Gaining ground #2: More signs of the cultural paradigm shift already under way

This is a follow up to my previous post Our emerging life-aligned culture is gaining ground.

While our current world is crumbling and unraveling in so many ways, our new world is developing and growing “below the radar” of mainstream news.

Creating the world we want requires us to activate a life-aligned vision and energize a new cultural story because we all have a part in determining which way this story will go. Iain McGilchrist says it this way, "The kind of attention we pay to the world changes the world we pay attention to.”

My e-book Hiding In Plain Sight: Evidence of Our Life-Aligned, Regenerative Culture Emerging contains more than 200 specific examples of actual on-the-ground, life-aligned, regenerative projects, programs, movements, and initiatives.  

Here are new examples of this paradigm shift taking place.

• TED Talk: Why rivals are working together to transform shipping. The introduction says, “What would it take to make global supply chains cleaner and greener? Bo Cerup-Simonsen -- who's helping decarbonize the maritime industry as CEO of the Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller Center for Zero Carbon Shipping -- discusses why tenacious collaboration is key to orchestrating systemic change. . . . he shares important lessons on collective problem-solving and decision-making that could benefit any industry making a green transition.” Some excerpts from his talk:

“. . . we're looking at a massive systemic change. It’s huge, and it needs to happen fast. No country, no company, no matter how large and powerful, can do this alone. So collaboration is going to need to be a part of the solution. And our center is all about that. It is all about collaborating across the ecosystem, across the value chain in order to accelerate the transition. . . . when the center was established, about three years ago . . . the basic idea was that we need to create a completely new way of collaborating across the ecosystem. The basic idea was that we need to establish an independent center that would have no vested interest. . . . We need to collaborate with governments and with companies across the globe, across the ecosystem, and we wanted to establish a team co-located so that economists and engineers and so on would sit side by side and imagine the future and develop the solutions. . . . of course there were a lot of concerns about compliance and antitrust and IP and confidentiality and practicalities. But we have found a model now, we have overcome those challenges. And now, today, we have more than 100 organizations across the globe joining the center.”

• In From Extraction to Relationship: Rethinking Data, Privacy & AI for a Regenerative Future Rudy De Waele writes:

"If generative AI is about scale, regenerative AI is about ethics, intimacy, and aliveness. Privacy is no longer just a technical concern. It is an invitation to reimagine our relationship with intelligence itself. Let us treat data not as soil to extract, but as living ground (compost) to care for. In that, we plant the seeds of a more just and regenerative future.

He makes these distinctions that I found very illuminating, helpful, and hopeful:

  Principle           Generative AI                             Regenerative AI

Data Sourcing    Scraped & centralized                 Local, permission-based, contextual

Privacy model     Reactive (e.g opt-out, redaction) Proactive, embedded, consent-rich

Governance        Corporate platforms                    Participatory, community-led, bioregional

Value proposition  Productivity, scale                       Relationship, healing, aliveness

AI’s role             Generator of outputs                   For insight, co-creation, & stewardship

• The Human+Tech Summit: Human Potential in the Age of AI states, “This isn’t your typical tech conference — it’s a three-day deep dive into the future of technology, shaped not just by innovation, but by intention. We’re talking about:

💡 AI that supports human flourishing

🌀 Systems that regenerate instead of extract

🧠 Ethics, embodiment, and emotional intelligence in design

💸 Conscious capital flows and new models of wealth creation

💬 Thought leaders, creators, investors, and technologists who actually give a sh*t

“If you're someone who's been craving a new kind of conversation about tech — one that includes the soul, the body, the Earth, and the heart — this is the room to be in. . . I believe we’re entering a powerful new era — one where heart-led innovation can change the trajectory of everything.”

• The Next Economy MBA is for stewards of a future that works for all life. This is an  MBA for “those who know a better world is possible, for emerging leaders of an equitable, inclusive, and regenerative economy.”

• The Global Coherence™ Initiative  from the HeartMath Institute is a science-based, co-creative project to unite people in heart-focused love and intention, to facilitate the shift in global consciousness from instability and discord to compassionate care, cooperation and increasing peace. They say:

“Science is beginning to uncover evidence that a non‑local information field may connect all living beings – humans, animals, and even the Earth itself. The research is revealing profound, energetic interactions that shape our world. We are on the verge of uncovering new insights about how collective human emotions impact the world around us. Emerging research suggests that trees may respond to love and positive energy and that major world events influence a shared global consciousness. By better understanding these interactions, we can harness their potential to create a more peaceful, cooperative, and harmonious world.”  

• Jon Alexander’s work is Opening the Way to a Citizen Future. He describes it like this:

“The functions of a strategist and storyteller mean I spend a great deal of my time moving between institutions, community groups, and social movements. My friend Jen Brandel calls people like us “interstitionaries”, writing that “our work is on all things in between—connecting insights, people and resources between sectors, industries, companies, projects and individuals. This is my least tangible contribution to the work of the Citizen Future; I include it here because I think it might also be the most important.”

Can you see the “butterflies” emerging in our culture?