Many thanks, Justin. I utterly agree with you - our cognitive response to future, especially far-ahead, threats is pretty dismal, and of course our emotional response to such threats, is essentially non-existent. The emotional part of our intelligence is, to my way of thinking, designed to be present-time and immediate, not future-oriented.
It could have been a much more effectively wake-up, but perhaps much less funny, movie if the subject matter had dealt with some ridiculously ironic/comic threat that was immediately and visually wiping out every single one of the favourite vacation resorts of the rich and famous.
Then what would need to happen for a "happy ending" is that every common Jo and Joanna would suddenly need to find it in themselves to respond in a highly loving and altruistic way, and lowly Jo and Joanna would end up saving the human race, along with all its pleasure domes and the rest of our beloved Mom Earth.
How to bring this about? Well, Dorothy has recently convinced me - the data are IN: The more oxytocin there is floating around in our atmosphere, the lighter will be our atmospheric carbon load. So we think our best hope for such a scenario is to work directly on everyone's positive vibes by stimulating the release of their serotonin, dopamine, and most especially their oxytocin. The Meryl Streep character (wait for the really absurd bit) could finally listen to some "crackpot" but actually brilliant scientist, and make it the law of the land that everyone: (1) hug and kiss and cuddle oodles of times a day in their current "cuddle bubble;" (2) hug and kiss and cuddle every animal and tree they encounter in their daily lives; (3) tell happy stories (fact or fiction) to strangers on the street and in the grocery store, not just to their children.
The scientific data we've found strongly suggests that this would utterly flood our atmosphere with oxytocin and our carbon burden would evaporate......
Many thanks, Justin. I utterly agree with you - our cognitive response to future, especially far-ahead, threats is pretty dismal, and of course our emotional response to such threats, is essentially non-existent. The emotional part of our intelligence is, to my way of thinking, designed to be present-time and immediate, not future-oriented.
It could have been a much more effectively wake-up, but perhaps much less funny, movie if the subject matter had dealt with some ridiculously ironic/comic threat that was immediately and visually wiping out every single one of the favourite vacation resorts of the rich and famous.
Then what would need to happen for a "happy ending" is that every common Jo and Joanna would suddenly need to find it in themselves to respond in a highly loving and altruistic way, and lowly Jo and Joanna would end up saving the human race, along with all its pleasure domes and the rest of our beloved Mom Earth.
How to bring this about? Well, Dorothy has recently convinced me - the data are IN: The more oxytocin there is floating around in our atmosphere, the lighter will be our atmospheric carbon load. So we think our best hope for such a scenario is to work directly on everyone's positive vibes by stimulating the release of their serotonin, dopamine, and most especially their oxytocin. The Meryl Streep character (wait for the really absurd bit) could finally listen to some "crackpot" but actually brilliant scientist, and make it the law of the land that everyone: (1) hug and kiss and cuddle oodles of times a day in their current "cuddle bubble;" (2) hug and kiss and cuddle every animal and tree they encounter in their daily lives; (3) tell happy stories (fact or fiction) to strangers on the street and in the grocery store, not just to their children.
The scientific data we've found strongly suggests that this would utterly flood our atmosphere with oxytocin and our carbon burden would evaporate......
Ha - thanks JGP! As far as I know, oxytocin is not a greenhouse gas. So there is no risk (and only benefit) in testing out your and Dorothy's plan!