It may surprise nobody, but humans are internally conflicted, parts of our nature pulling in opposite directions: immediate gratification vs. longer term security. Or as Roman Krznaric and others have termed it, “marshmallow brain” vs. “acorn brain”. He describes how our “marshmallow brain” can’t resist eating the marshmallow in front of us even when forbearance would win us a second marshmallow, while our “acorn brain” gives us the capacity for long-term planning and strategizing. He explains how, encouraged by our instant gratification “buy-now” economy, we are focusing on a near-term (where “long term” is only 3 to 5 years) when we urgently need planning that spans 100 years or more, to cope with very long natural life cycles like that of carbon.
Does our current ecological-economic-social-spiritual crisis have a behavioral fix? For instance, what if we replaced our “buy now” shopping buttons with “buy later” or even “borrow instead” buttons? These are the kinds of questions author and public philosopher, Roman Krznaric, discusses with Designers of Paradise host Erik van Lennep in their far-ranging interview. The interview was provoked by Krznaric’s recent book “The Good Ancestor” which explores how humans can overcome our proclivity for short-term thinking to plan for posterity; to become “good ancestors”.
Will the immediacy of instant gratification and knee-jerk reactions of marshmallow thinking get us though the next 50,000 years? Can we switch to acorn strategies in time? Thinking along similar lines, Jonas Salk, of malaria vaccine fame, coined the term and framed the need to be a “good ancestor”.
This far ranging and timely conversation touches on how contemporary society has “colonized” the future, extending the early colonial concept of “tempus nullius” (If you aren’t familiar with the concept, have a listen). Erik and Roman touch on fascinating projects exploring the future like the 10,000 Year Clock and the Future Library, discuss different kinds of legacy, and competing visions of our future.
You’ll enjoy this conversation and want to buy yourself a copy of the book plus another for your “great-great-great grandchildren”.
More goodies:
- About Roman Krznaric
- Follow: @romankrznaric
- Buy the book, The Good Ancestor: How to Think Long Term in a Short Term World
(Some! of the) References from the Conversation:
- Stanford University’s Marshmallow Test
- Terra Nullius – nobody’s land
- Carbon Cycle: NASA version
- Carbon Cycle: National Geographic Tutorial
- Long Now Foundation & the 10k year clock
- Katie Patterson and the Future Library
- The Green Belt and Wangari Maathai
- Future Design
- Backcasting
- Erik’s interview with Rob Hopkins
- Herman Daly and Kate Raworth
- Doughnut Economics
- Pope Francis’ encyclical LAUDATO SI’ (On Care of Our Common Home)
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