Nate Hagens

The future that current momentum and present incentives already favor.

the one that takes the least new energy or coordination to reach, those are downhill.

Uphill futures are the ones that require sustained effort to climb towards and sustained effort to stay in once we arrive there.

And once we find ourselves deep in a particular valley, the high walls constrain the possible next moves.

A farmer in Malawi or a software engineer in San Francisco are all standing in very different parts of the landscape.

So the futures that count as uphill for one community may be the default valley for another.

So the we here is more about the systems we share in common and not a location that everyone occupies.

I want to make that clear.

Okay, so let me make this concrete with other examples that don't involve cell biology.

Think about a lake.

Ecologists have studied the aging process of lakes extensively.

A young, clear lake with abundant plant and animal life will gradually accumulate sediment and nutrient buildup over its lifespan.

As it ages, it will become shallower and murkier, eventually reaching a point where it becomes a wetland.

There are ecological forces that regulate the speed of all this happening.

The plants filter the water.

The clear water lets sunlight reach the plants.

Fish populations eat the plants and the algae, and bottom feeders filter out the excess nutrients, creating a gradual succession.

Humans benefit greatly from young and middle-aged lakes as sources of fresh water and food and as beautiful places to live near.

In Minnesota, the land of 10,000 lakes.

By the way, there are also 10,000 caves, which are also pretty cool.