A client this week struggled with resistance. It was about how human civilization is working. He knows, of course, that everything is always working out. But, like most clients, he wobbles between knowing this and activating his old resistant beliefs.
One of those had to do with “planned obsolescence”.
We as a species are on a massive inflection point. One that will take us into a future where astounding abundance is the order of the day. That order also will bring a refreshed planet. A convergence of technologies make that possible. A convergence of techologies and humans who came into the world to leverage those technologies to create the world they knew was possible.
Because of those people’s focus, all of us will soon benefit from deeply transformed societies. Transformations at the heart of those societies will come through this techno-human convergence.
The thing is, we couldn’t have gotten there without planned obsolescence as part of our journey. Here’s why.
Every subject is good and bad
A lot of people decry capitalism. In fact, capitalism is the reason the future I described above will happen. The profit motive moved people to invest in ideas that show promise. It inspired people to give idealists opportunities, in the form of money, equipment and labor, to turn their ideas into reality.
The same is true with planned obsolescence. It’s planned obsolescence that keeps companies going. Planned obsolescence keeps people employed, which enables those people to put food on the table, pay for their kids’ education and more. Indeed, planned obsolescence is what generates revenue companies use to pay salaries. Those revenues also fuel key technological developments.
Of course, none of this was necessary had humanity chosen a different path than the one in which they are necessary. But the fact is, that is where humanity went. The good news is, we’re coming around that corner. We’re moving out of those distorted beliefs. And we’re on the verge of coming into the bright day of what the Universe and physical reality is all about: enormous abundance.
So planned obsolescence, like capitalism, served humanity well. It created many problems too, but every subject holds within it what humans would call “good” and “bad”. And those problems will evaporate in the light of that abundant future on the way. I think it’s astounding how the good is about to radically overwhelm us with a reality that exceeds our wildest dreams.
And we can thank both capitalism and planned obsolescence as contributors of that unfolding future.