What is certain is that the forecasters would have been (in some cases, were) burnt at the stake; we dislike people telling us the truth, preferring to be lulled into a false sense of security rather than face the dragon. In the past the consequences of our behaviour, even when clearly seen by a few, materialised slowly. We now know that survival of the human species is threatened in its present form within a single lifetime. That should concentrate the collective mind.

The moral nature of human beings is unlikely to change significantly. The good and bad, the yin and yang will probably be there as long as we have free will to decide between selfish and collective options. When that freedom is lost, our behaviour will be controlled by whoever is in charge of the apparatus running our brains. As we know, that apparatus – the wholly artificial brain – will be with us within ten years.

Many are already worried by the consequences of the advanced computer and its contribution to the recent failure of the world’s financial system. Computer-programmed stock market and money market trading was partly responsible for what happened. How is the computer going to deal with the serious after-effects of money-printing, the apparent, facile, solution to finance gone mad?

A sentient, or at least semi-sentient, robot will follow within ten years of the wholly artificial brain, allowing us, if we wish, to become physically and brain-sustainably immortal. Since immortals never die, there may be increasing demand for the limited resources of the planet. That depends, of course, on robot maintenance needs. It is possible that there will be reduced demand for the planet’s fruits; robots may not need to eat or reproduce and their entertainment may exist wholly and cheaply in a virtual world.

Most people either refute these forecasts or declare, unhelpfully, that they would rather die. Experience suggests that they are wrong about both these attitudes. The exponential rate of technological development is staggering. Almost within my lifetime we have gone from Charles Lindbergh’s first flight across the Atlantic to Neil Armstrong’s landing on the moon. There is repeated evidence that we would prefer to survive in the world we know, however changed, than head into an unknown existence, however deeply believed in. That will be even truer if pain, disease, poverty and ignorance are abolished on earth.

What do we need to do to ensure that the species succeeding us, and which we hope will have many of our characteristics, is more fulfilled and happier than collectively we are today? Fulfilment and happiness are the two basic criteria for a satisfactory life. But exhortation to behave better has a poor record of success since one rotten apple still contaminates the whole barrel.

The brilliance that led to the Industrial Revolution, then to Slave Liberation and more recently to the Communications Revolution must now lead to the Creative Revolution. That is the next intellectual step in man’s existence. The human ability to think is still, for all its successes, hugely undeveloped. Thought that has been channelled to enhancing and prolonging life must now be devoted to understanding what makes life worthwhile.

The imminent end of the human species as we know it know needs all the creative thought we can muster, especially if we want to prevent it. We have less than twenty years to manage technology and retain our ability to decide our future. The alternative is a species of semi-sentient automatons controlled by some central decision-making organisation run, very likely, by bankers.

Several unsuccessful attempts have been made to measure how happy we are. The basic ingredient of happiness – selflessness – is hard to grasp because it has to do with motive as well as action. We do not understand our own motives and are usually wrong about others’, because everything we do is done for a mixture of selfless and selfish reasons.

That is what the human race has at stake. Our world is interesting and challenging because of its imperfections, not in spite of them. Eradicating them is seen as the road to Valhalla. The journey provides opportunity for character-building, for fun and as a test of our capabilities. The material destination is within sight. The emotional destination has yet to be seen. Now is the time to identify it.

What do we need to know? What must we do?

Understanding our personalities, what makes us aspire to create ‘beyond the single need’ and how we work should now be top of the agenda, ahead of technological development, more important than health, wealth, longevity and material comfort. The mind has been neglected in our researches. If ten percent of the effort to understand, explain and promote the soul had been devoted to fathoming the mind we would be an infinitely more balanced world than we are. If the amount spent on missile-shields was matched by that on mind-expanding the need for missile-shields would disappear.

Even to set up the plan for such research requires creative thought beyond what we have so far achieved. We need to put thinking back on the pedestal it occupied in ancient Greece. Many have tried to do this; some have had modest success but the conclusion has so far always ended up as a reckoning to be reached beyond death rather than one to be achieved on earth.

When we become immortal – very soon – we shall need to address ‘heavens below’ as well as ‘heavens above’.

Brain and mind research must merge so that we discover how developing the one can be matched with expansion of the other. Unleashing the abilities of the mind which even today are barely understood will allow man to put technology and material matters in perspective and give us control of our destinies in way that we have not yet begun to achieve.

The arts let us glimpse the potential of our thinking and feeling, yet we neglect them in favour of war weapons. The emotional intelligence of the young is more precious to humanity than is the trick of gang-programming stock or money-market transactions, yet there is scant EI programme in Business Administration or Economics. Desire to communicate with and influence millions of people is less important than the yearning to attend a fellow creature and in return receive the same attention from that person.

An uncontrolled race for wealth and technology deprives people of their right to freedom of choice, to self-understanding and to the balanced lifestyle of which we hear so much and for which so little is being done.

Can we pause to put thought before action, mind before matter – and understanding before it is too late?.

Founded by John Bittleston, Terrific Mentors helps people find the careers they want, the jobs they need, the successful relationships they wish for. Our Alumni is now 4,000+ strong.

We offer exclusive benefits to Mentees through the Terrific Mentors Alumni Programme.

Or reach us on Facebook and LinkedIn through the Terrific Mentors Alumni Group.