Human Continuity Thing Thursday
Because the Survival of Human Civilization Seems Relevant & Interesting
In my prior life at the US Department of Homeland Security, I spent a bunch of time over five different jobs working with the resilience and protection of really big infrastructure systems that help hold human society together. All of society — from businesses to the economy to essential lifelines to critical materials and systems. I was involved in that work because I was in disaster/incident management; our critical infrastructure is a key part of any huge catastrophe. The larger the infrastructure outage and the longer it takes to get restored… the more cascading effects from critical interdependencies.
Fast forward to now. One of the groups involved with all that was the Electric Infrastructure Security Council (EIS Council) that has since taken on global resilience-building work, and now is putting time and effort into the continuity of human civilization. Like you do.
Just the kind of thing you’d expect from an electrical sector security consortium, eh?
Well okay maybe one would not expect that — but they’re the ones leading some pretty dead-serious thinking that seems reasonably necessary. Anyone else you know putting time and thought and resources into the survivability of human civilization given our current vulnerabilities? Outside of academia, that is?
A few months ago the EIS Council did this 1-hour webinar exploring the survival of human civilization given our tightly interconnected, interwoven, interdependent societies. Since that time they’ve had an international conference (which did involve academia) in which this subject (the survivability of human civilation) was a key focus. Some of the videos from that international event are on the EIS Council YouTube channel.
Why does this involve you, and Shift the Country?
Well, for us, Shift the Country would like to help US society shift to a more resilient, sustainable set of approaches nationwide… given the increasing competition for food and water, the increasing world population, the increasing risks from climate change, the growing number of failed nation-states, and the rise of both authoritarianism and far-right extremism worldwide.
The US is not currently well-positioned to take on these and other risks effectively or to help lead ways forward worldwide… or even just for the US. That problem is a huge motivator behind the Shift the Country work. We’re not collectively ready for what’s coming yet we need to get there. Like ASAP.
For you — we’d like to let you know that this group, the EIS Council, is doing a Special Virtual Discussion with EIS Members and R2P Attendees: Advancing the Human Continuity Project this Thursday morning (tomorrow) at 11:00 am Eastern. You can sign up on the link in this paragraph if interested.
For all of us — if you’d like to have Shift the Country get into this stuff more (stuff like the survival of human civilization), let us know.
Also, you can influence what our work at Shift the Country becomes by getting involved yourself. Join in on our brand-new Facebook group, or join one of our many open conversation events including a social this Friday at 4:00 pm Eastern.
Finally, to help us get to making shifts like this for stuff like, you know, the continuity of human civilization, we’re fixing to ramp up widespread pressure. Join us for a webinar on doing that next Thursday at 9 pm Eastern.
This country needs to get serious. We’re intending to help.
Join us on a Zoom call. Share our stuff with all your people. Get your people to come to our events — we’re pretty unique. Donate. Get into the conversations & teamwork in our Facebook group.
Shift is coming.
Let’s get busy driving it.
I love the idea of the Special Virtual Discussion with EIS Members and R2P Attendees: Advancing the Human Continuity Project briefing! At 8:00 am PT it's a little early for me! But more important, I have a conflict. I hope lots of folks who've joined Shift the Country participate--and that you'll share your thoughts, Vanessa, about how the information presented reflects/impacts what Shift the Country hopes to accomplish.
PS. I just upgraded to Founding. I've been following you long enough now to see that it looks like traction is happening, and I want to be part of it! I hope others join me!