What of the future? How do you see heaven on earth unfolding?

Even a nominal amount of online browsing will come up with how the world dynamics have radically changed in just a few years. Below are some notes gathered on some of these changing dynamics, plus tech pundit projections of more to come. And then our own thoughts on the matter.

Infinity Mandelbrot

Progress is faster than you think. In 1998, Kodak sold 85% of all film and photo paper worldwide with 170,000 employees. Three years later, film cameras – and Kodak – were almost obsolete. Such changes are happening even faster with Artificial Intelligence, Health, Education, Energy, 3D printing, Agriculture, and Autonomous Electric cars. What happened to Kodak will happen to many industries in the next 5-10 years, and most people don’t see it coming.

* Software innovations are disrupting many traditional industries. For example, Uber is just a software tool, they don’t own any cars, yet they are the biggest taxi company in the world. Similarly, Airbnb is the biggest hotel company in the world, but they don’t own any properties. They’re just a software company.

* In 1983, a two-pound cell phone the size of a brick with a long whip antenna cost about $9,000 (in today’s dollars). Now over half of the world’s population owns a mobile phone with built in digital camera and mini computer.

* Smartphones now contain as much computing power as the room-full of massive computers that was used to put a man on the moon. In a few years that same computing capability will fit into the size of a grain of rice, and connect you with everything. There’s no danger of loosing it, because it can be transplanted under your skin and accessed with voice commands, ear buds and digital watch screens.

* Google ear buds instantly translate any one of 40 languages in real time. The buds translate the native language that is being spoken to you, AND they translate your speech into the native language . . . for $170.

* Wind and solar plants now are cheaper than coal and nuclear plants in most parts of the world. The price of solar collectors has plunged 99 percent since the late 1970s, 80 percent since 2000, and 26 percent last year alone! Solar energy is now available in some places for less than 3 cents per kilowatt-hour (kWh), whereas the average U.S. commercial price for electricity is about 11 cents/kWh. Houses with solar celled roofs and roads paved with solar cells will become common. Some day solar collector satellites in geostationary orbit could beam energy back into electrical grids on every continent. The cost of offshore wind turbines also dropped 28 percent last year, making them cost effective without any government subsidies.

* Battery prices are now half the cost that they were in 2014. The next generation of solid-state lithium batteries will deliver 2.5 times the energy density of typical lithium-ion batteries, and be charged in a few minutes.

* Electric cars will become mainstream by 2020. Most major auto manufacturers already have earmarked 5-6 billion dollars for electric car production. A growing list of countries including China, India, the UK, France, and Norway intend to phase out fossil fuel-burning cars in the next decade. Parking meters will be replaced by meters that dispense electricity. Gas stations will disappear along with coal mining and oil drilling. Cities will have quiet, economical, and pollution-free transportation.

* Auto repair shops will be rare. A gasoline engine has 20,000 individual parts. An electrical engine has 20. Electric cars are sold with lifetime guarantees. If your “Check Motor” light comes on, you drive up to a car-wash-type conveyor. Your car is towed through, and in ten minutes it comes out with a new engine.

* Autonomous cars: In 2018 the first self-driving cars will hit the roads. Around 2020, you won’t need to own a car. You will call for a car, which promptly arrives at your location, and drives you to your destination. No need to park. You only pay for the drive, and work or relax while in transit. The babies of today probably won’t need a driver’s license or own a car when they are adults.

* Cities will need 90-95% fewer cars. Parking lots will be transformed into parks. You can work while you commute, so people will move further away from cities to live in a more beautiful neighborhood.

* 1.2 million people die each year in car accidents worldwide. It’s estimated that autonomous driving will save a million lives each year. That’s down from one accident every 60,000 miles to 1 accident in 6 million miles. So, car insurance could be 100 times cheaper.

* 3D printing. The price of the cheapest 3D printer came down from $18,000 to $400 within 10 years. In the same time, it became 100 times faster.

* All major shoe companies have already started printing 3D shoes. In 2018, new smart phones will have 3D scanning capability. You will scan your feet and print the perfect shoe.

* Some airplane parts are already 3D printed in remote airports. The space station also has a printer that eliminates the need to transport spare parts into space.

* In China, they 3D printed and built a complete 6-story office building. By 2027, 10% of everything that’s being produced will be 3D printed.

* Artificial Intelligence: Computers will become exponentially better in understanding the world. This year, a computer beat the best Go-player in the world, 10 years earlier than expected.

* In the USA, IBM’s ‘Watson’ dispenses legal advice within seconds with 90% accuracy – compared with 70% accuracy when done by humans. There will be 90% fewer lawyers in the future; only a few specialists will remain.

* Watson already helps nurses diagnose cancer 4 times more accurately than humans.

* Facebook now has a pattern recognition software that can recognise faces better than humans.

* The “Tricorder” medical device works with a mobile app to scan your retina, analyse your breath, and sample your blood. It evaluates 54 bio-markers that can identify nearly any disease. It is becoming so cheap that in a few years everyone on earth will have access to world class medical analysis.

* Human organs will soon be as replaceable as car parts. A beating human heart was replicated in the laboratory using the latest stem cell technology. Now almost any major organ in the body can be regenerated from a person’s own cells. If someone’s heart, kidneys, liver, spleen, lungs, or intestines are diseased, they can transplant it with a duplicate organ. The body doesn’t reject the new organ, because it is made of the body’s own cells. Next, organs will be regrown within the patients body, so no need even for transplanting; just remove the failed organ as the new one grows.

* Nano technology allows microscopic robots to be injected into your bloodstream to make cellular repairs.

* Sound overwhelming? For peace of mind, as well as prevention and cure of psychological, physiological, and sociological stress, (including heart disease, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, substance abuse, Alzheimer’s, ADHD, school violence, and social conflict), 700 scientific studies indicate that the ancient technique of Transcendental Meditation is the single most effective, non- medicinal technology available. It’s natural, effortless, and only takes 20 minutes, twice a day – without the negative side effects of allopathic medicines.

* Agriculture: Soon there will be a $100 agricultural robot which plows, disks, fertilises, plants, and harvests fields. Farmers in third world countries will become managers of their fields, instead of slaves.

* With cheap electricity comes cheap and abundant water. Desalination of salt water now only requires 2kWh per cubic meter @ 0.25 cents. Imagine what will be possible if everyone has as much clean water as needed.

* Aeroponic food production will use much less water. Soon, veal produced in petri dishes will be cheaper than veal raised on animal farms.

* A vegetarian diet is 100 times more efficient than a meat-based diet for: land use, water resources, protein production, and health benefits. One acre of farmland can produce 40,000 pounds of plant protein or 250 pounds of beef. Only 27% of meat protein is assimilated by human physiology. More than half of all US farmland is devoted to beef production. If meat consumption were cut in half, world hunger would be eliminated – in addition to eliminating the cruel confinement and torture of livestock on animal farms.

* In 2006 the UN reported that “raising animals for food generates more greenhouse gases than all the cars and trucks in the world combined . . .. The released methane has 25 times the global warming potential of carbon dioxide.” If meat consumption were cut in half, it would transform the planet’s environment and improve public health. More than half of the antibiotics produced in the USA are for sick, abused, industrially-raised animals.

* For those who insist on eating other creatures, insect protein is coming to the dinner table! It contains more protein than animal meat, and is an unlimited resource. It’s labeled as an “alternative protein source,” because most people don’t like the idea of eating insects.

* Space travel and exploration is about to become 99% less expensive, thanks to the ability of Elon Musk’s SpaceX to build reusable rockets. Our current technologies will pale in comparison to knowledge and products produced in outer space.

* The biggest challenge of the 21st century will be population control, and societal stress management.

*The next big breakthroughs? Secure, voice-activated computers, cars, home appliances, and household robots – accessible from anywhere. If you can say it (and afford it), you can have it.

OK, so that’s what we’ve been reading about online. Now here are some brief thoughts from us covering some areas of life and how they will change as heaven on earth dawns [what do you think…..?]

Our exposure to Maharishi’s wisdom that simply by transcending we become more in tune with natural law. Both our experience of this and the research undertaken on TM leads us to various notions of how the world will look as collective consciousness rises in the world.

• Law and order. If being in tune with natural law means being more law-abiding, then who wants to commit crime? We could anticipate far more than the preliminary 1% effect where a small number of people in a population meditate. Assume there is a 90% drop in crime. Where would there be the need for large police forces around the world? How large would be the drop in demand for defence and prosecution lawyers, judges, court hearings? If you have any exposure to the legal process, you will agree that an extraordinary amount of time and resources spent on law enforcement, judiciary, legal process, drafting legislation, etc could no longer be an integral part of society. And as has already been shown in Holland, a coherent population without crime eliminates the need for prisons, which can be put to use for more progressive uses.
• And let’s not forget white collar crime and ethics. Each profession issues standards to ensure members meet generally accepted standards of professionalism and ethics. Every professional is swamped by these standards on a daily or weekly basis. Attunement with natural law should bypass the continual vigilance to ensure everyone complies, and the time and money spent of penalising offenders.
• Health care. Being in tune with natural law will result in healthier populations. We are already seeing the trends of the last 40 years or so in the positive direction worldwide.  But what about a quantum leap? Maharishi described hospitals and prisons as ‘knots of stress’ in every society. A healthier population would see hospitals being transformed away from coping with endless queues of sick people to clinics where healthy people would take treatments for prevention and longevity. Doctors would be trained in preventive medicine and no longer prescribe pharmaceuticals with their damaging side effects. The current huge outlay by governments on health care systems would no longer be a burden to the population and government.
• Government. The main role of government is to regulate its population. With citizens being naturally more self-sufficient, more competent, the need to be regulated by governments would diminish on account of fewer people violating natural law. This would reduce the size of governments everywhere.
• War and conflict. Maharishi described a world enjoying heaven on earth would mean ‘all good everywhere, and non-good nowhere’. Such a world would mean an absence of war and conflict, which has placed a heavy burden on the world for so long. The current trends show that even though there is less conflict in the world than ever before, still governments spend enormous amounts on ‘defence’. A leap forward in collective consciousness would free up vast sums of money in a more evolutionary direction; all the research on weaponry and intelligence services would now be used for creative rather than destructive purposes. All the trauma related to war in terms of death, injury, PTSD, refugee displacement and general destruction would be replaced by populations living in harmony.
• Education, in the Vedic context, means that by age 16 in individual is cultured and trained to gain self-realisation. The current systems of education don’t even come close, and instead channel students into trades and professions to fill out niches in a workforce designed according to economic models. A boost in growth in collective consciousness would result in students fulfilling their dharma, which simply means pursuing education in accord with their destiny. This will eliminate the confusion of students of what to study, leading lives unsuited to their innate abilities. In contrast, with proper education, being in tune with natural law, or education for enlightenment, consciousness based education the outcome will mean enlightened people in every profession, trade and life pursuit.
• Commerce. The current model of commerce is to maximise profits and expand one’s wealth. The definition of wealth means accumulation of money, assets, and influence. Missing in this definition of wealth is health, happiness, satisfaction, self-esteem, and action for the greater good. A leap forward in collective consciousness will result in a change in accumulating pots of money for money’s sake, and instead engaging in business for the betterment of everyone, the elimination of poverty, and assuming responsibility for those unable to fend for themselves. The reversal of this current trend (to accumulate vast sums) will free up money for every area of human endeavour. The passion for investing to maximise personal or corporate income will diminish, replaced instead by investing in the overall progress of the human race away from poverty, dependency, ill health, lack of education, and so forth.
• Art, music, literature, technology. If we assume that a significant portion of the population are no longer required for policing, law, government, etc, what will they do? People who become more self-actualised are generally more creative and innovative. Imagine a whole population so inclined no longer required for societal regulation now devoted to unfolding their full potential; we could imagine tremendous progress in every area of human endeavour, especially the arts and technology. Life would become of a celebration and much less of a chore.
• Spirituality. We know that Kali Yuga, the age which has existed until now for the last 5000 years, has resulted in life contrary to evolution and the rule of natural law. The status of people’s lives has been upside down. Those who should be revered are instead treated poorly and sometimes in contempt, or even as a threat. Those who should be punished or relegated out of society are often lauded and even lead nations. Consider a significant shift in world consciousness, and natural law is restored. Those who naturally skilled in the wisdom of life to lead people out of ignorance and ill-health, away from poverty and conflict, will become the respected leaders of the world. Teachers, educators, self-realised souls, saints and the like who evince a fully evolved personality and competence to bring others to their own exalted level will be the treasures of an age of enlightenment.

Once you get started on such conjecture, it’s hard to stop! There is so much potential for progress. If you wish to add your own thoughts let me know and maybe next newsletter we’ll publish your thoughts.

Jai Guru Dev