"The Ascent of Humanity" by Charles Eiesenstien

Lately I have really been jamming with the book "Ascent of Humanity" by Charles Eiesenstien.  You can read it for free online at http://www.ascentofhumanity.com/introduction.php, you can even listen to it for free on this website.  I encourage everyone to at least read the introduction.

At the same time I have been trying to follow current futurist thinking:

The systematic application of nanotechnology, self-reproducing micro-miniaturised robots armed with supercomputer processing power, and ultra-sophisticated genetic engineering, perhaps using retro-viral vectors, will cure the root of all evil in its naturalistic guise throughout the living world. And once the pain has gone, with the right genes and designer drugs there's no reason why life shouldn't just get better and better...." Pearce, David. The Hedonistic Imperative. http://paradise-engineering.com/heav22.htm

In the near future, a team of scientists will succeed in constructing the first nano-sized robot capable of self-replication. Within a few short years, and five billion trillion nano-robots later, virtually all present industrial processes will be obsolete as well as our contemporary concept of labor. Consumer goods will become plentiful, inexpensive, smart, and durable. Medicine will take a quantum leap forward. Space travel and colonization will become safe and affordable."  Mohawk, William. Nano-Economics. http://www.geocities.com/computerresearchassociated/NanoEconomics.htm

Two opposite extremes of forward thinking, the "tribalists" and the "futurists" both agree that the ecology of the world is nearing a collapse.  It is their view of how humanity will cope.