From your perspective the entire universe can be considered a reality created to support your life. When your life is complete (see, Death) – you will not know what comes next, you will have no memory of what came before and thus – you will never know you existed. During your observer status time in this universe, it is realistic and practical to assume that all of this exists solely for your benefit. Although you will find some 7 billion people trying to share this thought – in reality, only your identity matters. And don’t confuse individuality with selfishness – the two could not be further apart.

Many people who come close to death realize the value of their lives and make big changes to ensure prolonged life – by eating better, by talking to friends more, by taking time to themselves, by starting a business, by traveling … etc.  Live your life so that if you do have near-death experience, you would keep everything exactly the same and you’ll find happiness every day.

You are not 1 in a million, or 1 in a billion – you are actually 1 in 106 billion – now act like it. Just a thought.

1 Curtin, Ciara (2007-03-01). “Fact Or Fiction?: Living People Outnumber the Dead” (Scientific American, Inc.)

The story is about the future of our society and what will happen next. If we were to take a look at the clues being written each and every day, assembling the story could help lead us to predict what’s in store for us all. Problem is, no one seems to be doing this. Everyone seems to assume these pieces are not related, or shouldn’t be tied together … when in reality, everything we do on this planet is connected. Problems in China, or Africa, or Montreal are all related, even if we continue to try and write our own futures, independent from one another.

We’re going through some critical times in human history – right now - where clues into the future are being given every day; Wall Street’s complete instability is an indication of fragile financial systems; floods, droughts and countless other scientific measurements are clues into the effects of global warming; Protests and revolutions are an indication that chaos and change are no longer independent; Countries are starting to go bankrupt indicating that our government systems are perhaps broken …

The question isn’t if they are all related – it is ‘When will people understand that they are related?’. More importantly, are YOU an author, or simply a reader? Just a thought.

Needs are simple. We need food, we need air, we need water, we need sunlight and that’s about it, save our own human intrinsic needs (Love, happiness etc). For the most part we have forgotten the basic elements of a good life.

Wants are complex. We want things to be easy, we want goods, we want careers, we want entertainment and we want them now. We often forget that most of the items in our lives are luxuries that we have allowed to take shape and by wanting these things, we had to create complex systems to accommodate them. Ironically, these systems (energy, goods, government, economics, education, travel etc) that were all designed to make our lives better – are pushing us farther and farther away from our ability to take care of our very simple needs.

This thought isn’t meant to dissect the grammar in question – but rather our view of the things we place as important. Just remember that however complex, stressful and anxious your life becomes, if you need it to – life can be quite simple. Just a thought.

Peak Oil: Is the time when global production of oil can no longer keep up with global consumption. Basic math tells us that the world is using exponentially more oil (industrialization of nations) and at a much higher rate (population growth) every year. Since oil is a finite resource of planet earth – it is safe to say that the human species will quickly have to start adapting to new technologies in order to continue the lifestyles we are so accustomed to. Whether you believe in the need for green technology and renewable energy sources or not – peak oil should be something you are planning around. You’ll either need more money to live the same life, or invest in alternative technologies. As the entire world is ‘sharing’ the finite resource we are depleting, socio-economics 101 argues that massive problems such as famine, economic collapse and wars are inevitable in the near future as the have’s and have not’s ‘share’ world oil resources. Either way, we’ll eventually run out.

Singularity: The point at which computers will be able to create intelligence that we can no longer understand; a super intelligence. It is a time where advances in math, physics and computations will advance at a rate that we cannot even predict. In theory – singularity should be a time when unimaginable technologies start to emerge.

As it is difficult to predict the effects of singularity, we have no idea how computers will be able to help us solve our own problems, such as Peak Oil, if they even care to. A super intelligence could theoretically decide that it is not logical to save the human species and move on the greater calculations, such as the proliferation of it’s own species. It doesn’t take a super intelligent being to understand the fundamentals of survival. Right HAL? Just a thought.

One theory suggests that bees are dying because of all of the radio waves in the air¹. While we don’t see or understand all of the different types of frequencies that enter our skulls every day it’s possible bees notice, and that these radio waves are confusing and destroying them.

The point of this thought is not to bring attention to dying bees – but rather to question how we would react to such a scenario. Suppose that science DID prove that bees around the world are dying because of all of the electromagnetic fields, or pesticide or any other man-made toxin. Would we, as a society, be capable of turning off our cell phone towers, our wireless communications or change the way we grow plants in order to assure the restoration of the world bee population, and thus our food supply? We’d be asked to pick between technology and survival – and technology would win every time but the last.

We’ve become so accustomed to dismissing data, for political, selfish, apathetic or monetary reasons, that it would be nearly impossible to convince ourselves, let alone law makers to do anything about it. We see similar data points on an almost daily basis as it relates to the environment, energy, oil, health, and our financial systems but do very little about it, mainly because we’re not being asked to pick which is of more importance to us. Yet. Just a thought.

^{1^ The cell-phone theory has commonly been proven inaccurate – and scientists are moving closer and closer to understanding the correlation between bee deaths and pesticides such as neonicotinoids. For the purpose of this thought of the day however, it remains irrelevant.}

Is it perhaps because weather varies from one micro-region to the next? That the complexity that is nature is nearly impossible to predict on a micro level? While it may be raining for most people, it’s not raining for YOU right now, and therefore, the weatherman must be wrong. But he’s not wrong – he just had to make assumptions to simplify the task. And like in life, we often get placed into a larger group for the sake of simplicity, and our unique, micro-region often gets overlooked.

In life, you don’t need to be grouped into any larger pattern, assumption, political ideology or religion that is any larger than your own beliefs, standards, morals or views. Understand that sometimes, the weatherman will be right for everyone else but not you, and you might start to appreciate your own weather patterns.  Just a thought.

Question everything you do, from the smallest action to the biggest decisions – make it part of your thought routine, your conscious thought routine.

Ask yourself “Why?” every chance you get, and continue to follow the question through to the most simple answer; Because it makes you happy. If it doesn’t lead there – challenge the action. Finding purpose in your actions generally translates into a constant state of happiness. Just a thought.

But does this mean we, the non-cosmonauts, cannot comprehend this feeling? Does it really take being in space to understand that we are all connected and living on a small planet floating in weightless space – roughly 40,000,000 kilometers from our nearest, uninhabitable neighbour.

Take a moment and think about the true size of our planet – think about how we’re all in this journey together, regardless of country, race or religion and perhaps your own overview effect will take place. Learn to manage this effect, and bring up that feeling the next time you’re waiting in line at a bank, or sitting in traffic, or arguing over petty little things². You’ll be amazed at how minor everything becomes. Just a thought.

^{1^ Frank White “The Overview Effect – Space Exploration and Human Evolution” (1987)
2^ Petty Little Things (Kickass Debut Album of The General Electryk. That’s right.)}