What if one lunatic could destroy an entire world?
This question was raised by Canada’s “dean of science fiction” Robert J. Sawyer, who wrote in Privacy: Who Needs It? “There’s a long-standing problem in astronomy called the Fermi Paradox, named for physicist Enrico Fermi who first proposed it in 1950. If the universe should be teeming with life, asked Fermi, then where are all the aliens? The question is even more vexing today: SETI, the search for extraterrestrial intelligence with radio telescopes, has utterly failed to turn up any sign of alien life forms. Why?
One chillingly likely possibility is that, as the ability to wreak damage on a grand scale becomes more readily available to individuals, soon enough just one malcontent, or one lunatic, will be able to destroy an entire world. Perhaps countless alien civilizations have already been wiped out by single terrorists who’ve been left alone to work unmonitored in their private laboratories.”
Douglas Rushkoff has written a series of books, including Survival of the Richest, Media Virus, Cyberia, Present Shock, Throwing Rocks at the Google Bus, and Program or Be Programmed. He is host of the Team Human podcast. Jazz performer Dr. Martin E. Rosenberg of Unanimous AI writes about the social and political stakes of dominance and resistance and about the agency of metaphor in trans-disciplinary inquiry.
ARQ – Arts Raising Questions alludes to Noah’s Ark saving life from the flood, to the narrative arc of stories and to current arcs to save democracy and our world. The ARQ Network highlights creative thinkers, from journalists to academic thought leaders to media producers, visual and musical artists raising questions to spark critical thinking.
Trump’s beyond shock and awe campaign, tearing apart the United States and our world, as summarized by Laurie Garrett, echoes How Hitler Dismantled Democracy in 53 Days. On February 8, 2025, New York Attorney General Letitia James and 18 other state attorneys general Judge Halted Access to Treasury Payment Systems by Elon Musk’s Team, saying that there was risk of “irreparable harm” in giving Mr. Musk and his team access to systems that included bank details and other sensitive material. Sinclair Lewis anticipated today’s crisis with his 1935 novel, It Can’t Happen Here. A large number of class action lawsuits are being coordinated by American attorney and Congressman Jamie Raskin.
1) Crowdsourcing discovers. As singers Harry Belafonte and Paul Robeson said, “Artists are the gatekeepers of truth.” With many reporters, thought leaders, and artists sharing their perspectives, we can, as Wikipedia has shown, co-discover our shared truths. NPR CEO Katherine Maher’s tweet on Dec. 23, 2024, rapidly reached 50+ Million views. The late Professor Irving Janis (Yale, later UC Berkeley) gathered evidence that supports Maher’s tweet: Janis defined “groupthink” as how teams sink to lowest common denominator outcomes in authoritarian regimes where the public is required to agree with those in power (what George Orwell called the Ministry of Truth). Access to diverse views is required for critical thinking, which is blocked when people are afraid to debate, afraid to ask questions.
2) Mission connects. Medium and style agnostic, ARQ is an emerging network of independent thinkers, from journalists to innovators to artists in a range of media, all raising questions about climate change, ending war, racism, sexism, and saving democracy by encouraging civil debate about topics that many fear to touch when free speech is in jeopardy. Nobel laureate (physics) Saul Perlmutter argues for critical thinking as lead author of the 2024 book, Third Millennium Thinking: Creating Sense in a World of Nonsense. Art, media, and story-telling can stimulate critical thinking by raising questions.
3) Questions spark action. When more than 50 NPR accounts left X, Elon Musk retaliated, “Defund NPR!” fueling debate about how a kleptocracy could forcibly use government control to serve the business interests of its power-holding elite at the expense of democracy. The crowd cheering Musk has energy like the crowd in Triumph of the Will, a 1935 Nazi propaganda film, directed by Leni Riefenstahl, which documents the 1934 Nazi Party Congress in Nuremberg, Germany. Elon Musk, 2011 Lifeboat Guardian Award winner, has the future of that crowd in his hands.
No smart man would give two Nazi salutes if he wasn’t sure that his power was completely secure.
Eric Klien, Founder of the Lifeboat Foundation, has been described as a Sage, Polymath and Savant who anticipated that our world would need a global network of thought leaders like the Lifeboat Foundation, which he has assembled over several decades.
Jaan Tallinn, 2012 Lifeboat Guardian Award winner, anticipated today’s grand challenges, founding the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk at Cambridge University. And Jeff Bezos, 2018 Guardian Award Winner, CEO of Amazon.com, described by Wired as “CEO of the Internet” said, “For better or worse, it is really not a part of our culture to look at things defensively. We rarely say, ‘Oh my God, we’ve got to do something about that existential threat.’ Maybe one day we’ll become extinct because of that deficiency in our nature.”
The most powerful avenue to combat existential risk, from climate change to fascism hijacking artificial intelligence to war using A.I. drones and robots, is coalition-building, which starts by telling our stories – our dreams and mission stories, and the stories about the obstacles we’ve encountered. If you’ve had a climate change, DEI or DOGE, immigration or police experience that wrecked your life, tell your story, using an A.I. avatar if you need to remain anonymous. GAIL is hosted in Europe, working with experts in internet privacy and security, committed to taking back the internet as a tool for global problem-solving.
Jim Al-Khalili Ph.D. Hon Dsc OBE FRS FInstP has focused on communicating science to a broad public audience. Jesse Dylan, Founder of Wondros, fosters social responsibility through content that moves people to act. Varushka Francheschi created a powerful media story, “A Crack in Everything” – an eco-thriller in the style of “The Year of Living Dangerously” inspired by the words: “There’s a gold rush going on right now. Man is breaking the earth, looking for natural gas. . . . It’s a mad scene, with hucksters on every side of the issue. And that’s just on the surface. You won’t believe what’s happening underground.” Tom Chiarella, Esquire Magazine January 2013.
Left: Post from an Episcopal priest in Canada. Below: Art Raising Questions – ARQ.
Comments on the post: Here in the US I think the same thing. It is unimaginable what is happening here. ⚠️
What is sad is that it’s happening on our watch and we’re witnessing it with our own eyes!!
What does the U.S. risk by appointing a Secretary of Defense accused of sexual assault and alleged abuses to his second wife, to the point where she feared for her safety? Should an angry man have his finger on the trigger that can blow up our world?
Newton Lee won the 2024 Book of the Year competition on OnlineBookClub.org for Counterterrorism and Cybersecurity: Total Information Awareness (Third Edition 2024) published by Springer Nature. Endorsement: “I would fully recommend following the author’s steps, reaching beyond our borders, making friends outside our norm, and helping to foster world peace and a better tomorrow.” — Veteran Staff Sergeant Andrew Price, U.S. Air Force
Forget Shorter Showers brilliantly reflects on the manipulation of public opinion to delude us – a brilliant example of ARQ – arts raising questions, e.g. the LA Fires are an urgent call for global action on Climate Change, not solely as an L.A. problem, a California problem, or a U.S. problem, but as a global problem. The film makes two significant points, then draws a false conclusion:
- The fossil fuels industry has manipulated public opinion to convince us that if we individually take shorter showers, carpool, recycle, donate to help fire victims etc. we can rest in peace, feeling that we’ve done our share. This film’s message is that we’ve been brainwashed by the fossil fuels industry to take individual action and NOT to do the one thing we must do to save this planet – collective action to stop the fossil fuels industry from exacerbating climate change and to force restitution from fossil fuels industry.
- Al Gore’s Inconvenient Truth supports this brainwashing by focusing on individual actions, not collective action vs the fossil fuels industry agenda.
- The first two significant points are followed by the film’s false conclusion that all industry and technology is destroying the planet. On the contrary, a people-centered internet, and other breakthrough technology, can contribute to saving this planet. In any case, this film is an outstanding example of Arts Raising Questions (ARQ) to stimulate critical thinking.
Filmmaker Jordan Brown brings superb artistry to his media, raising questions that spark action – the power of ARQ.
The measure of art impact lies in the action it sparks. Charlie Chaplin’s film The Great Dictator (1940, before the U.S. had entered World War II) was Chaplin’s most commercially successful film, effectively satirizing Adolf Hitler. McCarthyism, during the Second Red Scare and mass hysteria of the early 1950s, attacked two popular comedians, Lucille Ball and Charlie Chaplin, whose influence Red Scare attackers sought to break, despite lack of evidence. But Charlie Chaplin was “recognized as the greatest comic actor in motion picture history” (Variety Dec. 27, 1977 Obituary) and his film inspired ARQ questions about how we can resist democracy sinking into dictatorship. Red Scare Loyalty meant loyalty to the United States; now Trump demands loyalty to himself and his agenda. When only one point of view is allowed, that spells the end of democracy.
The contrasting styles of comedian Charlie Chaplin and solo independent journalist Johnny Harris, who traveled in 2022 to Korea to observe the aftermath today of the Korean War, highlight why Katherine Maher’s tweet attracted millions of views and shares. Critical thinking demands not “just one authoritarian truth.” Media enables diverse voices to be heard, crowdsourcing many views of truth and raising diverse questions.
Media is complemented by music as another avenue to raise questions. In the post war era of the ’50s and ’60s, mathematician and musical comedian Tom Lehrer sang, “We’ll All Go Together When We Go,” raising questions about the threat of nuclear war that rears its ugly head again today.
CBS featured Don’t Choose Extinction, a collaboration of the United Nations, UNDP, Jack Black, and Climate Action that attracted several million views – not enough to shift the onslaught of climate change – but it inspired the ARQ movement, making us wonder if Margaret Mead was right or not “that a small group of thoughtful, committed individuals can change the world. In fact, it’s the only thing that ever has.” If she was right, what will those of us who want to make a difference do next?
