Discussing the Fifth Epoch and How to Get There

What the choir is all about

I recently mentioned that a retired EPA scientist has publicly joined my effort. We have begun a discussion of the Fifth Epoch and how to get there with the least amount of pain for humanity. If it is done right, there should not be any pain at all, except, perhaps, for the megalomaniacs that dominate the world economy (they will no longer sit on their thrones), but they can be redeemed, too. I think that living in heaven on Earth, instead of ruling in hell on Earth (or a destroyed Earth), will be more attractive for them. But nevertheless, the end of their reign is near if an effort such as mine succeeds.

Because holding those kinds of discussions is what my work is all about at this time, I will periodically make Substack posts on how those discussions are going. The discussion will begin with this paper that was written a generation ago by an academic, on four basic futures that humanity may soon face. That paper already had critical events happening more than a decade ago, but the trends and issues are the same today.

The author, Robert Costanza, called his four future scenarios:

1. Star Trek;

2. Mad Max;

3. Big Government; and

4. Ecotopia.

None of those are really what I call the Fifth Epoch that I envision, but aspects of his Star Trek and Ecotopia visions allude to some of the Fifth Epoch. While Costanza understands the central role of energy, because he seems unaware of free-energy technology, which is older than I am, he cannot quite imagine the Fifth Epoch. Costanza also polled hundreds of people on those scenarios, and the most popular was Ecotopia, which has humanity going with the “let’s ride bikes” solutions that people such as Richard Heinberg advocated. Costanza did not state it, but it is an austerity solution, but without the global depopulation that Heinberg foresees. Why people chose Ecotopia over Star Trek is kind of mystifying, but maybe it was the environmentalists in his survey population. Big Government was nearly as popular as Star Trek.

I hope that this is only the beginning of a wide-ranging, comprehensive discussion, which ultimately leads to the Fifth Epoch. There will be more posts on Costanza’s paper, but the primary discussion will likely be in my forum.