Dear America,

March 26, 2021

Dear America,

We live in a paradoxical era--marked by a swiftly swinging axe edged pendulum. A pendulum which oscillates between:

• recognition and understanding,
• action and reaction,
• mysticism and science,
• art and marketing.

A pendulum swinging between:

• rule-makers and expected followers,
• owners and workers,
• the Shepard and the sheep.

A pendulum swinging between:

• tides of change and gripping hand of unquestioned tradition,
• opportunity and destruction.

We live in age of swift justice; except just-not-for-us---the people. An age of big data exposing complex truths. An age of quickly diminishing resources causing rising inequities.

A time when a second "golden age" is longing to spring forth like the Greek God Athena from Zeus's head. A golden age in which the zeitgeist of the United States 1970's era of counter-culture and longing freedoms is practically realized.

We live in an age of new and emerging are seen and realized.

The world's stories are told by history's newest and emerging writers.

Painted sceneries depict or reflect the emerging technological advanced, artificial intelligence managed, and biological engineered lead world. Scenarios captured by newest and emerging photographers, sculptors, digital landscape designers--those savants endowed with user interface and user design talents (UI/UX).

An age of mixed characteristics from varying periods in time's stream.

An age of Renaissance---arts; Enlightenment's-- -knowledge advancement; Regency's --westward expansion under manifest destiny, marked change in political and social ideas, and new designs in architecture; the Beats Generation's --exposition.

Despite living in an age in which we can usher in a second Golden Age--marked by (re)new(-ed) bold ideas; societally integrated, civically beneficial technological innovations; galactic exploration and adventure--we exist in a seemingly never ending misery loop.

A loop in which each person we come into contact with knows--we as a society can do better, and must do better. We also know we want to do better. In order for us to do better, we must as a society:

• (re)examine our fundamental notions of fairness,
• understanding freedom's concept,
• (re)imagine society's future,
• realize for some, accept for others, and integrate for all our place in a galactic and universal context.

Beyond envisioning a better future in which survival's chains do not continue to weigh down unparalleled societal advancements, scientific discoveries, artistic achievements, space expeditions, and intergalactic missions we must openly, realistically, and bravely acknowledge, collectively participate in planning and executing the path forward.

The future ahead must see with eyes wide open, gracious hearts, and calm minds our existing landmines--depleting resources, squandering moment for societal progress; continuous intellectual capital hoarding by a few leaving robust, differing, and intersectional analysis out of innovation's future.

Since America's inception, and ascent to being a world hegemonic power [money] is king. Whenever our pandemic time period ends, the world will begin to see a new era in which intellectual capital is the new currency. Knowledge is--and has always been--equal to power; knowledge now is direct currency. While knowledge is power, information is the essential ingredient of knowledge. The new rules of the world are determined by who controls the acquisition process of, access to, levers of, and determining factors of information.

The best products are the ones which give access to user's having an experience. The best experiences are the ones in which users have a since of calmness, familiarity. Calmness and familiarity can result from user control. Thus, the best products give users control over their experience. Yet, in 2021 --even after and during a global pandemic the user experience controllers (i.e. government officials, data holders, law enforcement, the list goes on) to return to normal. However, normal was not normal but instead the unspoken byproduct of Aldous Huxley's "A Brave New World" . A world in which, as "New Atlantis" writer Stefan Beck highlights of Huxley's work,

when the last irregularity was removed from the human condition, and the last inconvenience stripped from the human experience, it would be scientists’ and industrialists’ hands wielding the plane.

As Beck states, a world in which "[t]he scientists pursue knowledge for its own sake, or in service of the good as they see it, the tech titans pursue it the better to sell us what we want."

While recognizing science and industry's innovation, usefulness, and positive attributes to human condition and society--I posses this question:

then is the role of the government if not to mediate, navigate, and assist in leading and directing the plane--to prevent from become sciences' lab rat or industries customer?

Until we speak again,

Donald Wiggins Jr., Esq.