Social entrepreneur, technologist, and policy analyst Vinay Gupta joins Terry to reflect on the complexity and planetary scale of our existential risks. Given the urgency of our predicament, how can humanity best deploy our limited capacities? How might each of us more strategically prioritize our efforts to make a difference? What are the “hard” trade-offs? Vinay’s uncompromising clarity and passion can be unsettling and transformative. They work to dispel lofty aspirations, help us to become even more serious about the stakes at play, and prioritize the work that might really have the best shot of serving our future.
Vinay’s early life focused on meditation from the ages of 14-26, culminating in what he describes as enlightenment and a calling to be of service amidst existential risk to humanity on a planetary scale. Since then, he’s focused on environmental and infrastructure risk, energy policy, and disaster management leading in the blockchain space, inventing the Hexayurt — a public domain disaster relief shelter designed to be built from commonly-available non-patented and open-source materials — and founding Mattereum, a financial technology company using legally-enforceable smart contracts to enable the sale, lease, and transfer of physical property and other legal rights.
Here are some additional questions we explore:
- Given our important, large-scale predicament, how much of our energy should we allocate toward:
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- (a) healing the traumas and karmas of ancestral debts and injustices,
- (b) fixing the fragile future, and
- (c) showing up for & enjoying the reality of the present?
- If, as Vinay claims, large-scale awakening is unrealistic, is inner transformation irrelevant to the human future?
- Is it most strategic to focus our energy on developing crisis-critical technologies?
- How about a mass movement, involving hundreds of millions committed to active tithing and volunteering?
- What sensible level of lifestyle change and sacrifice is manageable for ordinary people?
For more information on Vinay Gupta and Terry Patten, check out the following resources:
- Vinay’s company Mattereum
- Hexayurt
- MyHopeForThe.World
- Vinay Gupta on Twitter
- Vinay Gupta on LinkedIn
- Terry Patten’s website
- A New Republic of the Heart website
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