Ethics of Transitions

Introductions

Before the first evening

At the end of this sentence, take a moment, just close your eyes and imagine the world a couple of decades from now. How would you like it to be?

This book is about the future, about alternative futures. More specifically, this book on ethics and innovation is about the ways in which futures are made – and made to come to pass. What world do we want to live in together? That is its principal question.

Open your eyes, look around you, lo and behold, all around. And look inside too. We are the authors of the worlds we live in. With what we invent, that which we say and feel, that which we craft and share, what we accept and reject, with our dreams and questions, with the how and why of what we do and who we are, alone and together. That is how worlds¹ are made.

We are the builders of the worlds we inhabit.

But wait, it is not just us, some of this was built before our time. Yes, it was.

The Talmud recounts this encounter that Khoni HaMe’agel had². One day as he was walking along the road, he saw a man planting a carob tree. Khoni said to him: “This tree, in how many years will it bear fruit?” “It will not produce fruit until seventy years have passed,” the man replied. Khoni asked him: “Do you plan to live another seventy years, to expect to enjoy this tree?” The man shook his head: “When I was born, I found a world full of carob trees. Like my ancestors had planted for me, I plant for those who are to come.”

Let us hear the call and questions ...