Christopher Peterka - Your Choice

A HUMANISTIC, ECOLOGICAL AND TECHNOLOGICAL WAKE-UP CALL –to carry its global appeal across geographical boundaries, this book is conceived as a reverse cover with the English and German texts contained in one volume.

Change today is happening faster than ever before. We are overwhelmed by new technologies and an excess of information, and we feel that we and what we used to think of as society are being suffocated. Those who drive this change pursue primarily two goals: profit and power.They lure us with clickbait and abuse us as a data pool, reducing our existence to one of human resource and consumer. In doing so they threaten our democracy, our diversity, even our humanity itself.

It doesn t have to be like this, thinks humanist and entrepreneur Christopher Peterka. Instead of basing our ambition on purely economic yield, he pleads for a radical new dialogue about being human:Who do we want to be? How do we want to live together as a society? What meaning is our ambition meant to have?

We have to consider these questions afresh, because if we don‘t do so, others will.But this means leaving behind short term solutions, and taking a stance against the current system to throw off the shackles that tie us down.

Your Choice is a call to action that encourages us to challenge the status quo and to bring lasting change as progressive optimists.

ANALOGUE OPPORTUNIST

OR

PROGRESSIVE OPTIMIST?

AN INVITATION TO

PARTICIPATE

IN SYSTEM CHANGE

You have a say in what this world should look like: turbo-capitalism or sustainable economies? Edge computing or the Internet of Things? ›Just continue along the same old road‹, or: ›Find a new way, please?‹ It really amounts to the question: are you an Analogue Opportunist or a Progressive Optimist? To help you find out, this book contains a profile test with Orientation Statements at the end of each chapter. Because: IT IS #YOURCHOICE

Decide:For each Orientation Statement, mark how much or how little you agree with it at this moment. 0 means, ›I do not agree at all,‹ and 6 means, ›I totally agree.‹ Everything in between indicates where you tend towards, and of course there are no right or wrong answers.

Plot:For each Orientation Statement, plot your response on the coordinates of the octagon in the cover flap as indicated. This way you gradually build your profile. For example: if you entered 6 for a statement and it says plot this on axes A, C, and D, then you put a cross or a dot at 6 on each of these three axes.

Discover:Where do you have clusters and concentrations? Once you have answered all the questions, you can compare your profile to the sample profiles at the back and find out whether you are more of an Analogue Pragmatist, or a Progressive Optimist, or—most likely—where approximately you are in between.

And now:Post and debate! Take a picture of yourself with your profile and share it with us and your community. Do we need a system change? What part will you play in it? #YourChoice @C_Peterka @MurmannVerlag

Download: bit.ly/Peterka_YourProfile

Prologue

IT’S A HUG

Intro

HOW LONG WE’LL BE HERE FOR IS UP TO US

Chapter 1

WE ARE SLAVES TO DIGITAL MONOPOLIES

From Gutenberg to Zuckerberg—Liberation to Intoxication

Chapter 2

GAFATA RULES THE WORLD

Virtual Spaces and Real Territories—Two Sides of the Same ›Coin‹?

Chapter 3

THE ONLY THING WE LACK FOR A SYSTEM CHANGE IS DETERMINATION

Hedonist 3.0— The Wuchermensch

Chapter 4

WE ARE TERRIFIED OF OUR CAPACITY FOR LOVE

Price vs Value—Telling the Difference and Knowing What Matters

Chapter 5

PEOPLE SHOULD NOT STEER A SUPERTANKER WHILE THEY ARE ON DRUGS

Of Deckchairs and Rudders—Realising We’re Not Powerless

Chapter 6

EXPONENTIALITY IS LETHAL

Of Exponential Growth and Hockey Sticks—Caught in Something We Can’t Imagine

Chapter 7

WE ARE BUT A BLIP

Accelerating Acceleration—Why We’re Aching to Slow Down

Chapter 8

WE WILL FUSE WITH OUR MACHINES

Homo Ludens vs Software Sapiens—The New Species on the Planet

Chapter 9

SAVING THE PLANET COSTS NOTHING

The Unknown and its Potential—Embracing the ›Problem‹

Chapter 10

THE GLOBAL ECONOMIC SYSTEM IS BEYOND REPAIR

Inclusion—We Are in This Together

Chapter 11

WHY NOT FARM FLAMINGOS IN GREENLAND?

Human Resources to Resourceful Humans—Understanding What We Are

Chapter 12

IT’S ALL RIGHT TO BE CLUELESS

The Comfort Zone— What’s so Bad About It?

Chapter 13

ALTERNATIVE FACTS ARE REAL

Adapting to New Realities—Three Cases in Point

Chapter 14

TRUST ONLY FORENSICALLY

The Digital Modern Era—An Outline in Seven Perspectives

Chapter 15

SAME OLD MEANS REGRESSION. DIFFERENT MEANS SYSTEM CHANGE.

A Conclusion—What Choice?

About the Authors

Profile Evaluation (Six Examples)

»Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be?«

This is what I read in 1998, approximately 15 metres below ground, at the end of an exhibition on the subject of energy. Built by Austrian media artist André Heller under commission from the German energy company RWE on the occasion of their 100 thanniversary, it had a budget of 17 million euros and the location was the company’s first coal mine, now disused.

Meteorit , as the huge walk-in cuboid planted in the earth at an angle was called, was an early place of fascination for me. Many international thinkers and artists had turned this alien object near Essen in the middle of the Ruhr region into a source of inspiration oozing power, and I spent hours in there on many occasions, just to let their wondrous perspectives on the subject of energy—so central to our human existence—work on me, and to explore.

The above quote was written in white letters, in three languages, on a matt black background in a space right at the bottom of the structure. It came from Marianne Deborah Williamson, who now, as a spiritual activist, author, teacher, and founder of the Peace Alliance not only leads a grassroots movement for the establishment of a US American Department for Peace, but is also a candidate for the Democratic Party in the 2020 US presidential election. This background, which only today is becoming clear to me, was at the time, I confess, not something I cared about. Much more important for me was the magic of the place, this pitch black chamber, hidden inside the ›meteorite‹. Williamson’s thought though never left me, and it has accompanied me ever since as a mantra.