Category: Utopia

  • What About the Children?

    What About the Children?

    It’s a phrase we’ve heard for generations.

    Whenever society faces difficult questions, it appears almost automatically:

    What about the children?

    It sounds like care. Responsibility.

    But pause for a moment.

    Is it really a question—

    or something we say when we don’t want to question the system itself?

    Because if we truly meant it, we would have to ask something much harder:

    What kind of world are we actually leaving them?

    And

    What if we could build a better world for them?


    The Hidden Assumption

    Behind the decision not to have children lies a powerful assumption:

    That the future will be worse than the present.

    And even more importantly:

    That we are not capable of changing that trajectory.

    That’s the part worth challenging.

    Because history shows something very different.

    We are the same species that:

    • Built global infrastructure from scratch
    • Eradicated diseases
    • Landed on the Moon
    • Connected the entire planet through technology
    • And much more

    We have never lacked capability.

    What we’ve lacked… is direction.

    The Real Question Isn’t “Should We Have Children?”

    The real question is:

    What kind of world are we choosing to leave for them?

    If we continue optimizing a system that creates stress, scarcity, and competition for survival—then yes, hesitation makes sense.

    But that system is not a law of nature.

    It’s a design.

    And designs can change.

    From Fear to Responsibility

    Not having children can come from care.

    But so can another path:

    Choosing to make the world better because future generations will live in it.

    And if one does choose to have children, something powerful becomes possible:

    Not raising them just to survive the world as it is…

    …but to understand it, question it, and help improve it.

    To pass on not only values—but direction.

    A Different Message to the Next Generation

    For a long time, the implicit message has been something like:

    “We know the world is messed up. You’ll have to deal with it.”

    But what if we could say something else?

    “Yes—the world has been largely messed up.

    But we’ve already started changing it.

    And you are part of continuing that change.”

    That’s not naïve optimism.

    That’s intergenerational responsibility.

    A World in Transition

    We are already seeing the early signs:

    • Renewable energy replacing fossil fuels
    • Technology increasing efficiency beyond what was previously possible
    • Conversations about new economic models emerging
    • A growing awareness that the current system is not sustainable

    This isn’t the end of the story.

    It’s the middle.

    The Long Game

    No generation finishes the world.

    Every generation continues it.

    We didn’t inherit a perfect planet—but we also didn’t inherit a finished one.

    So maybe the role of our generation is not to step away…

    …but to start the turn.

    To move from a system based on scarcity, fear, and competition
    toward one based on access, cooperation, and intelligent use of resources.

    And Then What?

    If we do that—if we actually begin to shift direction—

    then the idea of having children changes.

    Because they are no longer being born into a declining world…

    but into a transitioning one.

    A world that is actively being improved.

    A world they can help shape.

    A world where the next generation doesn’t inherit only problems…

    but participates in solving them.

    A shared project.

    Maybe That’s the Real Choice

    Not:

    “Should we have children?”

    But:

    “What future are we willing to stand behind—and invite others into?”

    Final Thought

    Refusing to bring children into a broken world is understandable.

    But refusing to improve that world?

    That’s a different decision.

    Call to Action

    If this resonates, please share it with someone who has asked themselves the same question.

    And if you want to explore a vision of what such a future could look like, take a look at Waking Up – A Journey Towards a New Dawn for Humanity.

  • The Convenient Explanation

    The Convenient Explanation

    The fear of overpopulation is not new.

    It rose to global prominence in the 1970s, when predictions warned that humanity would soon outgrow the Earth’s capacity to sustain us. At the time, the global population had just passed around 3.7 billion, and many projections assumed near-exponential growth—doubling again within a few decades. Books like The Population Bomb warned of hundreds of millions starving by the 1980s and 1990s. Mass starvation, collapse, and crisis were expected within decades.

    But something interesting happened.

    Those predictions did not come true.

    We did not reach the catastrophic population levels that were forecast.

    So the obvious question is:

    Why not?


    What Actually Happened

    Population growth did not continue unchecked.

    In many parts of the world, it slowed down naturally.

    Why?

    Because of education.
    Because of improved living standards.
    Because of access to healthcare and family planning.

    But today, another factor is increasingly visible:

    Because of economic pressure and social stress.

    Rising housing costs, job insecurity, long working hours, and financial strain are making it harder for many to start or grow families.

    When people feel secure, informed, and supported, they tend to have fewer children.

    No coercion required.


    The Fear Returns

    Today, the fear of overpopulation has reemerged.

    Once again, it is presented as one of the central problems of our time.

    And on the surface, it makes sense.

    More people means more consumption.
    More pressure on the planet.

    It appears to be the simplest explanation.

    And therefore, the simplest “solution.”

    But simple does not mean correct.


    The Convenient Explanation

    Blaming overpopulation is convenient.

    It directs attention toward people—

    instead of toward the system we have built.

    Because the uncomfortable truth is this:

    The core problem is not how many we are. It is how we manage what we have.


    Carrying Capacity Is Not Fixed

    Yes, the Earth has limits.

    Of course we must keep our population within its carrying capacity.

    But that capacity is not a fixed number.

    It depends entirely on how efficiently we use our resources.

    According to scientific assessments, the Earth can sustain around 10 billion people—

    if resources are managed properly.

    That means:

    • Optimized production
    • Minimal waste
    • Sustainable use of materials and energy
    • Distribution based on real human needs

    A Note on Space, food and Land

    Another often overlooked point is how misleading population density can be.

    Most of us experience the world through cities, where people are packed closely together. This creates the feeling that the planet itself is overcrowded.

    But globally, that is not the case.

    There are roughly 4.8 billion hectares of agricultural land on Earth. That equals about 48 trillion square meters.

    If we divide that by a global population of around 8.3 billion people, it comes out to roughly:

    ~5,800–6,000 m² PER PERSON.

    This includes land used directly for crops, land used for grazing, and land that contributes to food production or can potentially be restored.

    In other words, a family of four would have access to around 2.3–2.4 hectares of land contributing to their food supply.

    Of course, land is not evenly distributed, and not all of it is equally productive. And if we also include cities, deserts, forests, and other land types, the total available land per person becomes even greater. But the conclusion is difficult to ignore:

    We are not running out of space or resources.

    What we are running into is the limits of how we manage that space and those resources. The same applies to food: globally, we already produce more than enough to meet human nutritional needs—yet hunger still exists, not because of lack of production, but because of how access and distribution are organized.


    The System We Actually Use

    But this is not how our current system operates.

    We do not manage resources directly.

    We manage money.

    And the monetary system is arguably the most wasteful system ever created—it is highly efficient at creating wealth for a few, but not at creating abundance for all.

    It prioritizes:

    • Profit
    • Growth
    • Consumption

    Which leads to:

    • Overproduction
    • Overextraction
    • Overconsumption 
    • Massive waste

    Not because we need it—

    but because the system depends on it.


    When Population Looks Like the Problem

    In our current system, more people will naturally seem like a problem.

    Because the system is already inefficient.

    Already wasteful.

    Already misaligned with real needs.

    So the conclusion becomes:

    “Too many people.”

    But that conclusion is misleading.

    Because what we are really seeing is:

    Too inefficient a system.

    And this is the remarkable paradox:

    We are already around 8.3 billion people on Earth—

    even within this highly inefficient and wasteful system.

    Which means the issue is not that the planet cannot support us.

    The issue is that this system cannot scale much further without increasing stress, inequality, and environmental damage.

    So yes—within this system, many more people do become a huge problem.

    But that only reinforces the real point:

    It is not humanity that has reached its limit.

    It is the system.


    A Better Way to Stay Within Limits

    If we truly care about staying within the Earth’s limits, the answer is not to reduce humanity through fear or force.

    The answer is what has already proven to work:

    • Education
    • Stability
    • Access to knowledge and healthcare

    This naturally leads to balanced population levels over time.

    A Practical Boundary

    It is also worth stating something very simple:

    If we stay around two children born per woman, we are roughly at replacement level.

    That means:

    • No exponential growth
    • A stable global population over time

    This is not a radical idea. It is already happening in many parts of the world—without coercion.

    And importantly, this can be achieved through education and empowerment alone.

    So what are the alternatives often implied?

    Culling? Inhuman.
    Antinatalism? A path that ultimately leads to the extinction of humanity.

    None of these are real solutions.

    The only viable path is the one we already see working:

    Informed, secure, educated societies naturally move toward stable population levels.

    And at the same time, we must address the deeper issue:

    How we manage resources as a global society.


    The Real Shift

    The real challenge is not population.

    It is transition.

    From a system that:

    • Extracts beyond need
    • Produces beyond use
    • Distributes based on purchasing power

    To one that:

    • Optimizes resources
    • Reduces waste
    • Serves real human and ecological needs

    Final Thought

    Overpopulation may look like the problem.

    But more often, it is a reflection of something deeper.

    Because in a world that manages its resources intelligently,

    humanity itself is not the problem.

    The system is. And the system is also the solution.


    A Different Perspective

    What if the problem was never the number of people?

    What if the real issue is the system we’ve been taught not to question?

    And what if a completely different way of organizing the world is not only possible—but already imaginable?

    That is exactly the journey explored in Waking Up – A Journey Towards a New Dawn for Humanity.

    Benjamin Michaels wakes up 100 years into the future… and discovers a world where money is no longer the organizing principle of society.

    👉 Explore the book HERE.

    And if this made you see the overpopulation question from a new angle—please share it. That’s how perspectives shift and we create a new world.

  • Beyond Class War: Why a Livable Future Must Include Everyone

    Beyond Class War: Why a Livable Future Must Include Everyone

    Many visions of social change are built on a familiar story: the poor rise up against the rich, the powerful are overthrown, and a new reality is born from struggle.

    This narrative has deep historical roots. Revolutions, political movements, and countless novels have told the story of history as a conflict between classes.

    But if humanity truly wants to build a peaceful and livable future, we may need to question whether a transition based on class war can ever lead to lasting harmony.

    A Critique Worth Considering

    A recent one‑star review of Waking Up criticized the novel for not following the traditional class‑struggle narrative found in many utopian or socialist novels. The reviewer argued that in most classic works about moneyless societies, change comes from ordinary people struggling against the wealthy. In his words, it is “working people struggling to survive” who should create the transformation, not “the super‑rich who get together to decide to abolish money and property.” He also pointed to other well‑known works in the genre such as Looking Backward, News From Nowhere, and The Dispossessed, suggesting that these stories portray social transformation more realistically.

    This critique is interesting, because it highlights a fundamental assumption that many people bring to discussions about systemic change: that any transition to a better world must be driven by conflict between social classes.

    But is class war really the best path to a better future?

    A Clarification

    It is also worth clarifying a point that the reviewer appears to have misunderstood. In Waking Up, the new world is not created simply because a group of wealthy people decide to abolish money. The character Amo — the daughter of Benjamin Michaels — initiated the first experiments by using the resources available to her to begin creating moneyless communities, the early Cities of Light, within the existing system. These early initiatives acted as prototypes. As the model proved workable, the idea spread and people across the world participated in building and expanding the new system. In other words, the transition was not an elite decision, but a collective evolution that gradually included people from all parts of society.

    The Problem With Class-Based Transitions

    Class conflict may explain parts of history, but building a future on resentment and victory over others creates a dangerous foundation.

    If one group defeats another, the underlying psychology of power and domination often remains. The roles simply reverse. Yesterday’s oppressed can become tomorrow’s oppressors.

    Us Versus Them

    A truly stable and cooperative world cannot emerge from a mentality of “us versus them.” It must move beyond the idea that society is fundamentally divided into enemies.

    Systems, Not People

    Many of the problems humanity faces today are not caused by individual moral failures. They are consequences of the systems we operate within.

    Our economic structures reward competition, accumulation, and short-term gain. People within those systems often behave according to the incentives placed in front of them.

    This means the challenge is not to defeat a particular class of people, but to rethink the systems that shape behavior. History shows that many revolutions replace the people in power while leaving the underlying system of money and ownership largely intact, allowing the same structural problems to reappear with different players.

    But if the rules of the game, and thus the system itself change, human behavior often changes with them.

    An Inclusive Transition

    A future that truly works for everyone cannot exclude large parts of humanity from the process of building it.

    Scientists, engineers, entrepreneurs, workers, artists, teachers, and even those who currently benefit from existing systems all possess knowledge, skills, and resources that will be needed to design a better world.

    Instead of framing the transition as a struggle between rich and poor, it may be more productive to see it as a collective realization that the current system no longer serves humanity or the planet.

    When that realization spreads, people from all walks of life can begin contributing to the redesign.

    From Conflict to Cooperation

    History shows that cooperation is one of humanity’s greatest strengths. Entire civilizations have been built through collaboration across cultures, professions, and social groups.

    The challenge of the 21st century may not be to win a class war, but to learn how to coordinate our collective intelligence for the benefit of all.

    The technologies we have today — automation, artificial intelligence, global communication — make it increasingly possible to organize society in ways that were unimaginable in the past.

    But technology alone is not enough. Technology is merely a tool; without the cultural and philosophical mindset to use it wisely, it cannot create a better world.

    A Future Built Together

    If humanity is to create a truly livable future, it may need to move beyond narratives of victory and defeat.

    The real challenge is not to defeat one another, but to redesign the systems that govern our lives.

    That work will require the participation of all of us.

    And perhaps the most hopeful possibility is that the future will not be built by one class triumphing over another — but by humanity discovering that it is, in the end, one family sharing the same planet.

    If this perspective resonates with you, please share this article.

    A world beyond money, conflict, and artificial scarcity is explored through story in the novel Waking Up – A Journey Towards a New Dawn for Humanity.

    Feel free to check it out.

  • The Paradox of Our Time

    The Paradox of Our Time

    In Norway — one of the richest countries on Earth — homelessness is now rising sharply.

    A country with vast wealth, strong institutions, and a well-functioning welfare system is seeing more and more people without a place to live.

    Pause for a moment and let that sink in.

    This is not happening in a failed state or a poor country.

    It is happening inside one of the most successful systems we have ever built.

    Now zoom out.

    200 million homes

    Around the world today, roughly 150 million people are homeless. At the same time, an estimated 200 million homes sit vacant.

    In simple numerical terms, humanity actually has more empty homes than homeless people.

    Yet the two groups rarely meet.

    Why?

    The Strange Paradox

    If we looked at the world purely from a practical or engineering perspective, the problem might seem straightforward.

    We have vacant homes.

    People need shelter.

    Connect the two.

    Problem solved.

    But the real world does not operate according to that logic. Instead, housing is governed by a very different architecture — the architecture of money, ownership, and markets.

    Within that system, a house is not just shelter. It is also:

    • an investment

    • a store of wealth

    • a speculative asset

    • a tradable commodity

    Once housing takes on these financial roles, something unfortunate happens: a home no longer needs to be lived in to have value.

    In fact, it can sometimes be more valuable when it is empty.

    This became especially visible after the financial crisis of 2008, where failed property investments left entire developments standing unused — something still visible today in places like the Costa Blanca in Spain, where rows of houses built for speculation never found residents.

    When Shelter Becomes an Asset

    In many cities around the world, property prices rise year after year. Investors buy homes not primarily to live in them, but to hold them while their value increases.

    Second homes, vacation homes, speculative apartments, and investment properties accumulate.

    Meanwhile, people without sufficient income cannot access those same homes — even if they are standing empty.

    The market does not ask who needs shelter.

    It asks who can pay — and ignores everyone else.

    This is how a strange situation emerges:

    • Homes exist.

    • People need homes.

    • Yet access is blocked by purchasing power.

    The result is the paradox we see today: an abundance of buildings, yet scarcity of access.

    A System Designed for trade

    To be fair, the monetary system was not originally designed to distribute housing based on human need. It was designed to organize trade and exchange.

    In that framework, property belongs to owners, and owners decide how and when it is used.

    From the perspective of the system, nothing is broken.

    An empty house still has value. It can be sold, rented later, inherited, or held as an asset.

    But from a human perspective, the contradiction becomes obvious.

    When people sleep without shelter while homes stand empty, the question naturally arises:

    Is the problem a lack of resources — or a flaw in how we organize access to them?

    Rethinking the Question

    The homelessness crisis is often framed as a shortage of buildings. But the numbers suggest something different.

    Humanity clearly has the technical ability to house everyone.

    The deeper challenge may lie in the structure we have built to manage resources.

    A ystem that prioritize ownership and financial return can produce outcomes that appear irrational from a human perspective — even while functioning exactly as designed.

    And this is why what is happening in Norway matters.

    Because it shows that even at the highest level of wealth and development, the same pattern appears. The monetary system is ruthless and does not care about the general standard of living in a country. It works the same everywhere.

    A Thought for the Future

    Perhaps one of the most important questions humanity faces is not simply how to build more houses.

    It may be how to design a system that ensure the basic necessities of life — food, shelter, water, healthcare — are accessible to everyone, not just to those who can successfully compete within the marketplace.

    If we are capable of building cities, skyscrapers, and entire global supply chains, surely we are also capable of building systems that make sure no human being is left without a safe place to sleep.

    The empty houses are already there.

    The question is no longer whether we can solve the housing problem.

    It is whether we are willing to.

    But is this how it must be forever?

    Is this the peak of our civilization?

    Or are we even civilized when people sleep on the streets while homes stand empty?

    Maybe there is another way.

    And that is exactly what Benjamin Michaels discovers when he wakes up after 100 years of cryonic sleep…

    Through his journey, the question is no longer theoretical. It becomes lived experience: what happens when stewardship and access replaces ownership, and when a civilization decides that no one should be left without a place to call home?

    If this reflection resonates with you, I urge you to please consider sharing this article so more people can join the conversation.

    You can also explore the ideas above as story in the novel Waking Up – A Journey Towards a New Dawn for Humanity.

  •   Redistribution vs.  Redesign 

      Redistribution vs.  Redesign 

    Our world today is a dense jungle of ownership.

    Property borders. Intellectual property. Patents. Land titles. Corporate ownership structures. National borders. Mineral rights. Water rights. Airspace. Fishing quotas.

    Layer upon layer of legal claims about who owns what.

    And on top of this already complex system sits money — the universal measuring stick that is supposed to tell us what all these claims are “worth.”

    How much is this land worth?
    How much is this company worth?
    How much is your property worth compared to mine?

    Lawyers argue. Real‑estate brokers estimate. Buyers negotiate. Sellers speculate.

    But a deeper question is rarely asked:

    How much is the land actually worth to humanity?

    Or even more fundamentally:

    Should the planet itself be something that can be owned at all?

    The Redistribution Idea

    Many people sense that the current system produces extreme inequality. A small number of people control enormous wealth, while billions struggle.

    The intuitive response is therefore often:

    “We need redistribution.”

    Take wealth from those who have too much and give it to those who have too little.

    At first glance this sounds fair. But redistribution faces a profound problem.

    It assumes that the underlying idea of ownership itself is correct — and that the only issue is who currently holds the pieces.

    But what if the real problem is not distribution?

    What if the real problem is the design of the system itself?

    Redistribution Inside a Broken System

    Imagine attempting to redistribute everything on Earth in a fair way:

    Land. Companies. Natural resources. Intellectual property. Infrastructure. Housing.

    Who would decide how it should be divided?

    Nations? Courts? Committees? International negotiations?

    Every border would be contested. Every claim debated. Every group arguing why their share should be larger.

    In a world already filled with conflict over territory and resources, redistribution could easily create even more conflict. No one wants to give up what they own when that ownership was somehow fought for and legal.

    We already see what happens when ownership claims collide.

    Countries fight wars over land.
    Corporations fight lawsuits over patents.
    Nations compete over oil, minerals, and trade routes.

    Sometimes the country with the largest military simply takes what it wants.

    And when oil fields burn, the smoke does not stay inside borders. The pollution spreads across the planet and harms even those who bombed them from afar.

    Redistribution inside the same ownership framework risks becoming little more than a new round of conflict over the same pieces of the game board.

    A Different Question

    Instead of asking:

    “Who should own what?”

    What if we asked something far deeper:

    “Why should anyone own the planet at all?”

    The Earth existed long before any legal system. Forests, rivers, oceans, and ecosystems are not human inventions.

    They are the foundation of all life.

    Yet humanity has divided this shared inheritance into billions of pieces of property, each with its own legal owner.

    From a planetary perspective, the situation is strangely chaotic.

    Redesign Instead of Redistribution

    Rather than redistributing ownership, we could imagine redesigning the system itself.

    A simple reset principle could look like this:

    No one owns the Earth.

    Instead:

    Humanity belongs to the planet — and shares responsibility for it.

    Land and resources would no longer exist primarily as objects of speculation and trade.

    They would exist as shared assets that must be stewarded intelligently.

    In such a system the goal would not be maximizing profit from land, but maximizing:

    • ecological health
    • long‑term sustainability
    • human well‑being
    • efficient use of resources

    Cities, agriculture, forests, and infrastructure could then be organized according to what actually works best for people and nature — not according to historic ownership claims that may be centuries old.

    But this does not mean people would suddenly lose their homes, farms, or places they love. The transition would not be about taking land away from people, but about changing the relationship to the land itself.

    Those who already live on and care for land would simply continue doing so — not as owners, but as stewards.

    If your family has lived on a farm for generations, nothing would prevent you from continuing to live there after such a transition, if that is what you wish. The farm would remain your home and your responsibility.

    The difference is philosophical rather than practical: instead of claiming permanent ownership of a piece of the planet, you would steward it on behalf of the living world and the human community.

    In other words, people would not lose their land — they would gain a new role: caretakers of the part of the Earth they know best.

    Equal Belonging, Not Identical Pieces

    When people hear the idea that humanity shares the planet, they sometimes imagine that everything must be divided into perfectly identical pieces.

    But equality does not necessarily mean identical plots of land.

    It means equal belonging to the planet.

    In a redesigned system, different families and communities might live on different amounts of land depending on geography, lifestyle, preference and needs.

    One family might live on two hectares.
    Another might live on three hectares.

    Some might prefer an apartment with much less responsibility.

    But if land is no longer something to accumulate or speculate on, those differences stop being a source of competition.

    They simply reflect different ways of living.

    One family might grow food or keep animals and therefore use more space.
    Another family might prefer a smaller homestead and rely more on shared community resources.

    Instead of rigid ownership boundaries, communities could cooperate.

    Neighbors might share tools, knowledge, gardens, or even land use when it makes sense.

    A family with more land might share agricultural knowledge with others.
    Another family might contribute technical skills, medicine, teaching, or craftsmanship.

    The planet becomes not a battlefield of property claims, but a network of stewardship.

    Sharing the Fruits of the Land

    A natural question then arises: if land is no longer owned as private property, how are the products of that land shared?

    The key lies in a very simple principle that humans have practiced in communities for thousands of years:

    Use what you need. Share the surplus.

    A family cultivating three hectares might produce more food than they personally need. Instead of selling that surplus for profit, the excess simply becomes part of the natural flow of resources within the community.

    Nearby families, communities, and cities draw from that flow according to need. In return they contribute in their own ways — through other crops, technical skills, medicine, teaching, construction, research, art, or care.

    Importantly, this does not require a central authority collecting everything and redistributing it, as many historical attempts at centralized planning tried to do.

    There is no need for a state warehouse where all production must be delivered.

    Instead, sharing happens organically through human relationships, cooperation, and mutual trust.

    Families use what they need from the land they steward. The surplus naturally flows outward — to neighbors, nearby communities, or even further away when needed.

    People already possess an innate sense of fairness and reciprocity. When the pressures of competition, scarcity, and profit disappear, that sense of respect and brotherhood becomes the natural organizing principle of society.

    In other words, the question shifts from:

    “What can I sell this for?”

    to:

    “Who can benefit from what we have more than enough of right now?”

    Modern Technology

    Modern technology can help coordinate this flow by mapping needs and resources so that food, materials, and services move efficiently to where they are most useful, and it can also assist directly with growing, monitoring, and harvesting crops so that land is cultivated in the most efficient and sustainable way possible. And of course transport and distribute it to where it is needed.

    Instead of millions of isolated transactions, the economy becomes a living network of contribution and shared abundance.

    Within such a system the family on two hectares and the family on three hectares are not competitors. They are simply different contributors to the same shared world.

    The Only Universal Principle

    Every culture on Earth already contains the same moral intuition:

    Respect. 

    The common denominator

    Respect for neighbors.
    Respect for different beliefs.
    Respect for life.
    Respect for the land that sustains us.

    When respect becomes the guiding principle rather than competition over ownership, the logic of the system changes.

    The question is no longer:

    “How much can I extract from this piece of land for myself?”

    The question becomes:

    “How can we care for this part of the Earth so that both nature and humanity can thrive?”

    From Jungle to Garden

    The current system resembles a jungle of legal claims, property lines, and competing interests.

    A redesigned system could begin to resemble something else entirely:

    A carefully tended garden planet — where land and resources are organized with intelligence, cooperation, and long‑term thinking.

    The choice facing humanity may not be between capitalism and socialism, or between markets and redistribution.

    The deeper choice may be between:

    • endlessly fighting over ownership

    or

    • redesigning the system itself.

    If this perspective resonates with you, I urge you to share this article. Thank you.

    And if you want to explore a vision of how a redesigned world could function in practice, imagine how it must have been for the former billionaire Benjamin Michaels when he wakes up after 100 years of cryonic sleep only to find that money and ownership doesn’t exist anymore… He journeys through this new world first hand in the novel:

    Waking Up – A Journey Towards a New Dawn for Humanity

  • What Is Actually Possible?

    What Is Actually Possible?

    For most of human history, labor was inseparable from survival.

    Food was foraged by foot and fields were cultivated by hand.
    Buildings were raised by muscle.


    Empires were constructed on the backs of slaves, serfs, and the working poor.

    Brutal Work

    For centuries, it seemed obvious that a ruling class required a laboring class. That some would command and others would toil. That hard, repetitive, and often brutal work was simply the price of civilization.

    In ancient societies, this labor was enforced through slavery.
    In feudal systems, through serfdom.
    In early industrial capitalism, through exhausting factory work. The structure changed, but the necessity of large-scale human labor did not.

    Even well into the 20th century, most people assumed that civilization would always require millions of people to perform monotonous, dangerous, or degrading tasks. The debate was about wages and rights — not about whether such labor could disappear altogether.

    Automation was expected to assist human workers, not replace drudgery itself.

    The idea that machines could eliminate the need for unwanted labor sounded utopian — or naive.

    Yet here we are.

    Artificial Intelligence

    In just the past few decades — and especially in the last ten to fifteen years — automation, robotics, and artificial intelligence have advanced at a speed few predicted. Machines no longer merely assist human labor; in many domains, they perform it independently.

    What once required forced labor, then industrial labor, can now increasingly be handled by systems that do not tire, suffer, or demand wages.

    This historical shift forces a serious question.

    The Fundamental Questions

    If we no longer need human beings to perform the most dangerous, exhausting, or monotonous tasks — what kind of civilization becomes possible?

    We have already asked two fundamental questions in previous articles:

    What do we actually want?
    What do we actually have?

    Now we arrive at the question that determines everything:

    What is actually possible?

    Because between desire and reality lies possibility.
    And possibility is not fixed. It expands with knowledge, courage, and imagination.

    Technological Possibility

    If we look honestly at humanity’s technological capacity today, something remarkable becomes clear.

    For the first time in history, we possess the tools to produce abundance without requiring mass human drudgery.

    We can:
    • Automate most portions of repetitive and dangerous labor.
    • Coordinate global supply chains in real time.
    • Monitor ecosystems, climate patterns, soil health, and material flows with extraordinary precision.
    • Manufacture goods with extreme efficiency using robotics and advanced fabrication systems.
    • Process and distribute information globally in milliseconds.

    And we must add something that would have sounded like science fiction only a decade ago:

    Artificial intelligence and advanced robotics have progressed at extraordinary speed.

    Tasks once believed to require uniquely human perception, judgment, and adaptability are now performed by machines.
    Factories operate with minimal human presence.
    Warehouses move autonomously.
    Robots assist in surgery, maintain infrastructure, explore hazardous environments, and handle toxic materials.

    Only a short time ago, many believed it would take generations before machines could perform most necessary but undesirable labor.
    Today, in many sectors, they already can.

    The limiting factor is no longer technological capability.
    It is how we design the economic and governance structures around that capability.

    From a purely technical standpoint, we now have the ability to eliminate most compulsory drudgery. Human labor could increasingly shift from survival-driven necessity to voluntary contribution, creativity, research, care, and exploration.

    And this changes everything.

    Solar Power: An Overlooked Revolution

    Energy has always been the backbone of civilization.

    For centuries, societies relied on muscle, wood, coal, oil, and gas. Energy scarcity shaped hierarchy and conflict. Control over fuel meant control over civilization.

    But the Earth receives an astonishing amount of energy every single day.

    Every hour, more solar energy hits the planet than humanity currently consumes in an entire year. And that is a fact.

    In other words: The total amount of energy humanity use in one whole year hits earth in ONE HOUR. This extreme energy abundance is often overlooked.

    We do not need to capture all of it.
    We do not need deserts covered in panels from horizon to horizon.

    We only need to harness a fraction of what already arrives freely to power humanity completely.

    Modern photovoltaic technology is no longer experimental or marginal — it is mature, scalable, and already widely deployed. Even at today’s efficiency levels, existing solar panel technology could generate more than enough electricity to power global civilization if installed at sufficient scale. Large-scale solar farms, rooftop installations, and integrated infrastructure systems are not future concepts; they are operating right now across continents. Storage technology, smart grids, and decentralized energy systems are already capable of balancing variable supply, and while they continue to improve, the current level of technology alone is sufficient to create large-scale renewable energy abundance if prioritized and deployed intelligently.

    The technical challenge of powering humanity sustainably is no longer insurmountable. It is an engineering and deployment question — not a physics limitation.

    When energy is abundant and renewable, the foundation of scarcity thinking begins to weaken. Energy underlies water purification, manufacturing, transportation, communication — nearly every essential system. In many cases, it does not even need to pass through electricity: solar thermal systems can directly power water heating, desalination, industrial heat processes, and sanitation infrastructure, reducing complexity while increasing efficiency and resilience.

    Abundant clean energy changes the economic equation at its root.

    And that shift alone makes entirely new civilizational models possible.

    Land and Physical Resources

    Another common objection is: “There isn’t enough.”

    But enough of what? Because there is.

    There is enough agricultural land to feed humanity. Roughly half of the planet’s habitable land is already used for agriculture, and the majority of that is devoted to livestock and feed production rather than direct human nutrition. Even without expanding farmland, more efficient crop use, regenerative practices, and dietary shifts could feed billions more people on existing land.
    There is enough renewable energy potential to power civilization many times over.
    There are sufficient raw materials — if used intelligently, recycled efficiently, designed for durability, and embedded in circular production systems instead of disposable ones.

    And we should acknowledge something important:

    Even with our present system that is clearly unsustainable, humanity is already feeding many billions of people and housing many billions of people. We have already proven there is enough, albeit unsustainably.

    The problem is not that we lack resources.
    The problem is that we use them inefficiently, wastefully, and unevenly.

    We produce enough food for everyone — yet food is wasted while others go hungry.
    We build enough housing — yet some own multiple properties while others sleep outside.
    We generate enormous wealth — yet access depends on purchasing power rather than human need.

    The Earth is finite, yes.
    But finite does not mean insufficient.

    A well-managed finite system can support long-term stability. A poorly managed system collapses even if resources are abundant.

    So the real task is not to invent abundance from nothing.
    It is to make what we already produce sustainable.
    To align production with ecological limits.
    And to ensure that everyone receives what they need — not only those who have enough money to claim it.

    Already today, humanity has the technical and material capacity for every person on Earth to live in what previous generations would have called luxury — safe housing, clean water, abundant food, clean energy, healthcare, education, and global connectivity.

    Beyond material comfort, we also possess the productive power to free enormous amounts of human time — time to create, to learn, to explore, to rest, and to do what genuinely pleases us.

    And in principle, we even have the logistical capacity to offer mobility and choice of location — the option to live in the climate and environment one prefers, rather than being confined by economic necessity.

    The barrier is not capacity.
    It is how we organize access, distribution, and the value we assign to human life beyond labor.

    The Human Mind

    Here is where the conversation becomes deeper.

    Even if technology allows it.
    Even if resources allow it.

    Do we allow it?

    For thousands of years, humanity has operated inside a monetary habit. We measure value in currency. We organize life around earning, competing, accumulating, and securing.

    Money has shaped our psychology.

    It has trained us to think in scarcity terms:
    • Not enough jobs.
    • Not enough profit.
    • Not enough growth.
    • Not enough security.

    But habits are not destiny.

    Human beings have shifted paradigms before.
    We moved from tribal structures to agricultural civilizations.
    From monarchies to democracies.
    From slavery to abolition.
    From isolated tribes to global networks.

    Each shift once seemed impossible.
    Until it wasn’t.

    The deeper question is this:

    can we expand our sense of identity — from isolated individuals competing for survival to participants in a planetary system that must be cared for collectively?

    That shift is psychological before it is economic.

    The Monetary Habit

    The monetary system is not merely a tool. It is a pattern of thought.

    It rewards short‑term gain over long‑term stability.
    It converts living ecosystems into financial assets.
    It turns access to life’s necessities into permission tokens.

    Is it possible to move beyond that?

    Technically — yes.

    Practically — it would require transition, experimentation, and courage.

    We would need:
    • Local and regional prototypes that demonstrate new coordination models.
    • Governance systems rooted in transparency and contribution rather than ownership and accumulation.
    • Education that prepares people for participation, creativity, and stewardship instead of narrow competition.
    • Technological systems aligned with ecological limits.

    None of this violates physics.
    None of this violates biology.
    None of this violates human potential.

    It only challenges habit.

    And habits can change.

    A Global Classless Society

    For thousands of years, societies were structured around necessity.
    Those who controlled land, tools or force commanded everything.
    Those without access labored.

    Class was not merely ideology.
    It was a structural consequence of scarcity and labor intensity.

    If survival required large populations performing exhausting physical work, then hierarchy followed almost automatically. Control the land, control the energy source, control the tools — and you controlled people.

    But if production can be largely automated…
    If energy can be abundant…
    If coordination can be managed intelligently at scale…

    Then the material foundation of class hierarchy weakens.

    For the first time since organized civilization began, humanity has the technological capacity to build a global society where survival does not depend on belonging to a laboring class — and where access to life’s necessities is not restricted to those who accumulate financial tokens.

    This does not mean uniformity.
    It does not mean sameness.
    It does not mean the end of diversity, ambition, creativity, or excellence.

    It means the end of structural dependency.
    The end of a permanent underclass required for others to live comfortably.

    In principle, we now possess the tools for the first truly classless civilization in history — not enforced by ideology, but enabled by automation, energy abundance, and intelligent coordination.

    For most of modern history, attempts at equality have been framed through competing ideologies — communism, socialism, capitalism — each proposing different mechanisms to manage scarcity, ownership, and power. But all of them were designed in eras where large-scale human labor and energy limitation were structural realities.

    For the first time, we may not need an -ism to force equality or justify hierarchy. If survival and production are no longer constrained in the same way, sharing the planet becomes a design question rather than an ideological battle.

    No previous era could even seriously contemplate this.
    Ours can.

    The question is not whether it is technically possible.
    The question is whether we have the maturity to build it.

    The Real Boundary

    The boundary of possibility is rarely material.
    It is cognitive.

    When people believe something is impossible, they stop exploring.
    When they believe it may be possible, creativity awakens.

    A moneyless or post‑monetary civilization sounds radical because we are inside the monetary habit.
    But from the outside, future generations may look back at debt‑driven growth on a finite planet and find that era far more radical than anything we are proposing.

    So what is actually possible?

    More than we think.
    Less than we fantasize.
    Exactly as much as we are willing to mature into.

    The future is not predetermined.
    It is designed — consciously or unconsciously — by the systems we maintain and the ones we dare to build.

    Interestingly, we already know how to set money aside when conditions demand it. In war rooms, disaster zones, space missions, submarines, or tightly coordinated survival environments, systems are not organized around shopping, price tags, or profit. They are organized around coordination. Resources are allocated. Roles are assigned. Systems are stabilized. Competition quietly steps aside because it is no longer the most efficient organizing principle. This reveals something crucial: the monetary habit is not hard‑wired into human nature — it is context‑dependent. When circumstances change, we adapt immediately. The real question, then, is not whether humanity can coordinate beyond money, but whether we are willing to recognize that planetary stability and technological abundance may justify doing so — not from fear in a bunker, but from conscious design on a global scale.

    Imagine This

    You fall asleep in a world driven by debt, deadlines, and division.

    You wake up in a world where survival is guaranteed, energy is harnessed freely from the sun, machines handle the dangerous work, and no child is born into a permanent underclass.

    You wake up and everything you thought was “just the way it is”… isn’t.

    That is the shock Benjamin Michaels experiences in Waking Up – A Journey Towards a New Dawn for Humanity.

    He doesn’t read about the future.
    He opens his eyes inside it.

    Through his awakening, you walk through cities without price tags, systems without poverty, and a civilization that has matured beyond ideological battles over scarcity.

    Not as a manifesto.
    Not as theory.
    But as lived reality.

    Could this world exist?

    Step into it.


    Wake up with Benjamin Michaels.

    And if this vision matters to you, please share this article. The conversation itself is part of the transition.

    And don’t forget, the free companion book is out now.

  • Prices vs. Priceless — A Different Way to Hear the Speech

    Prices vs. Priceless — A Different Way to Hear the Speech

    Prices Coming Down

    In his State of the Union address on February 24, 2026, President Trump spoke confidently about prices coming down and economic strength returning. Whether one agrees politically or not, it raises an interesting and deeper question:

    What do we actually mean when we talk about prices?

    The language of coordination

    In a monetary economy, prices are the language of coordination. They signal scarcity, demand, cost, and profit. When inflation slows, politicians celebrate. When prices rise too fast, they warn of crisis. When prices fall too fast, economists fear recession.

    The system depends on prices staying within a narrow band. Too high? Instability. Too low? Instability again.

    That alone tells us something important.

    Prices are not just numbers. They are the mechanism that keeps the entire structure operating. Wages, debt, taxation, investment — everything flows through the price mechanism.

    Collapsing System

    So when we hear that prices are “plummeting,” it sounds positive. But if prices truly collapsed across the board, the system itself would stall. Revenue disappears. Production slows. Jobs vanish. The very thing meant to create stability would generate the opposite.

    And that leads to a more radical thought — not about left or right politics — but about structure.

    What if the real evolution of civilization is not about better price management… but about eventually moving beyond price as the core organizing principle?

    This idea is not new. During the Great Depression, observers like Jacque Fresco noticed a striking contradiction: factories could produce, stores had goods, resources existed, and people were willing to work — yet millions suffered. The problem was not empty shelves. It was empty pockets. Money had stalled, and access stalled with it.

    That simple observation planted a radical question: if the goods exist, why should access depend entirely on a financial token?

    From that contradiction grew the concept of a Resource‑Based Economy — a system where coordination is grounded in physical resources, energy, and scientific management rather than fluctuating purchasing power.

    In today’s system, prices can never go to zero for a very long time. Zero price means zero revenue. Zero revenue means systemic breakdown.

    But in a different kind of world — one based on coordinated access to shared resources rather than ownership and monetary exchange — the question of price becomes irrelevant.

    In a resource‑based economy (RBE), coordination would not happen through price signals but through direct measurement of resources, production capacity, and real human needs. Availability would be tracked physically. Sustainability would be calculated scientifically. Distribution would be optimized intelligently. Instead of asking, “Who can pay?”, the system would ask, “What exists, what is needed, and how do we align the two responsibly?”

    In such a framework, scarcity is addressed through planning and innovation, not through rising prices. Abundance is shared through access, not through purchasing power. The mechanism shifts from competition over money to coordination around resources.

    Not lower prices.
    Not higher prices.


    But priceless.

    A Different Operating System

    That doesn’t mean collapse. It means a different operating system — one where availability, sustainability, and intelligent coordination replace buying power as the gatekeeper of access.

    Whether such a transition happens in decades or centuries is another discussion. But it’s worth noticing this:

    As long as our civilization depends on prices staying in a perfectly balanced range to avoid crisis, we are operating inside a fragile design.

    The future question may not be:
    “How do we manage prices better?”

    But:
    “Can humanity eventually coordinate itself without needing them at all?”

    That is the deeper conversation.

    If this perspective resonates with you, please share this article.

    And if you’re curious about how such a world might function, follow the former billionaire Benjamin Michaels into the world of Waking Up – A Journey Towards a New Dawn for Humanity and get a glimpse into the priceless world of the future…

  • Waking Up – What Does It Actually Mean?

    Waking Up – What Does It Actually Mean?

    The background for the title.

    Waking up is not about opening your eyes in the morning.

    It is about becoming aware of what was previously unconscious.

    At its simplest:

    Waking up is the shift from being run by patterns to seeing the patterns.

    Most of us move through life inside inherited structures — psychological, cultural, economic — without realizing it.

    We mistake patterns for reality.

    Until something shifts.

    The Adversary Within

    In ancient Hebrew, satan(שָׂטָן) meant adversary — the accuser, the opposing force.

    Psychologically, that adversary lives within us.

    It is the ego.

    The ego divides experience into:

    • Me vs. you

    • Mine vs. yours

    • Gain vs. loss

    • Enough vs. never enough

    It defends identity.

    It anticipates threat.

    It secures advantage.

    The ego is not evil. It is a survival structure.

    But when it is unconscious, it becomes absolute.

    It convinces us that separation is ultimate.

    That “me versus you” is the basic truth of existence.

    That is the sleep.

    When the Pattern Scales

    When millions of individuals are unconsciously identified with ego, they design systems that reflect it.

    Division becomes economic structure.

    Scarcity becomes the organizing principle.

    Money —  which always implies ownership and exclusion — amplifies the ego’s logic:

    Secure your share.

    Compete.

    Accumulate.

    Defend.

    Repeat.

    Unconscious ego creates division.

    Division shapes systems.

    Systems amplify division.

    And when fear hardens, division escalates into conflict and war.

    The battlefield outside is preceded by division inside.

    But there is something deeper than ego.

    The Field of Awareness

    Ego is a pattern in consciousness.

    Awareness is the field in which experience happens.

    Thoughts arise in it.

    Emotions move through it.

    Fear appears within it. And disappears.

    Awareness can observe the ego.

    But the ego cannot observe awareness.

    Because the ego is a pattern within that field.

    If you can notice defensiveness arising, you are not identical to it. You are the One noticing.

    If you can observe fear forming, you are not the fear. You are the One observing.

    The observer is wider than the pattern.

    Waking up is the shift of identity:

    From the adversarial pattern

    to the awareness in which the pattern operates.

    The Illusion of Absolute Separation

    The illusion is not that individuals exist.

    The illusion is that separation is ultimate and absolute.

    At our core, what we are is this field of awareness.

    Different bodies.

    Different histories.

    Different perspectives.

    But the same fundamental capacity for experiencing.

    This can be felt through empathy.

    If someone hands you a knife and tells you to cut another human being, something in you recoils.

    Not merely because it is socially impolite.

    But because harm registers deeply.

    Empathy reveals something profound:

    The same field of awareness looking through “me” is looking through “you.”

    Different expressions.

    Shared ground.

    Ego says we are separate.

    Awareness knows we are connected.

    Waking up is awakening from the illusion that the adversary is who we truly are.

    Why the Book Is Called Waking Up

    The title operates on several levels.

    Benjamin Michaels wakes up biologically after 100 years of cryonic sleep.

    His body reactivates.

    His eyes open.

    He enters the year 2115.

    But that is only the first layer.

    When Ben awakens, he carries with him the mindset of 2015:

    • Scarcity assumptions.

    • Competitive conditioning.

    • Defensive identity.

    • A world structured around money and ownership.

    He does not immediately understand the new civilization.

    He interprets it through old patterns.

    He reacts from ego.

    And gradually — through experience — he wakes up.

    He begins to see that the adversarial structure he once took for reality was not the only way humanity could organize itself.

    He wakes up from his ego.

    The biological awakening is the doorway.

    The ego awakening is the transformation.

    And while Ben was frozen in time, something parallel happened.

    Humanity itself was waking up.

    Over the century he slept, civilization slowly became aware of its own unconscious patterns — ego-driven scarcity, division, adversarial economics.

    That awareness changed things.

    The world Ben wakes up in was not built by force.

    It was built by awareness.

    Benjamin wakes up physically.

    Then psychologically.

    Humanity woke up collectively.

    That layered awakening is why the book carries its name.

    What Waking Up Really Means

    It is not mystical spectacle.

    It is not denial of individuality.

    It is not the destruction of systems.

    It is the recognition that:

    The adversary is a pattern.

    Separation is not ultimate.

    Fear is not identity.

    Awareness is the field in which it all appears.

    And once awareness sees clearly, the pattern no longer rules unconsciously.

    Waking up begins within.

    But when it spreads, the world changes.

    An Invitation

    You do not have to accept any philosophy.

    You do not have to adopt any belief.

    You can test this directly.

    Watch what happens the next time:

    • You feel offended.

    • You feel the urge to defend.

    • You feel threatened.

    • You feel the need to win an argument.

    • You feel the fear of loss tightening in your chest.

    Pause.

    Ask yourself:

    Who is reacting right now?

    Is it awareness — or is it the adversary pattern/ego?

    Notice the division forming.

    Notice the “me versus you” structure activating.

    Don’t suppress it.

    Don’t judge it.

    Just see it.

    That moment of seeing is waking up.

    And if enough individuals begin to notice the adversary within, the adversarial systems outside begin to loosen.

    Not by force.

    By clarity.

    Benjamin Michaels wakes up into a new world.

    The deeper question is:

    Are we willing to wake up inside this one?

    If this resonates I ask you to share this article.

    And don’t forget, you can get the free companion book here.

  • The Free Companion Book Is Now Available

    The Free Companion Book Is Now Available

    We are in ecological overshoot.

    The planet is strained.
    Politics are polarized.
    The monetary system rewards scarcity while promising prosperity.

    Not because humanity is incapable — but because the tool we use to coordinate ourselves no longer fits the world we live in.

    For months, I have been working on four questions:

    WHERE are we as humanity?
    WHAT do we actually want?
    HOW could we transition?
    WHY did we choose to change?

    Those questions became The Companion Book to Waking Up.

    I wrote it because I kept receiving the same questions: How would such a world actually work? How could we transition from here to there? Is it realistic? The companion exists to address those questions directly — structurally, not rhetorically.

    It examines the structure of the monetary system, ecological limits, human psychology, and the possibility of redesigning our global coordination around stewardship instead of ownership.

    No ideology.
    No utopia.
    Just structural clarity.

    And today happens to be a rare Saturn–Neptune conjunction at 0° Aries.

    Saturn represents structure, limits, and reality.
    Neptune represents dreams, spirituality, and imagination.

    Structure meeting vision.

    Astrologers describe this alignment as a potential turning point for humanity — a moment when long-term dreams demand practical form and collective direction.

    What better day to release a book about aligning vision with redesign?

    The Companion Book is now available.

    It is free.

    This book also contains the first 4 chapters from the novel in chapter 21.

    Subscribe here to receive the PDF or EPUB. Your choice:

    GET THE FREE COMPANION BOOK HERE

    If it resonates, share it.

    — Harald

  • Why Waking Up Exists

    Why Waking Up Exists

    An article for new readers who might be interested in a better future for humanity.

    All my life I’ve had a strong urge to fix things.

    Gadgets and machines — and systems. Situations where people suffer even though, intuitively, it feels like they shouldn’t have to. That urge was always paired with something else: a deep concern for humanity, and a simple desire for everyone to be able to thrive.

    Over time, one pattern became impossible to ignore. Again and again, the limits to human well-being traced back to the same source: money. How much you had of it. Or didn’t.

    Everywhere I looked, money seemed to generate problems — inequality, stress, conflict, environmental destruction. Not because people were inherently selfish or cruel, but because the system itself was built on scarcity, competition, and exclusion.

    That realization led to an obvious but uncomfortable question:

    How do you fix a system that large?

    For a long time, I couldn’t see an answer.

    Then I encountered ideas that changed the frame entirely. The Venus Project had turned everything upside down. Instead of asking how to distribute money more fairly, they asked a different question altogether: Why is money there in the first place? What if, instead of managing prices and profits, we managed what actually exists — the planet’s resources, our knowledge and technologies, and our collective capacity to care for one another?

    This way of thinking removes money from the equation and focuses on something more concrete: what we have, what we need, and how we can organize society so that everyone’s needs are met within ecological limits.

    That shift fascinated me. Not as ideology, but as design. As engineering applied to civilization itself.

    TVP had been exploring and sharing these ideas for decades, often with little traction. Inspired by their persistence, I didn’t want to write a political program or a manifesto. I wanted to explore what such a world would actually feel like.

    So I chose fiction.

    I began writing a story about a contemporary man who wakes up in a future where humanity has finally reorganized itself around cooperation, stewardship, and shared abundance. A world where the central question is no longer who can afford to live, but how can we make life work for everyone?

    That story became Waking UpA journey towards a new dawn for humanity.

    Over the many years it took to write the book, new ideas naturally emerged — about technology, psychology, governance, ecology,  human nature, and the story of the novel itself. All of them were woven into the story, not as lectures, but as lived reality.

    Waking Up exists to explore a simple, unsettling question:

    What would the world look like if we finally designed it to work — for people, nature, and for the planet?

    If this question resonates with you, you’re already part of the conversation and I urge you to share this article.

    If you would like to read the result of all these years of writing, you can find the book HERE. I thank you.