11:58 (ePub)

Ten thousand years ago our ancestors abandoned foraging in favor of agriculture. In so doing, they inadvertently crossed the threshold between primitive and civilized existences and committed all future generations to an increasing reliance on progressive technologies-and the need to adopt progressive social behavior commensurate with those technologies. We save succeeded in incorporating progressive technologies into our material cultures incredibly well, but we have failed, almost completely, to adopt progressive social behavior commensurate with those technologies. In other words, we have become materially progressive-but remain socially conservative. This is an untenable situation because nearly every problem that threatens civilization today, from suicide bombings and wars-to pollution and overpopulation, can be traced directly or indirectly back to the disparity that exists between progressive technological development and conservative social behavior. In order to resolve this problem, we must either regress technologically-or progress socially. Regressing technologically is not a realistic option, so we really have no choice but to progress socially. 11:58 is a no-nonsense guide for accomplishing this goal.