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INSIGHTS

Understanding Disruption, Convergence, System Change

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We are on the cusp of the fastest, deepest, most consequential transformation of human civilization in history, a transformation every bit as significant as the move from foraging to cities and agriculture 10,000 years ago.

By Rethink X

During the 2020s, key technologies will converge to completely disrupt the five foundational sectors that underpin the global economy, and with them every major industry in the world today. The knock-on effects for society will be as profound as the extraordinary possibilities that emerge.

In information, energy, food, transportation, and materials, costs will fall by 10x or more, while production processes an order of magnitude (10x) more efficient will use 90% fewer natural resources with 10x-100x less waste.

The prevailing production system will shift away from a model of centralized extraction and the breakdown of scarce resources that requires vast physical scale and reach, to a model of localized creation from limitless, ubiquitous building blocks – a world built not on coal, oil, steel, livestock, and concrete but on photons, electrons, DNA, molecules and (q)bits. Product design and development will be performed collaboratively over information networks while physical production and distribution will be fulfilled locally.

As a result, geographic advantage will be eliminated as every city or region becomes self-sufficient. This new creation-based production system, which will be built on technologies we are already using today, will be far more equitable, robust, and resilient than any we have ever seen.

We have the opportunity to move from a world of extraction to one of creation, a world of scarcity to one of plenitude, a world of inequity and predatory competition to one of shared prosperity and collaboration.

This is not, then, another Industrial Revolution, but a far more fundamental shift. This is the beginning of the third age of humankind – the Age of Freedom.

The possibilities that open up in this new age are truly extraordinary. Within 10-15 years, everyone on the planet could have access to the ‘American Dream’ for a few hundred dollars a month. For the first time in history, poverty could be overcome easily.

Access to all our basic needs – food, energy, transportation, information, and shelter – could become a fundamental human right. Armed conflict, often driven by the need to access and control scarce resources, could become largely unnecessary.

Climate change and environmental degradation, caused by production processes that take no account of the destruction they wreak on the natural world, could be overcome by a new production system delivering zero-carbon energy, transportation, and food with marginal waste. This could allow us to restore the integrity of the planet’s natural systems and help mitigate the impact of our unsustainable actions on human health.

We may, ultimately, be able to escape toil and drudgery entirely and, for the first time in history, achieve real freedom – the freedom to spend our time creatively, unburdened by financial precariousness and the need to provide for ourselves and our families. Never before has humanity seen such an astonishing array of possibilities opened up in such a short period of time.

But this future is by no means predetermined. Indeed it cannot be achieved by technological progress alone. History indicates that leading civilizations have evolved ever-greater organizational capabilities in tandem with increased technological capabilities.

While the technological capabilities dictate the potential of any civilization, the Organizing System determines how close to this potential a society can get. The Organizing System encompasses both the fundamental beliefs, institutions, and reward systems that enable optimal decisions to be taken across a society, and the structures that manage, control, govern, and influence its population.

The best combination of technology and Organizing System that is available dictates the winners – for example a city of 10,000 people, such as Sumer, requires very different Organizing System from one of a million people, such as Rome.

Throughout history, 10x advancements in the five foundational sectors have driven the emergence of a new and vastly more capable civilization than any which has come before.

But this has only been possible when combined with vastly improved organizational capabilities. This has always represented a formidable challenge for incumbents, and the lessons of history are sobering – every leading civilization, from Catalhoyuk and Sumer to Babylonia and Rome, has fallen as it reached the limits of its ability to organize society and solve the problems created by its production system.

When these civilizations were threatened with collapse, they looked backwards and attempted to recapture the glory days by patching up their production system and doubling down on their Organizing System rather than adapting. The result was descent into a dark age.

Today, our incumbent leadership in government and industry are making the same mistake. The patterns of history are clear. 

The five foundational sectors, which gave rise to Western dominance starting with Europe in the 1500s and America in the 1900s, will all collapse during the 2020s. These sector disruptions are bookends to a civilization that birthed the Industrial Order, which both built the modern world and destroyed the rest.

Furthermore, we are experiencing rising inequality, extremism, and populism, the deterioration of decision-making processes and the undermining of representative democracy, the accumulation of financial instability as we mortgage the future to pay for the present, ecological degradation, and climate change – all signs that our civilization has reached and breached its limits. The response from today’s incumbents to these challenges – more centralization, more extraction, more exploitation, more compromise of public health and environmental integrity in the name of competitive advantage and growth – is no less desperate than the response from those of prior civilizations who called for more walls, more priests, and more blood sacrifices as they faced collapse.

And this is just the beginning – as new technologies develop apace, their disruptive power will only grow stronger.

Ironically, the same technologies that hold the promise of solving our most pressing problems are also accelerating collapse, challenging the ability of our outdated and increasingly incompatible Organizing System to function.

Indeed we are already seeing the impact of the new, creation-based production system butting up against our increasingly antiquated Organizing System.

The information sector, for example, has already been disrupted. Centralized content production with high costs, high barriers to entry, and narrow distribution channels has given way to billions of producer-consumers generating content at near-zero cost with minimal barriers to entry across a globally-connected network. Alongside the extraordinary benefits it has brought, this emerging production system has also created novel problems which our Organizing System is incapable of understanding or managing.

A few computer hackers in an apartment in one country can hijack another’s governance processes, spread false narratives, polarize public opinion, paralyze decision-making processes, and help enable regime change home and abroad.

Individual nations are no longer able to manage the narrative or control the flow of information.

The upcoming disruptions that will unfold simultaneously in the energy, food, transportation, and materials sectors during the 2020s will present further unprecedented new challenges at the same time as solving old problems.

The choice, therefore, is stark – collapse into a new dark age or move to a new Organizing System that allows us to flourish in a new Age of Freedom.

Such a move will not be easy – we will need to rethink not just the structures and institutions that manage society, but the very concepts they are built on. Representative democracy, capitalism, and nation states may seem like fundamental truths but they are, in fact, merely human constructs that emerged and evolved in an industrial Organizing System. In the new age, they may well become redundant.

For the first time in history, we have not just the technological tools to make an incredible leap in societal capabilities, but the understanding and foresight to see what is coming.

We have the choice, therefore, to avert disaster or not.

We can choose to elevate humanity to new heights and use the upcoming convergence of technology disruptions to end poverty, inequality, resource conflict, and environmental destruction, all for a fraction of the cost we incur dealing with them today.

Or we can choose to preserve the failing status quo and descend into another dark age like every leading civilization before us.

Dark ages do not occur for lack of sunshine, but for lack of leadership. The established centers of power, the U.S., Europe, or China, handicapped by incumbent mindsets, beliefs, interests, and institutions, are unlikely to lead.

In a globally competitive world, smaller, hungrier, more adaptable communities, cities, or states such as Israel, Mumbai, Dubai, Singapore, Lagos, Shanghai, California, or Seattle are more likely to develop a winning Organizing System. They will appear, just like their predecessors, as if from nowhere, with capabilities far beyond those of incumbent leaders. Everyone else could get trampled before they have time to understand what is happening.

The intervening decade will be turbulent.

Destabilized both by technology disruptions that upend the foundations of the global economy and by system shocks from pandemics, geopolitical conflict, natural disasters, financial crises, and social unrest that could lead to dramatic tipping points for humanity including mass migrations and even war. In the face of each new crisis we will be tempted to look backward rather than forward, to mistake ideology and dogma for reason and wisdom, to turn on each other instead of trusting one another.

If we hold strong, we can emerge together to create the wealthiest, healthiest, most extraordinary civilization in history.

If we do not, we will join the ranks of every other failed civilization for future historians to puzzle over. Our children will either thank us for bringing them an Age of Freedom, or curse us for condemning them to another dark age. The choice is ours.

 

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INFO-COMM

The Painful Truth about AI & Robotics

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By 2045, there will be virtually nothing a human can do that a machine cannot to better for a tiny fraction of the cost. A robot that has a lifetime cost of $10,000, works 22 hours per day, and lasts 5 years would have an hourly marginal cost of just 25 cents. And when robots are building all the robots, they will cost a lot less than $10,000.

The marginal cost of labor will plummet toward zero as adoption of humanoid robots powered by increasingly capable AI explodes across every virtually industry worldwide. Humans simply will not be able to compete.

Join Adam Dorr, RethinkX Director of Research as he relays his latest insight on the inevitable and painful truth of the coming disruption of the human labor engine by AI and humanoid robots…

Visit the RethinkX Website for more groundbreaking insights: https://www.rethinkx.com

 

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Connecting the Dots

A Call for Public Media in a Broken Democracy

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Courtesy of Pressenza

To confront the barrage of executive orders and undiplomatic policies from the U.S. government, the opposition is focusing on restoring institutions to their pre-Trump state—without recognizing that it was precisely those institutions that created the conditions for the current crisis.

The democracy they claim to defend was largely formal: it worked for some while leaving millions marginalized. For decades, no serious action was taken to stop the relentless concentration of wealth, the decline in living standards, or the dehumanizing effects of unchecked technological development. These issues remain unaddressed.

Now, the new administration is threatening to cut federal funding for public radio and television, accusing these outlets of being too “leftist” or “woke.”

But perhaps even more revealing than the threat itself is the reaction of public media institutions. WNYC in New York, for example, has leveraged this threat primarily as a fundraising opportunity, urging listeners to donate out of fear rather than conviction.

This response exposes a fundamental contradiction. These institutions speak of “democracy” and “public service,” yet they are unable—or unwilling—to mount a truly democratic response. Why aren’t they calling on people to stand up for public goods? Why not organize a large-scale campaign, like a concert in Central Park, to advocate for a federal public funding system that remains independent of presidential politics? New York has plenty of artists ready to contribute and stand up for others.

The question becomes clear:

Will institutions like WNYC and NPR help advance genuine democracy, or will they gradually transform into privatized versions of non-profit entities? If we want democracy, we need active public participation. If we accept privatization, we merely need people’s money.

Today, there is no visible leadership in our so-called democratic institutions that is mobilizing the population to build a new democratic system—one that addresses economic redistribution and real public participation. This isn’t just about public broadcasting. What future awaits Social Security, Medicare, the U.S. Postal Service, public libraries, and other essential public services?

These institutions cannot be privatized. No modern society can develop without deepening democracy, improving standards of living, and ensuring collective well-being. A society governed primarily by self-interest ultimately undermines itself.

So today, my call is to WNYC and NPR: Please stop trying to merely save yourselves in a collapsing system. Instead, help move the country forward. Mobilize people. Inspire engagement. Become a force in building a new, inclusive society for all.

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INSIGHTS

Flip the Script: An Open Call to Community Leaders Everywhere

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In every corner of the world, communities are confronting intersecting crises: environmental collapse, social injustice, economic inequality, misinformation, and broken systems. But behind the headlines—beyond the noise—a different story is being written.

It’s a story of courage, collaboration, and collective wisdom.
It’s a story that isn’t being told loudly enough.

That’s where you come in.

We are MobilizedNews.com, and this is an open invitation to flip the script—to break free from crisis-driven media loops and become part of a global, cooperative network of community leaders, media makers, and changemakers who are turning knowledge into action and stories into systems change.

 Why “Flip the Script”?

Because we’re tired of narratives that divide, distract, and disempower.
Because we know there’s more to the world than corruption, conflict, and catastrophe.
Because we’ve seen what’s possible when communities lead with ethics, inclusion, and imagination.

“Flipping the script” means reclaiming the narrative—telling the stories that corporate media won’t, and building the systems that status quo institutions can’t.

It means showing what’s working, who’s rising, and how we’re moving forward together.

What Is Mobilized News?

MobilizedNews.com is not just a media platform—it’s a collaborative movement and a living library of solutions, strategies, and shared wisdom.

We connect:

  • Community leaders and organizers
  • Educators, researchers, and policy thinkers
  • Regenerative businesses and cooperatives
  • Artists, journalists, technologists, and designers

Together, we’re co-creating an ethical, decentralized media ecosystem that amplifies truth, fosters cooperation, and spotlights real, systemic solutions—across sectors, cultures, and continents.

What We Offer

✅ A platform to publish your stories, initiatives, and blueprints for change
✅ Access to a growing global network of changemakers and collaborators
✅ Toolkits for ethical storytelling, regenerative systems, and cooperative action
✅ Workshops, events, and live broadcasts that center local voices
✅ A non-commercial, ad-free, community-powered digital commons

Whether you’re launching a circular economy hub, leading a mutual aid network, running a local school garden, or organizing for indigenous land rights—your story matters here.

Who We’re Calling In

  • Neighborhood organizers and social justice leaders
  • Indigenous elders and youth visionaries
  • Local food growers and climate resiliency advocates
  • Co-op builders, educators, and public health champions
  • Tech-for-good creators and ethical journalists
  • Dreamers. Doers. People like you.

You don’t need a fancy press kit or a big budget.
You just need a truth to share—and a will to build.

Get Mobilized

Here’s how to get started:

  1. Visit www.MobilizedNews.com
  2. Create your profile and join a circle of aligned changemakers
  3. Share your work, your insights, your call to action
  4. Collaborate with others—locally and globally
  5. Flip the script—and help rewrite the future

Final Word: This Is the Media We Need

Corporate news thrives on fear.
We thrive on connection, co-creation, and courage.

Mobilized News is the future of media made by and for the people—a place where movements can move together.

So if you’re ready to reclaim the narrative…
If you’re building something rooted in justice, care, and imagination…
If you believe another world is possible—and happening now…

Flip the script. Get Mobilized. Join us.

Mobilized News: The Media for an Empowered World.
www.MobilizedNews.com

 

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