How Far is the “Bright Future”?

[Simone Cicero] : Despite your theories are often referred as radically pessimistic you often evoke a “bright” future ahead of us: why should this future be so bright with the premises we all know? How far from us is this positive future really?

[John Robb] : There is definitely a group of people that can’t imagine a way to live other than how we’ve lived in the last 60 years. They like it and want it to continue as is. To them, a world that doesn’t work nearly the same as it does today must always result in a Zombie Apocalypse.

As a result, anybody that says the system is broken and needs replacement is a pessimist. It also restricts all positive views of the future to mere fixes to the current system (usually through behavioral or technological transformation).

However, I’m a pragmatist and an entrepreneur. I don’t have time to wishful thinking these people engage in. When I see something that’s broken and in decline, I see it as an opportunity to build something better. Something that meets the needs of time. To me, a willingness to recognize reality and build something new is real optimism. I do believe we can build something new and better. Something that works differently but delivers better results.

When will networked resilient communities become commonplace? I suspect we’ll see fully functional community networks with fifteen years. At that point, the quality and abundance of life inside resilient communities and the potential for improvement will greatly outshine what’s left of the “irreplaceable” system we live in today. - John Robb