Four Questions

Here are four big questions to ponder:

1. What is the most pressing problem to solve?  Why?
2. Your biggest fear?
3. Three global leaders who will set next decade's course?
4. Your most cherished value?

All four questions were asked of people attending Brainstorm 2006, including yours truly.  Here are my answers:

1. Reversing the trend of environmental degradation and moving to a new paradigm of consumption.  Efforts to slow the decline only delay the inevitable and fail to acknowledge the growth of prosperity-driven consumption -- not necessarily a bad thing -- across the globe.  e need to establish new ways of creating and supporting prosperity that enable growth without destruction.
2. Our seeming inability to prevent genocidal behavior.
3. John McCain, Hugo Chavez, Linus Torvalds
4. Optimism

See more answers from other bloggers at the conference, including Ross Mayfield, Dan Gillmor, and Rebecca MacKinnon

Comments

[proales]

3. It's interesting you named Linus Torvalds, because Business 2.0 just last week named him one of the "10 people who do not matter" and it seems they are right, in that innovation does not come in the OS kernal anymore, but in the higher relms of software/service design. Lawrence Lessing would seem to be more influential in open/free movements if that is your thought.

"Linus Torvalds
Creator, Linux
It's a testament to the success of Torvalds's open-source ideas that he's on this list at all. His Linux operating system is fast, cheap, and out of control - and that's entirely by design. While Torvalds still oversees any changes made to the innermost core of Linux, most of the innovation is now done by others, and commercial businesses like Red Hat and Novell increasingly steer its future. Although he can claim credit for popularizing one of the most powerful ideas ever to sweep through the software industry, Torvalds's project has matured to such an extent that it's largely outgrown its illustrious creator."

http://money.cnn.com/2006/06/21/technology/10dontmatter.biz2/index.htm

[Diego Rodriguez]

Interesting point. I suspect Chavez won't matter much in a few years, either.

What I didn't make clear in my response to the questions was that I chose these people for what they represent:

McCain: leaders who may be able to lessen the polarization within US society

Chavez: populist politics in South America

Torvalds: open source, distributed team initiatives