I’m fascinated with tipping points, those magical pivots when there is a step-change in the way the world operates. Once we cross over them, we can’t ever go back. They assure that progress has been made and will continue. To illustrate some profound tipping points, Brian told me about the idea of the 100th monkey and trees slowly exposed to toxins.
If a tree is slowly exposed to a toxin, it develops an immunity to the toxin. In a strange turn of events that science cannot explain, all trees of that same species develop the immunity even though they haven’t been exposed to the toxin. Somehow the trees communicate – be it through the soil or the air or the water supply. They are all connected.
At some point, a monkey figured out that if he dipped a stick into an ant hill, he could capture more ants to eat. Eventually, enough monkeys learned this trick that it became something that monkeys just knew how to do, from birth, with no training. Again, science has no explanation for this. Monkeys, thousands of miles apart, even on different continents, somehow tap into the greater genius when a certain tipping point of intelligence is reached within the species. It is truly remarkable.
Think of the implications that this kind of uber-intelligence has for us. What kind of world could we have if we could reach a tipping point of kindness, concern, compassion, and love? If our generation could put aside violence and have a restored faith in humanity, what would that mean for the many generations yet to be born? Is saving the world possible simply by enough of us saving ourselves?
Christa Avampato 