The Book
Mind in the 21st Century: Human Thought for a Human Future
Human thought is one of the critical, limiting resources in the modern world: It is one of the key “commodities” on which the entire human future will depend. And thus, as with any other commodity – water, food, electrical power, etc. – we need a way to measure and monitor the flow of thought in order to use it wisely.
Mind in the 21st Century offers a completely new (qualitative) way to track the flow of thought, helping us see: 1) where it is; 2) how it moves; and 3) how it shifts form in the moment of insight. With this new way of monitoring thought, we can each begin to address limits in our own cognitive patterns and thus learn how to become more creative.
But this book is more than just a personal guide to thinking more clearly – it is a manifesto for our planet, a signpost along the road, pointing the way to a better human future. All of our most urgent global challenges – from climate change to the stability of our financial systems to the emergence of artificial intelligence – ultimately have the same root cause: The complexity of the world overwhelms the relatively limited capacity of the human mind.
Yet there is hope: With a clear understanding of both the limitations and the power of human thought, we can develop new strategies to help society better address the critical challenges of the modern age. In other words, thinking more clearly about thought will help us think more clearly about everything else and will, in turn, provide a powerful advantage when planning for a livable human future.
Mind in the 21st Century tackles some of the most complex, most contentious issues of our time, yet the book aims to be simple enough and clear enough that it should be readily accessible to a general audience, and little prior knowledge is assumed on the part of the reader.
After years of work, and much kind help from friends and colleagues, I’m now working on a final set of revisions.
(In the meantime, I will share an outline of the main ideas in the book, so please sign up for my mailing list if you’d like to learn more about Mind in the 21st Century.)
