It’s always easier to marshall one’s forces when there is an external threat. The problem with America is the threat is now within itself. The threat is because many refuse to acknowledge the need for change. Exponential technology change is inevitable. Unfortunately, the needed change must be from within our inner mental models.
During WW2, women who had previously been marginalized in the workforce become the manufacturing engine that lead to the country to victory in WW2. As Rommel had warned, prior to the Normandy invasion, “In a man on man fight between comparable opponents, the winner is he who has put one more bullet through the barrel.” He was alluding to the importance on logistics and hence manufacturing to win wars.
This is hard to do for the adult mind. So we must depend on our children. Our investments for our future must be spent on our children and not on preparing for the kinds of war that doesn’t exist anymore. Let’s stop investing in horse-drawn artillery and instead invest more in more adaptive, resourceful and innovative citizenry. This is what happened in WW2, we discarded the past, placed our faith in our people and constructed a new future. We need to do the same again with the emergence of an AI driven economy.
That is, given that our minds are formed through a constructive process and that we need to transcend our static mental models of the “natural order of things”, we must prioritize the nurturing of adaptive and fluid minds in our children. Adaptive and fluid minds are not confused when they discover something new. They are on the contrary, inquisitive and willing to break their existing models so as to achieve an enlightened understanding. Civilization can only make progress if we have these kinds of minds that are comfortable with exponential change.
- More here from Carlos E. Perez
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