180 Morten Tønnessen
the world force the need for these new kinds of institutions. Eventually, I am
sure, you are going to have to have a governmental structure for the globe.
MT: A global government. With how much power?
JD: We are being forced, not just by population growth, into the development of
new institutions that can balance off the increasing accomplishments. When
they got the Russian and American cooperation in the space programs – I do
not know how they ever brought that about – they get up there in space, and
they can cooperate, and down here on Earth they are in each other‘s throats!
MT: What about the role of multinational companies? Many would be afraid of
the idea of a global government, because it seems potentially oppressive. In
the TV series Prison Break, there is a ―Company‖ which secretly conspires
to dominate politics. There are several conspiracy theories of a similar kind,
where multinational corporations are believed to control puppet
governments. Part of these conspiracy theories is based on actual lobby
power.
JD: Take George Soros.
MT: He is an investor, and talks publicly.
JD: That guy has got so much money that at one point he almost wrecked the
French government.
MT: He could ruin a country‘s economy, if he decided to.
JD: Some country.
MT: Some, not any – yes.
JD: That is dangerous. But there is no avoiding globalization. The problem is
how we are to manage it as we go on. We just cannot afford to continue this
route of warfare. It is going to be catastrophic.
MT: Warfare?
JD: Warfare. We are going to have to find a better way than war.
MT: Arne Næss, the deep ecologist, thinks that sooner or later – in a matter of a
few hundred years – humanity will mature enough to stop fighting wars.
Some would say that he is naïve to say that. Well, he is a long-term optimist
and a short-term pessimist... You would perhaps agree with the goal, if not
the vision?
JD: As the scientific knowledge grows, the very thing that gives us the power to
travel in space also gives us the power to destroy. So it is going to be a
question of whether we will use it to build or whether we will use it to
destroy. Semioethics is a term that shows the need to rethink human
responsibility in this larger context – and on the basis of semiosis, because
semiosis is the basis of all our processes of communication.(JD talks about a video with a duck and an eagle)JD: The dramas that go on in nature are unbelievable, but we are mostly unaware
of them. We are becoming aware of them, we have to become aware of
them, and the consequences of our actions – like my idea of getting rid of all
the mosquitoes.
MT: Ah! Terrible idea.