweight to autocratic states and systems.

The necessary solidarity within Europe takes away the wind out of the sails of national right-wing authoritarian movements. At the same time we credibly support democratic structures and fair economic exchange with other countries without looking first to our own advantage. "We" can afford to do this because we are still rich enough and can live with a little less material prosperity - if it is fairly distributed - we can still live well or even better overall.

But alternatives at the margins of society are also growing: urban gardening, food coops, CSA farms, permaculture projects, regional energy initiatives, etc.

The effects of global warming are becoming more and more apparent. There is a lot of talk, but hesitancy to act. CO2 free technologies (renewable energies, storage technology, hydrogen) are being greatly expanded, but they mainly meet the additional needs of global growth rather than stopping the rebound effects.

From the logic of the mega-machine, further technical solutions to the problems are being developed and propagated. Geoengineering is being seriously considered. Fears of the future are exploited by populist politicians for their own purposes.

However, resistance to this is becoming increasingly radicalized. More and more new movements in the style of Extinction Rebellion are emerging. An interesting new group is beginning to reach people who have previously tended to support right-wing populist parties. The medium for this is "doing less talking: active support for the development of regional structures that can help the "outcasts" find fields of activity.

2030 - 2040

This period marks the beginning of the great thirty-year crisis. The global financial system collapses.

There are places where total destructive chaos erupts, others where totalitarianism tries to maintain order with an even harder hand, but also regions that are creatively deal with the collapse because enough alternative forces were already in place.

Mankind comes under pressure from various sides. Famines due to decreasing soil fertility, explosive spread of pests in monocultures, droughts and floods, huge migration movements, pan-resistant germs, large-scaleforest fires, the collapse of entire ecosystems, and other catastrophes are undermining the confidence in the problem-solving competence of a consciousness dominated by technical thinking. A part of the population is driven even more strongly into a self-centered delusion, at the same time we are witnessing an explosion of solidarity and compassion and an opening of the consciousness for living connections.

2040 - 2050

The new world structure with a patchwork of failed states, authoritarian and still functioning totalitarian entities and relatively autonomous and free regions. The autonomous regions are beginning to network, but are partly militarily controlled by totalitarian states and by chaos at their edges. The networking of the regions sparks off a dynamic that is slowly giving a new impetus to the awareness of solidarity and freedom.

2050 - 2060

The effects of climate heating continue to increase, although CO2 emissions have fallen sharply since the crisis. After all, the CO2 is still in the atmosphere and various feedback loops continue.

From the failed states and totalitarian regimes, more and more people are streaming into the autonomous regions and are also welcomed there by the majority. This "vote by the feet" finally causes most of the totalitarian states to give in and leads to a world federation that ushers in a new global age.

2060 - 2070

The GLOBE OF VILLAGES as a new lived "world constitution" begins to establish itself.

The determining consciousness structure of humans changes thereby fundamentally. Just as the "Man of the Middle Ages" experienced and classified the world quite differently than the "Man of the modern times," the majority now thinks, feels and acts differently. The awareness of interrelationships, the empathy for others, the respect for the biosphere, the relativity of the ego becomes the collective level of consciousness

2070 - 2080

The period between 2070 - 2120 goes down in history as the time of the great restoration. An entire generation is devoted primarily to the restoration of ecosystems. A new biological thinking and acting in which the inner and outer nature is developed in a concreative manner consolidating the collectively achieved level of human consciousness.

2080 - 2090

2090 - 2100

2100 - 2110

2110 - 2120

2120 - 2130

The Earth has ecologically reached a new, relatively stable equilibrium. In retrospect, the industrialization is described as a dark age in which mankind succumbed to a collective delusion. delusion.

Technology - still important - tends to be structured on a small scale and embedded in biological contexts and thus more cleverly and prudently designed.

The damage of the past epoch is still visible and the loss of biodiversity is final.

definitive. The small-scale, garden-like landscapes in which nature and culture live in an intensive live in an intensive symbiosis, however, raise ecosystems to a new level.

Regions released into their autogenesis, develop a diversity of living communities with partly highly specialized structures

2130 - 2140

Strong regionalisation and people's desire for creative development in manageable structures promotes the diversity of local cultures. The communities of the world miiror a plethora of human development possibilities. With this comes the catch that they are also becoming more and more incomprehensible from the outside. But the new element shaping these local cultures is that that the dynamic that we know from closed societies in the past - that individual possibilities for development are often falling under the wheels is now well-understood in each and every culture.. In order to remain transparent and to enable individuals to develop beyond the limitations of the individual communities, maybe find their "resonance points" somewhere else et vice versa, an overarching culture of "wandering" is developing. Young people leave their communities - sometimes they find themselves in the confrontation with a multitude of sometimes contradictory social life plans - and they need to figure out where they really belong.

2150 - 2160

The earth's population has meanwhile declined to the level of 1950 (2.5 billion). This decline is not only due to the crisis of 100 years ago with its dramatic effects, but to the but to the stable period that followed, in which the average number of children per woman has levelled off at two.

2160 - 2170

The plot "actual time" for the first intensive narrative phase is the year 2169.

The culture of wandering has arrived in the second generation. The novel "gaia in colors" is set here.

Why, How, What for?

The attempt of "realistic-utopian" worldbuilding - the world in the year 2170

What is worldbuilding ?

We are surrounded by more or less successful "fantasy industries", which have enormous influence on the way people perceive the socio-economic structures of the world or .

Wether Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings", Star Wars, Star Trek, Expanse, ..., world building is becoming increasingly popular and the "grand narratives" have an identity-forming and structuring effect, or at least allow people to identify with archetypes or cultural clichés. It is interesting to see them constantly updated in order to remain alive - almost competing for attention and attraction.

It is time to bring together the different ideas of the change movement in such a draft for the future - to keep our own identity alive in times of overwhelming societal regression. We are creating a space for complementing imaginations which allows us to simulate solutions for the manifold problems we are confronted with.

This blueprint for the future should become a common good, like free software it should give creative authors the space to update it with ever new works and ideas.

- Within the framework of worldbuilding in the GLOBE OF VILLAGES there is of course room for astounding technical innovations that - when they leave the framework of a hermetic world - are incorporated into the framework of the global narrative. (time before this innovation and time after).

The framework "GLOBE OF VILLAGES " is open to very different narrative structures

- The grand epic narrative of the struggle between "good" and "evil" can describe the time of the turmoil which leads into the age of the GLOBE OF VILLAGES. Also in the new actual time stories are possible in which a community tries to revive the power of the old mega-machine, or a large meteorite threatens the earth.

- Equally possible are developmental novels that tell of the struggles and doubts of self-discovery. Young people wandering through different, sometimes whimsical whimsical hermetic worlds.

- But also crime novels in one of these special worlds, conflicts between very different communities with very different structures or love stories along the lines of Romeo and Juliet. Even allegorically or philosophically inspired texts can be well integrated into the grand narrative.

The goal

"GLOBE OF VILLAGES " thus becomes a label that allows excursions into a relatively consistent future desig. Novels, short stories, comics, films and computer games are all ways of bringing the ideas into the world. The result is a concrete utopian world in which many can participate and which can become an attractor for different people.

Open Franchise

The core of the GLOBE OF VILLAGES as an organisation could be formed by a group of people, who watches over the relative consistency and development of the framework. It owns the rights to the brand "GLOBE OF VILLAGES " and licenses works published under this label.

There are still many details to be clarified, including the fair distribution of the economic results. I would like to follow the example of open source software and look for a licence that allows creative freedom and commercial success.

Further activities

Educational activities such as future workshops and other formats at schools or in adult education are also conceivable.

mixed questions/thoughts (collection in progress)

- Mankind has developed a number of high-risk technologies that cannot simply be switched off. . What happens in times of turmoil with ABC warfare agents and nuclear power plants? How will later generations deal with this legacy?

- Changes usually happen from the margins. Although I see Europe as the most hopeful region to deal constructively with the turmoil, I believe that powerful impulses will come from Africa, Latin America and Asia.

- On the subject of population growth: https://www.zeit.de/2014/07/szenario-schrumpfendeweltbevoelkerung/seite-3

- Linking celestial phenomena with crises on earth is an old tradition of humanity. Perhaps we should let the crisis begin in 2029. https://futurezone.at/amp/science/asteroid-kommt-erde-so-nah-dass-man-ihn-mit-freiemauge-sehen-kann/40048153