The Power of Decay

We instinctively react negatively to decay - perhaps because it reminds us of our own all too brief presence here - but we understand it is at the root of all progress when we think about it.
Growth is a poor substitute for progress. On the contrary, progress takes the best of what is and what we are, combines it with the best of its surroundings, and produces something new and more evolved. Growth pays little respect for what feeds it, whereas progress does. The logical result of our growth-based economic model is one person, one their own, on a barren planet. We can be confident of that because we can see the minimum viable prototypes playing in their private spacecraft.

Progress requires interaction with our surroundings in ecosystems - webs of interdependency - that recognise we are part of a process, not designers of process.
According to the World Bank, the average per capita GDP for the world's human population is around $8,000. The average high income is $44,000, middle $4,800 an…