Posts Tagged ‘optimist’

LifeBox : a 3D printed basic provider of life

Sunday, May 12th, 2013

If you are looking for a great reason to feel optimistic – another truly legitimate rationale for believing our world is undergoing remarkable and rapid transformations for the better – then consider the LifeBox.

The LifeBox is a deployable mini-building that provides the basic necessities of modern life: water, food, electricity, internet and a 3D printer. This single self-contained building, the size of a garden shed, can sustain and improve the lives of everyone nearby.

LifeBox uses both wind and solar energy to drive the entire unit along with public power outlets. Inside an atmospheric extractor and purifier creates several gallons of drinking water a day. As well, tanks housed within automated greenhouses grow Spirulina, a protein-rich, highly nutritious whole food. Of course, the entire unit doubles as a wifi-hotspot, connecting to the Internet as well as all nearby LifeBoxes.

The best part of the LifeBox concept is how the entire life-saving building can be constructed using nothing but local materials and a 3D printer, anywhere in the world. All it takes are the plans (which get updated from free sites on the web), access to a 3D printer, and the gumption to build your own.

Just imagine the impacts on global poverty and instability when, on every street corner in the worst slums or in even the most remote, despondent villages, these seemingly magic boxes – day in and day out – churn out the tools needed by those on the bottom rung to rise out of their dire circumstances.

This is exactly what our world craves! So much of the world’s conflict stems from societies living in desperate conditions, where people are at risk of starving to death every day. This desperation fuels the feelings that lead to violence, and it breeds the soldiers to carry it out.

When we could create a world where every single human has access to the most basic means of life – which will exist when everyone can get the things provided by a LifeBox, then we are set to see a world where wars get exposed as the unnecessary and unwanted travesty that they are. Peace can finally take hold of our world.

All the pieces are falling into place. Affordable, consumer-level 3D-printers are already on the market and producing incredible objects. Solar and wind generators are getting cheaper by the day. The Internet is forever expanding.  And the need for a LifeBox on every corner is as urgent as ever.

The end goal is in sight. How long it takes to get the basic necessities of life to each person on earth really depends on us. 5 years? 10 years? If we pushed hard it could happen. But no matter what, the day when every single human can get access to what’s in a LifeBox is clearly within our future.

Worth Watching: Being an Eternal Optimist

Thursday, April 19th, 2012

The world today can be especially distressing, considering all the economic turmoil and ongoing global conflicts. But we’ve more reasons than ever before to be hopeful, if we just take a moment to reflect.

Global poverty is at an all time low. War deaths are the lowest in modern human history. Technology is moving ahead faster than ever before bringing us the cheap, effective solutions we need to solve most of the world’s problems.

A decade or two could be all it takes to transform ourselves into an advanced species, having ended all wars, eradicated poverty, and overcome the limitations of our biological tyranny.

But don’t just take my word for it. Watch as proponent of social justice and equity Angela Blackwell and veteran journalist Bill Moyers discuss the state of modern events and why it is entirely logical to be more optimistic with each passing day.

Transform Your Attitude

Saturday, May 21st, 2011

Here’s a cute picture for you describing the path to success and happiness in life:

No, I didn’t draw it. Sadly, my drawing ability seems to be limited to crudely etched word puns on iSketch. Oh wait, whose being a Negatron now?

VIDEO: The Power of Hope

Sunday, May 15th, 2011

(Once again, the thumbnail gods get a chuckle at my expense.)

You’ve probably heard that positive thinking is a vital part of personal success. Well, did you know that it also applies to the future of humankind?

————

When the present seems uncertain, hope is the force that shatters the shadows to unveil the path to a brighter future.

Positive thinking is a vital part of personal success, no matter how you choose to define it. In the pursuit of your goals, optimism will get you further than pessimism, every single time. When you believe in yourself and in good things, your mind can actually shape the future and draw your desires to you.

So don’t be afraid to express hope. Dare to dream, because you really can do anything.

Now this same effect, that which most influential humans will say has been an important part of their success, also applies to humankind on the global scale.

Just as a gloomy state of mind can hold you back, so too can clouds of pessimism hold back the entire planet. Without belief in a better world, without hoping that our actions will reap positive results, we won’t try, and the less of us willing to commit to creating a brighter future, the longer it will take for us to get there.

And we’re coming upon a crossroads in human history, where hope will play a key factor defining how the future of humankind plays out. Right now, it might seem like pessimism is prevailing, but this will change.

Technological progress is going to keep happening faster and faster, bringing unlimited potentials within our reach. This will spark a great awakening of the human spirit, and a revolution of optimism will overtake the minds of humankind.

Goals that might seem insurmountable right now, like building a peaceful planet and ending extreme poverty, will prove no real challenge when billions of individuals are chasing down a handful of common dreams with a heart full of hope.